[BeetleB]

> and this lie was intentional to protect mask stockpiles for healthcare workers.

Do you have any evidence that this was the reason for the claims?

> How about the initial censorship of the outbreak on social media and news media, on the grounds that the "fear-mongering" about an outbreak in China was racist?

What censorship? I heard about it quite early.

> How about the labelling by the news media of the initial travel bans as racist?

Did the news media label it, or were they reporting on people who were labeling it?

> How about health officials refusing to test anyone who hadn't personally travelled to China for months after the virus had been observed in the US.

AFAIK, there were lack of resources to test. Once the resources became available, testing was widespread.

[fsagx]

> Do you have any evidence that this was the reason for the claims?

I did a search on youtube to find these sources ("fauci 60 minutes americans dont need to wear masks") I don't vouch for the channels, these are just the first place I found the relevant clips.

original statement (pretty hard to find):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ5oCxP6TUc

his explanation of that statement:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2MmX2U2V3c

Here's a timeline summary:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackbrewster/2020/10/20/is-trum...

[vasco]

> Do you have any evidence that this was the reason for the claims?

This was said by all health officials around January-March 2020. After the stock issue got solved masks suddenly magically became effective for everyone around the summer time. As a "regular person" who took both vaccine shots and is casually observing these developments without reading news or whatever, that single event showed me that governments don't give a shit about telling us the truth in a crisis.

[mcguire]

"After the stock issue got solved masks suddenly magically became effective for everyone around the summer time."

Technically, it was roughly the end of March and April, when evidence of asymptomatic and aerosol transmission began to appear.

[CapmCrackaWaka]

On the second point, to claim you do not know about this story is... surprising: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27388587 Just because you heard about it, doesn't mean there weren't attempts to censor these discussions.

[BeetleB]

The claim was that the fact there was an outbreak was censored - not about the origin.

[kipchak]

In the first 15s or so of this Washington Post interview clip he explains that priority was being given to healthcare workers, and then also that asymptomatic spread was underestimated.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/washington-post-live/fa...