Fauci: Mixed Messaging On Masks Set U.S. Public Health Response Back

[alp227]

Source: NPR

While conceding missteps in the federal response to the coronavirus, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday it is not too late to avoid the dire picture he outlined in congressional testimony of 100,000 coronavirus cases a day.

The nation's leading infectious disease experts said the conflicting advice offered by federal leaders around face masks in the early days of the pandemic helped sow distrust and continues to hamper the government's ability to slow the outbreak.

"We have to admit it, that that mixed message in the beginning, even though it was well meant to allow masks to be available for health workers, that was detrimental in getting the message across," Fauci said in an interview with Mary Louise Kelly of NPR's All Things Considered. "No doubt about it."

Despite the overwhelming consensus among public-health experts that face masks can help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, face coverings have become a partisan issue, something critics of the federal response have blamed on what they say has been a confusing back-and-forth on the issue from the Trump administration.

Read more: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/07/01/886299190/it-does-not-have-to-be-100-000-cases-a-day-fauci-urges-u-s-to-follow-guidelines

[soothsayer]

1. Kind of an apology from Fauci for not being straight with us?

It’s a start.

[marybourg]

2. The interviewer had to pry this out of him. He wasn't forthcoming

about it. He’s still the politician/ doc.

[progree]

3. Trump is clearly a pro-maskist where it counts -- people near him

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/11/white-house-issues-memo-requiring-staff-to-wear-masks-in-west-wing.html

White House issues memo requiring staff to wear masks in West Wing, CNBC, 5/11/20
... The directive from the White House management office was laid out in a memo to staffers Monday afternoon, NBC reported. ... The memo also asked staff members to avoid visiting the West Wing, where the Oval Office is located, unless it is necessary, the sources told NBC.

Something to keep in mind when some fuckhead harasses you about wearing a mask -- if they're so ineffective or the Covid19 is just a hoax, or if only wimps or “Democrat Islamo-Maoists" wear them, then ask the fuckhead why does your fearless leader require everyone near him to wear a mask? Why is he wimpifying his staff -- and by extension himself?

[yaesu]

4. well Fauci, tell your boss, not us, we figured that out months ago, your boss may need it

in cartoon form.

[Marcuse]

5. Fauci said at the time that providers had priority.

[Skittles]

6. file that under NO SHIT

ya know?

[Warpy]

7. They failed to distinguish among masks and what they could be expected to do

Homemade 100% cotton or war surplus 100% cotton gauze masks did nothing for the wearer. That hasn't changed. They did stop large droplets from an infected wearer from going out with coughs and sneezes. They didn't stop fine spray. To do that, infected people need to cough into their elbows.

Fabric masks made according to WHO guidelines offer some protection to an uninfected wearer, giving them time to get away from an unmasked person, for instance. It will stop a lot of the droplets prouduced by an infected wearer.

3 layer surgical masks are about on a level with the WHO compliant fabric masks. All are virus permeable, so they don't offer 100% protection. However, they might offer enough to reduce viral load in healthy people and, while there's little information linking viral load to severity of illness, that model has worked for other viral illnesses.

N95 and OR respirators offer the best protection, but they need to be restricted to people who are dealing with people who are known to have active infection. There simply aren't enough of them to supply all health care workers, let alone civilians.

So it's complicated.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

10. With all due respect, our scientist didn't yet have data on this novel virus....

to accurately publish mask recommendations to the public early in the game. I believe they are still doing in situ testing in their labs on various types of masks.

The problem I've had with our medical science groups throughout this pandemic is that they are careless with their statements issued to the press. The press will ask them a question about say, surface contamination and they will make off-the-cuff statements beginning with "we believe blah, blah, blah" which is essentially their best guess at the time (trying to be helpful).

Next, the press takes the statement as fact, publishes it as factual and so the public believes it as fact.

Scientists (and I am one) must learn to only state things that have been scientifically proven and peer reviewed and otherwise keep their damn mouths shut.

Thanks for your post; a very good summary........

[Warpy]

11. No, they didn't have all the data, and the WHO guidelines have only been out

for the last couple of weeks. I've posted them where mask makers read them, so compliant masks will soon be in the Etsy pipelines, if they're not there already.

Fauci was looking at the old gauze masks and they did very little, which is why he said "they only make your face sweaty," which was about it. Too much escapes them from infected people and the woven material looks like open barn doors to virus particles in fine droplets.

I think the press bears equal responsibility with the overtired scientist who shoots from the lip. That miniscule Chines study (74 cases) that found IgG levels dropped quickly after infection keeps getting picked up like it's something new and different and scary to use to sell papers. While it's normal to grasp at straws here and there when you've got nothing else to hang onto, that's one dead horse that has nothing left to flog.

Thank you for the kind words.

[BigmanPigman]

8. Gee, really?

Any one with a triple digit IQ knew that info was total BS from the start. Most of the people on DU called BS on it and started looking for masks in early March. I have the bookmarks.

That is when I used common sense and looked at what OTHER successful countries were doing...they ALL wore masks. Even my neighbor, a former nurse, argued with me that they don't do much except remind you not to touch your face. She did NOT get any of the few N95 masks that I got back in Feb. I will be recycling those for myself forever.

[denem]

9. "it was well meant"

"it was well meant to allow masks to be available for health workers"

In other words, a lie.