Which is different from ingenuously saying that “masks don’t help” in order to deliberately steer people away from them so that first responders don’t run out. You said, “here’s the quote” but there was no quote there. In the next paragraph there was a quote but not only did you not say where you got it from, but in it he isn’t saying that masks don’t help. I Google searched on Fauci masks don’t help and couldn’t find anything, and also searched on Fauci in the gray lady and scrolled all the way back to January and couldn’t find anything.
“Lying through his teeth” is pretty serious and also pretty specific. It would have to mean that he knew they did help — at a time when the concern was all about contaminated surfaces (I found that in my NY times search) — but said that they didn’t. If you do scroll back to January in the Times you find that everyone — Fauci, the WHO, the CDC, etc — were still trying to figure out what the ever loving fuck was going on and what to do about it. Or more like they knew that a pandemic was brewing — even Trump knew that as we now know — but wondering what the ever loving fuck to do. People were more concerned with fomites as a mechanism for the spread of the disease, so it made sense to stress hand washing and try to reserve masks for front line workers.
I’m more than willing to forgive everyone their floundering at that time even Trump. What I would have a hard time forgiving is failure to change the message as the situation evolved. Trump didn’t flip-flop. He’s still saying that it’s no big deal, that masks are bullshit, and that a manly man like him can defeat it through sheer will power. I was just reading this morning about, among other things, a pastor in Coeur d’Alene, 60 years old who nearly died but still refuses to impose any restrictions on his congregation. They are all crowded into the parish house, serving up hot dish and breathing all over each other. They say the Lord protects children, drunkards, and fools. I’m no longer so sure about the latter.
Anyway. Perhaps Biden will win. If he does he will have his work cut out for him. In the very places where SARS-CoV-2 is now rampaging, they are screaming about their “right” to “breathe free.” Hello? Will someone show me where in the Constitution it says anything about breathing free?
I guess there is a certain frisson, if that is the right word, in taking down a bigwig like Fauci, but there is no indication that he was lying, through his teeth or otherwise. He flip-flopped? Well good. More power to him. The scientific concensus is now around masks and distancing as the best thing we have, and Fauci is on it. But if Trump wins the lying bastard will probably be fired. Will you be happy then?
