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Lockdowns and face masks ‘unequivocally’ cut spread of Covid, report finds
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2023
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Remember when early in the pandemic the news and the CDC was saying masks won't help?
I remember it as saying they won't be perfect and won't help enough, and also that people in critical positions (Healthcare specifically) needed them and the supply was limited. I don't think I ever heard from an official source that they wouldn't help, but I've heard many people say they said that.
Here is an overview of how the government's recommendations changed over time. They were explicitly advising against wearing face masks and saying they don't work. Ex:
Yep, they lied to people in an attempt to save the supply of masks for people in health care because there weren't enough stockpiled. And they wonder why people don't trust them anymore.
No...
Which part do you disagree with? That the CDC lied about masks working, or my explanation of their motivations?
Thier motivations. The CDC was in a scramble and early theories were contradictions of one another.
Level one medical masks will not prevent you from getting COVID.
The CDC recommended everyone to wear level one and then eventually level two masks to prevent the spread to others.
It was around the time that a lot of people were asymptomatic carries of the virus and was spreading it.
There was an initial issue with getting masks for hosiptals but it was mainly supply chain issues. China was fairly quickly able to adapt to the changes.
Hand sanitizer was the biggest issue. Everyone was buying that up right away.
It's the explanation given by even liberal news outlets.
The full source from CNN
I'll concede that they didn't know the specific mechanisms of the virus (hence hand sanitizer despite it mostly doing nothing), but it was pretty clearly respiratory (given its close relatives SARS and MERS) and, well, masks work against that. Also to clarify my position so you don't get the wrong idea, I'm radically pro-mask and think that repealing the mandates was and is social murder.
https://www.factcheck.org/2022/08/correcting-misinformation-about-dr-fauci/
"At the time, Fauci said he was “not against” anyone wearing a mask if they wanted to, but he warned that if everyone wore them it “could lead to a shortage of masks for the people who really need it,” particularly health care providers and people who were ill.
Then in April 2020, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that everyone wear face coverings in public because of virus transmission from asymptomatic carriers, Fauci also began encouraging universal mask use. He said in an interview two months later that he and other health officials truly did not realize the degree to which infected people without symptoms were spreading the virus, which led to the shift in masking guidance. That does not mean that he “lied” to the public."
Fauci wasn't part of the CDC. His opinion was incorrect and he swiftly corrected himself when he had seen the right information. His earlier statement was in Feb and was misfounded.
There were no mask shortages like there was no toilet paper shortages.