Aside from virtually every hospital system on earth using masks during the COVID-19 pandemic, the
NEJM Boston Schools Study was a top-quality, 'Difference in Difference' study with ~20% of the total students using masks (in 2 Districts) and the rest (in 70+ Districts) not using them...clearly showing the benefit of masking.
Then there's the collaborative study between Stanford and Yale Universities' RCT in Bangladesh involving 340,000 participants...way more than any U.S. study...that clearly showed the advantage of masking...and ways to make the results even better. (see link)
I've got you beat on that one, Mark...;-)
As for Dr. Fauci taking the 5th...we've all seen how Trump can be vindictive and bring FALSE charges against anyone he doesn't like...see James Comey, and the supposed "Vandal" of the D.C. Reflecting Pool. The pardon was to protect an innocent man who saved millions of lives throughout his career, up through the COVID-19 pandemic, from needless emotional and financial distress.
And wrt the Obama admin and replenishment of the Strategic National Stockpile, here's the story behind that...(from NBC News...ProPublica...Heritage Foundation)
>During the 2009 H1N1 (Swine Flu) pandemic, the Obama administration deployed approximately 85 million to 100 million N95 respirator masks and surgical masks from the SNS to aid healthcare settings [NBC News]
>The N95 Shortage: Following the H1N1 drawdowns, multiple federally backed task forces and safety organizations recommended that theN95 mask inventory be replenished. However, the masks were never majorly restocked. When the COVID-19 pandemic later began, the stockpile only held around 12 to 13 million N95 masks. [ProPublica]
>Budgetary Battles: Former officials from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and independent analyses noted that the failure to replenish the masks was tied heavily to budget constraints. Severe budget standoffs with congressional Republicans led to decreased funding for the stockpile. The Obama administration did request an increase to $655 million for the stockpile budget in 2011 to help rebuild it, but funding struggled to keep pace with the statutory requirements of the broader program [Heritage Foundation]
>What WAS Maintained: The stockpile was not "empty". The administration successfully replenished and maintained massive reserves of ventilators (over 16,000 were left in good working order), smallpox vaccines, anthrax treatments, and medical tents needed for biological or chemical threats [CNN].
Note that the Obama administration left a detailed "Pandemic Preparedness Plan" for the Trump administration...which included the recommendation for N95 masks, which Trump never, in 3 years, replenished, or even asked for...thanks to his and the GOP's choice to not spend the money for...clearly a very bad...and lethal...decision.
You should reassess the choices you make in the political arena...none of them have panned out.
Link: https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2021/09/surgical-masks-covid-19.html