Quote:
Originally Posted by Maniac
Fauci stated that the reason they didn't initially recommend masks was because an even higher public run on buying them would have made it a dire situation for medical professionals. So they did it to keep things under control until enough were produced that they could handle the surge in demand. People don't seem to understand that Fauci is not a policy maker. He doesn't do that. He is an advisor. He gives information and recommendations and then the administration makes decisions based on those. When we heard him at press conferences and such, it was him supporting and explaining the decision the administration made.
That's not what politicized the masks though. Trump politicized them. He made fun of people wearing them. He encouraged people to revolt against governors who were trying to get their residents to wear masks and take it seriously. He said the virus would "go away" and that we would be at zero cases soon. His ridiculously poor leadership was what caused the politicization of masks and of the virus itself. He demonized medical experts and thought he knew more than they did. He found out otherwise and is now lying to try to cover up his ineptitude by trying to deflect it onto others. He is a con man.
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Agree on Trump. He's certainly a big part of the problem and could and should have mostly put an end to the anti-maskers months ago. My point was that the experts initially saying masks weren't effective has given the anti-maskers a lot of fuel to put on their fire. I can't say that I know any anti-maskers (or have spent time with any since this all started), but that's typically one of the first things brought up on any social media "debate" that I've seen.
I saw that statement from Fauci on the concerns over mask shortages. It'd be interesting to see if there's any data on how many hospital grade masks were being stock and sold by places like Walmart and CVS. If that number is significant then fair enough. Although in hindsight it would have been better IMO to have issued an executive order that distributors could only sell them to medical facilities (which would be their largest customers anyway) and if necessary pull any stock from big box and drug stores. Then have the experts issue a statement saying that we should be wearing masks but cloth masks will do so leave the hospital grade masks for our medical professionals, and had a video showing how to make one since cloth masks were few and far between on the shelves.
Of course to your point the experts don't set policies, so maybe they tried to do that and the Trump administration balked at it and we ended up with what we got.