Quote:
Originally Posted by Donger
The "there's no reason" comment is linked to the time and situation we were in when he said it. We weren't in a pandemic yet. But there's also no doubt that he was also thinking about the lack of PPE for health care workers:
But Fauci said he has no regrets about not telling Americans to wear masks early in the pandemic.
"At that time, there was a paucity of equipment that our health care providers needed -- who put themselves daily in harm's way of taking care of people who are ill," he said.
"We did not want to divert masks and PPE (personal protective equipment) away from them, to be used by the people." But now, Fauci said, "we have enough."
Shitty situation and decision for them to be in, really.
|
Sure, but the messaging of "they won't help you anyway, but they do help the healthcare workers who need them" just didn't work well, IMO.
Say they're effective, and people hoard. Say "save them for the healthcare workers", people hoard. Say they aren't effective, the people who don't want to wear them will cling to the statement for eternity.
Maybe something along the lines of "right now, there are several other ways to prevent the spread, which are just as effective... social distancing, no large groups, etc" ...maybe that would have gotten the point across without the contradiction.
But, that's all in hindsight, of course... trying to get the point across perfectly to 300 million people in order to do the right thing at the time, but another right thing later, all with limited and ever-changing information, isn't easy.