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I distinctly remember US health authorities claiming that surgical-grade masks, perhaps specifically N95s, that I am not 100% sure, were not helpful, and this l

by slily 3y ago

I distinctly remember US health authorities claiming that surgical-grade masks, perhaps specifically N95s, that I am not 100% sure, were not helpful, and this led to social media companies deboosting posts disagreeing with that assessment and applying labels basically calling them fake. I don't recall if they were banning people at that point. But I am surprised that so few people remember the constant flip-flopping and goalpost-shifting. I would think that anyone paying attention would be very wary of "informationisms" as a result. By the way, questioning the usefulness of cloth masks after that period would get you shunned or banned on many networks well past the point where we had ample evidence to prove that they were ineffective, so even ignoring the initial screw-up, there is plenty of easily provable information that was systematically censored by Internet information brokers.

braiamp 3y ago
Can you pull the article? Because I remember several times repeating to others that it isn't that they didn't work, but that the public doesn't need 'em, since social distancing should be enough. The N95 production of mask at the start of the pandemic wasn't able to give a mask to everyone that wanted one. Nowadays, there's sufficient production to do that. That was the whole thing.
- slily 3y ago
  How about this - US Surgeon General claiming masks are ineffective against the coronavirus, just four years ago: http://web.archive.org/web/20200301001854/https://twitter.com/Surgeon_General/status/1233725785283932160 http://web.archive.org/web/20200301001854/https://twitter.co... That's as far as I'll go since I am about to head to work, and I've spent enough time playing the game where I'm told to dig for articles by people who don't bother doing it themselves, so hopefully this is satisfactory. The deletion should be telling, there's a lot of retconning and memory-holing going on unsurprisingly.
- freedomben 3y ago
  From: https://www.thestreet.com/video/dr-fauci-masks-changing-directive-coronavirus https://www.thestreet.com/video/dr-fauci-masks-changing-dire... > So, why weren't we told to wear masks in the beginning? > "Well, the reason for that is that we were concerned the public health community, and many people were saying this, were concerned that it was at a time when personal protective equipment, including the N95 masks and the surgical masks, were in very short supply. And we wanted to make sure that the people namely, the health care workers, who were brave enough to put themselves in a harm way, to take care of people who you know were infected with the coronavirus and the danger of them getting infected." I also have this one bookmarked: https://slate.com/technology/2021/07/noble-lies-covid-fauci-cdc-masks.amp https://slate.com/technology/2021/07/noble-lies-covid-fauci-... Edit: that link 404s now (curiuous). Still on archive.org: https://web.archive.org/web/20210802065432/https://slate.com/technology/2021/07/noble-lies-covid-fauci-cdc-masks.amp https://web.archive.org/web/20210802065432/https://slate.com...
  - braiamp 3y ago
    In other words: stay inside people rather than wasting masks that are needed elsewhere. In his position, I would have done exactly the same thing. Do not use masks, stay indoors. Managing public perception of safety is hard yo!
freedomben 3y ago
I do remember this, though finding an article might be difficult or impossible at this point. My recollection is that very early on (like the first couple of weeks) Fauci said that masks didn't work. Then later on once there were plenty of masks available, he admitted that he had lied because the medical personnel and others needed the masks more and he didn't want people to go out and buy/hoard all the masks. Basically the "noble lie" theory[1]. So I don't think there was any science saying masks didnt work. It was just that the person who is supposed to be our trusted head guide and Mr. Science himself, is a consequentialist more than a scientist. Now for all the people (like Google) who censored posts and labelled them misinformation, etc based on Fauci's noble lie, I would cut them a little bit of slack the first time. But once he admitted to the fib, that should have been the end of his credibility. If he was willing to lie before, why wouldn't he do it again? Especially when it worked out perfectly for him? [1]: https://web.archive.org/web/20210802065432/https://slate.com/technology/2021/07/noble-lies-covid-fauci-cdc-masks.amp https://web.archive.org/web/20210802065432/https://slate.com...
- lamontcg 3y ago
  > If he was willing to lie before, why wouldn't he do it again? Especially when it worked out perfectly for him? really hope you've never told a single lie in your entire life before.

by slily 3y ago

braiamp 3y ago

Can you pull the article? Because I remember several times repeating to others that it isn't that they didn't work, but that the public doesn't need 'em, since social distancing should be enough. The N95 production of mask at the start of the pandemic wasn't able to give a mask to everyone that wanted one. Nowadays, there's sufficient production to do that. That was the whole thing.

slily 3y ago
How about this - US Surgeon General claiming masks are ineffective against the coronavirus, just four years ago: http://web.archive.org/web/20200301001854/https://twitter.com/Surgeon_General/status/1233725785283932160 http://web.archive.org/web/20200301001854/https://twitter.co... That's as far as I'll go since I am about to head to work, and I've spent enough time playing the game where I'm told to dig for articles by people who don't bother doing it themselves, so hopefully this is satisfactory. The deletion should be telling, there's a lot of retconning and memory-holing going on unsurprisingly.
freedomben 3y ago
From: https://www.thestreet.com/video/dr-fauci-masks-changing-directive-coronavirus https://www.thestreet.com/video/dr-fauci-masks-changing-dire... > So, why weren't we told to wear masks in the beginning? > "Well, the reason for that is that we were concerned the public health community, and many people were saying this, were concerned that it was at a time when personal protective equipment, including the N95 masks and the surgical masks, were in very short supply. And we wanted to make sure that the people namely, the health care workers, who were brave enough to put themselves in a harm way, to take care of people who you know were infected with the coronavirus and the danger of them getting infected." I also have this one bookmarked: https://slate.com/technology/2021/07/noble-lies-covid-fauci-cdc-masks.amp https://slate.com/technology/2021/07/noble-lies-covid-fauci-... Edit: that link 404s now (curiuous). Still on archive.org: https://web.archive.org/web/20210802065432/https://slate.com/technology/2021/07/noble-lies-covid-fauci-cdc-masks.amp https://web.archive.org/web/20210802065432/https://slate.com...
- braiamp 3y ago
  In other words: stay inside people rather than wasting masks that are needed elsewhere. In his position, I would have done exactly the same thing. Do not use masks, stay indoors. Managing public perception of safety is hard yo!

freedomben 3y ago

I do remember this, though finding an article might be difficult or impossible at this point. My recollection is that very early on (like the first couple of weeks) Fauci said that masks didn't work. Then later on once there were plenty of masks available, he admitted that he had lied because the medical personnel and others needed the masks more and he didn't want people to go out and buy/hoard all the masks. Basically the "noble lie" theory[1]. So I don't think there was any science saying masks didnt work. It was just that the person who is supposed to be our trusted head guide and Mr. Science himself, is a consequentialist more than a scientist. Now for all the people (like Google) who censored posts and labelled them misinformation, etc based on Fauci's noble lie, I would cut them a little bit of slack the first time. But once he admitted to the fib, that should have been the end of his credibility. If he was willing to lie before, why wouldn't he do it again? Especially when it worked out perfectly for him? [1]: https://web.archive.org/web/20210802065432/https://slate.com/technology/2021/07/noble-lies-covid-fauci-cdc-masks.amp https://web.archive.org/web/20210802065432/https://slate.com...

lamontcg 3y ago
> If he was willing to lie before, why wouldn't he do it again? Especially when it worked out perfectly for him? really hope you've never told a single lie in your entire life before.