White House medical adviser Anthony Fauci once dismissed wearing a mask to prevent infectious disease as a “paranoid” tool, laughing at the prospect during a 2019 sit-down interview on The David Rubenstein Show.
During the interview, which aired May 22, 2019, nearly a year before the Chinese coronavirus pandemic hit, Rubenstein and Fauci discussed infectious diseases, vaccines, and measures of protection to prevent illness. At the end of the interview, Rubenstein asked the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director to weigh in on the best way to protect oneself from infectious disease.
“And the best way to prevent me from getting an infectious disease and having to have you as my doctor is what? Wearing a mask — ” he began, triggering a quick dismissal from Fauci.
“No, no, no,” Fauci said, letting out a laugh.
“I don’t need to do that,” Rubenstein said following Fauci’s reaction. “If somebody’s– I can see they’re getting ready to sneeze or cough, walk away?”
“You avoid all the paranoid aspects and do something positive,” Fauci responded, seemingly categorizing mask-wearing as a tool of the “paranoid.”
“A. Good diet. B. You don’t smoke, I know. I know you don’t drink. At least not very much, so that’s pretty good. Get some exercise. I know that you don’t get as much exercise as you should,” Fauci continued.
“Get good sleep. I think the normal, low tech healthy things are the best things you can do, David, to stay healthy,” Fauci added.
The original video of that conversation may be watched at Bloomberg.com.
This is hardly the first time Fauci has dismissed the need for masks. During a 60 Minutes interview in March 2020, at the start of the pandemic, he suggested masks provided more psychological relief than anything else.
“Right now, people should not be walking, there’s no reason to be walking around with a mask,” Fauci said at the time:
“When you’re in the middle of an outbreak, wearing a mask might make people feel a little bit better and it might even block a droplet, but it’s not providing the perfect protection that people think that it is,” he said, warning of the “unintended consequences.”
“People keep fiddling with the mask and they keep touching their face,” he added:
Emails from February 2020 also show Fauci’s dismissing drug store masks as “not really effective in keeping out virus, which is small enough to pass through the material.”
However, in the last year, Fauci has drastically changed his view, even advocating for double-masking and describing it as a “common-sense approach.” Early this year, he failed to rule out masking for vaccinated individuals as well:
“And just to be doubly sure, there are a couple of reasons to wear masks even after vaccination. One, you want to protect other people in case you have virus in your nasal fairings, and if you look in the community, there’s enough virus out there that before we start pulling back on things like public health measures, you want the overwhelming population vaccinated,” he said during a January appearance on America’s Newsroom.
Fauci’s flip-flopping on masks coincides with the stark reversals of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which now recommends fully vaccinated people wear masks if they are in areas of high transmission. Meanwhile, some states are reinstituting statewide mask mandates. Illinois is among them, forcing toddlers to mask up until further notice.
A University of Waterloo study released this year found cloth and surgical masks are not efficient at filtering exhaled aerosols, offering little protection.
French President Emmanuel Macron faced significant criticism for his comments claiming that he would like to “piss off” unvaccinated individuals.
Macron spoke candidly during an interview with French newspaper Le Parisien, during which he said that he wanted to make life difficult for individuals who have not received a COVID-19 vaccine. The French “sanitary pass” has prompted a number of protests and stiff opposition while the country nears 75% full vaccination.
“I really want to piss them off, and we’ll carry on doing this – to the end,” Macron said three months ahead of a presidential election. “I won’t send [unvaccinated people] to prison, so we need to tell them, from 15 January, you will no longer be able to go to the restaurant. You will no longer be able to go for a coffee, you will no longer be able to go to the theatre. You will no longer be able to go to the cinema.”
The French Parliament heard Macron’s comments during a debate over his proposed bill to tighten restrictions for unvaccinated individuals, leading to a swift and strong uproar in response.
His opponents have labeled the comments “unworthy” of a president.
“Even if one doesn’t share their choice, they have broken none of our country’s laws,” Marine Le Pen, Macron’s chief opponent in the upcoming election, told reporters late Tuesday. “He is continuing his policy of division, of pitting the French against one another.”
She later tweeted “A president shouldn’t say that…Emmanuel Macron is unworthy of his office.”
Leftist politician Jean-Luc Melanchon described the remarks as an “astonishing confession,” according to the BBC.
But Macron’s allies have defended the comments, with Stéphane Séjourné, a member of the European Parliament, arguing on Twitter that unvaccinated individuals have “bothered” the French by “forcing the rest of the population to endure restrictions.”
Debate over Macron’s bill continue into Wednesday as opponents still seek to delay its passage. Some of his supporters claimed to have received death threats because they are backing the legislation, The New York Times reported.
Boston unveils the ‘Be Together’ initiative, requiring full vaccination for entry to restaurants, gyms, and sports arenas for anyone 12 and older. In March the mandate will phase-in for younger children.
BREAKING: Boston will now begin banning unvaccinated people from going to all restaurants, bars, nightclubs, sports arenas, fitness centers, movie theaters, concert venues, museums, and entertainment venues.
