Appearing on Good Morning America on Tuesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci admitted that his post-vaccination mask-wearing was meant to serve as a “signal” — rather than a genuine attempt to stem the spread of COVID-19. The admission came just weeks after Fauci scolded Senator Rand Paul for suggesting that his insistence on wearing a mask, despite being at virtually no risk of contracting or spreading COVID, constituted public health “theater.”
During a congressional hearing back in March, Fauci bristled at Paul’s suggestion that his continued insistence that vaccinated Americans must wear masks was just theater. “Let me just state for the record that masks are not theater. Masks are protective” replied a visibly irritated Fauci when asked why he attended the public hearing in a mask after being fully vaccinated.
Now, he admits that Paul’s analysis of the the need for masks, as well as of Fauci’s motivations was correct.
“Before the CDC made the recommendation change, I didn’t want to look like I was giving mixed signals. But being a fully vaccinated person, the chances of my getting infected in an indoor setting is extremely low” Fauci explained to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. The CDC announced last week that vaccinated Americans could go without masks indoors, with certain rare exceptions.
This was the same point made by Paul during his testy exchange with Fauci on the subject.
“You’ve been vaccinated and you parade around in two masks for show. You can’t get it again, there’s virtually zero percent chance you’re going to get it and yet you’re telling people that have had the vaccine, who have immunity — you’re defying everything we know about immunity by telling people to wear a mask who’ve been vaccinated,” Paul said.
This is not the first time Fauci has embraced the “noble lie” as a tool — it’s not even the first time that he’s employed it as it relates to masks. Recall that in February of 2020, Fauci lectured Americans that “If you look at the masks that you buy in a drug store, the leakage around that doesn’t really do much to protect you. People start saying, ‘Should I start wearing a mask?’ Now, in the United States, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to wear a mask.”
Obviously, his public position has changed and he’s since admitted that his original advice was not his medical opinion, but part of a strategy to head off shortages.
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