At the time Dr. Fauci made his comments about masking in the very early days of COVID (March, 2020) all the medical community had to go on regarding the new "NOVEL" virus was the previous one...i.e. SARS-CoV...which data showed did not have a SINGLE CASE reported involving ASYMPTOMATIC transmission...also at that time, the Trump administration had childishly failed to accept the Obama administration's "Pandemic Preparedness Plan"...for 3 years!...which called for replenishment of highly effective N95/KN95 masks...which hospital docs and nurses treating COVID patients obviously needed...desperately. Only a few months later, the scientific data came in to show that Asymptomatic transmission was responsible for up to 40% of cases...that was a game changer, and Dr. Fauci..."followed the science" by immediately recommending masking with whatever people had available...while waiting for sufficient quantities of N95/KN95's to be available for the public as well as the hospital personnel.
Dr. Fauci spoke the truth each time...and his "downplaying" (my words) was with knowledge that...
1) General Public use of masks was not required...
2) Critically Needed N95/KN95 masks were in very short supply for Doctors and Nurses in close contact with infected patients.
3) Any intimation by him that the public should go out and buy up all the available N95/KN95s would put those Docs and Nurses at great risk
No lies...just the truth...and wisdom in a critical situation. I've already explained this to everyone on the board, but you either missed it, or don't care about the truth.
Dr. Fauci is the LAST PERSON you should lose trust in...as 9,000 ID Specialists recently let him know.