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Comment by patpending | Hacker News Reader

> He said that masks wouldn't be helpful march 08 2020. A month layer New York had a thousand detected covid deaths a day, so people really should have started to wear masks march 08 2020 since deaths lags infections by about a month.

I don't see how that is necessarily a lie. It could have been the best public health recommendation he could make at the time based on the available information. Research into how best to use masks is ongoing, so I would not expect today's masking recommendations to be the same as tomorrow's.

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No, watch the interview. He actually says that wearing masks could actually be worse than not wearing them. In a later interview, he admits the suggestions against wearing masks was a lie because they were afraid of PPE shortages.

It's also not the only lie he's told and admitted to. See his claims about herd immunity, where the numbers kept going up, and when he was questioned on this, he outright said he just gave out numbers that he thought the public would accept at the time.

I don't know which interview you're talking about, but in any event you don't know what his motivation was for saying what he said when he said it. Perhaps he was wrong, perhaps he changed his mind, perhaps he was rationalizing on the fly, or perhaps he lied.

It's clear that what he and other scientists said about masks early in the pandemic certainly changed over time. I think science is like that. People who like simple, certain, unchanging answers can get them from religion or ideology. People who don't mind complexity, nuance, and change are more comfortable with science.

Assuming Fauci was lying because what he said then isn't what he is saying now just isn't logical.

> but in any event you don't know what his motivation was for saying what he said when he said it

He literally explained his reasons for lying.

Fauci admits to lying about masks and explains why: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLXttHlUgK8

Fauci admits to moving the goalposts on vaccination rates and explains it's because of his "gut feeling that the country is finally ready to hear what he really thinks": https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/24/health/herd-immunity-covi...

> It's clear that what he and other scientists said about masks early in the pandemic certainly changed over time.

This isn't about that, this is about literal deception from a public health figure about public health.

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