COVID-19 Outbreak (Update: More than 2.9M cases and 132,313 deaths in US)

Sometimes I wonder if we are reading the same quotes...

He says nothing about N95 specifically (just the overall practice of wearing a mask)...

He says...

"There's no reason to be walking around with a mask," infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci told 60 Minutes.

"While masks may block some droplets", Fauci said, "they do not provide the level of protection people think they do". Wearing a mask may also have unintended consequences: "People who wear masks tend to touch their face more often to adjust them, which can spread germs from their hands."

He is quite literally saying... Don't wear a mask... It may make things worse.... (This was in April)

He does go on later to say that...

But there is another risk to healthy people buying disposable masks as a precaution. The price of face masks is surging, and Prestige Ameritech, the nation's largest surgical mask manufacturer, is now struggling to keep up with the increased demand.

"It could lead to a shortage of masks for the people who really need it," Fauci said.

Added - For healthy people, both the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend they wear masks only when taking care of those who are sick or suspected of having the virus.




If what we are hearing today (everyone needs to wear a mask) ... isn't a complete 180 from what we were told in April... I need to study geometry again. LOL

I think we read the same quotes but we interpret them differently.

At any rate, even if you assume he did flip flop, I don't see the issue. Everyone knows that this is a new disease by definition, they don't call it a Novel Coronavirus for nothing, so there isn't enough research out there to really come to definite conclusions on anything. So, doctors make educated guesses based on what evidence they do have. Sometimes later evidence changes that opinion. I mean, that's literally how science works in the first place.

If anything, to the extent that he did "flip flop", Fauci should be applauded for changing his recommendations in the light of new evidence instead of rigidly holding to a position because he doesn't want to be seen as having been wrong.