Fauci just admitted masks don’t work…but why?

A few days ago former White House chief medical adviser Dr Anthony Fauci admitted the evidence supporting mask mandates was weak.

Why would he do this as they appear to be gearing up Pandemic 2.0? Is it a sign Fauci is going to be made a scapegoat? Or is something else going on?

We’ll get to all that. First, here’s the background.

In January of this year the Cochrane Library published the latest edition of “The Cochrane Review on Physical Interventions to Reduce the Spread of Respiratory Viruses”, a regular literature review authored by Dr Thomas Jefferson since its inception in 2006.

Dr Jefferson’s name is likely familiar to anyone who has followed OffG’s Covid coverage, being among the first noteworthy experts to dissent against the establishment consensus on the “pandemic”.

As you’d expect, the 2023 edition found no evidence masks work. Hardly surprising. The subject is old hat at this point.

The huge volume of data showing masks are ineffective at preventing the spread of respiratory infections predates the birth of Covid and has only grown since. Cochrane is just another drop in the bucket.

That was eight months ago. But then, two days ago, CNN dug it up – along with this contemporary piece in the New York Times – in order to ask Dr Fauci to comment on its conclusions.

Fauci’s response was odd:

“When you’re talking about the effect on the epidemic or the pandemic as a whole, the data are less strong, but when you talk about an individual basis of someone protecting themselves or protecting themselves from spreading it to others, there’s no doubt that there are many studies that show that there is an advantage [to wearing masks]”

This is more of an admission than a refutation. While some fact-checkers are trying to claim he “debunked” Cochrane, that’s simply not true. Read his words. He straight up said that the data supporting widespread mask-use was weak.

This whole situation is very strange. I recommend watching the clip.

Two years ago, at peak pandemic, CNN would never have asked Fauci that kind of confrontational question.

Further, not only would they never have rattled off a litany of quotes from an anti-mask study without a single word of refutation, they would simply never have admitted any such study existed.

We know that, because that’s what they did with all the others.

Further, why would Fauci lend any credence to the study at all? Why not simply say Cochrane was wrong? Why not call it “politically motivated” or based on “pre-Covid data” or one of the other baseless charges routinely made against inconvenient data?

In short, CNN had no reason to ask that question, and Fauci had no reason to answer it the way he did.

Fauci’s response has already garnered a decent amount of negative press.

Newsweek is reporting that Fauci is facing “furious backlash” over his “mask admission”.

The Daily Mail went with “Dr Fauci admits there IS a lack of evidence showing mask mandates stopped pandemic”, then followed it up the next day with “Anthony Fauci is branded a ‘fraud’ and a ‘liar’ after admitting there IS a lack of evidence showing mask mandates stopped the COVID pandemic”

The New York Post echoes the same tone: “Fauci roasted as ‘fraud’ and ‘liar’ after being confronted with damning study on masks”

At the same time, just a few hours ago, US non-profit Right to Know published another story critical of Fauci on a different issue: “Fauci was told of NIH ties to Wuhan lab’s novel coronaviruses by January 2020”. This story has since been picked up by the National Review.

That’s not to say it’s all bad, there are just as many outlets rushing to his defense.

The split is very much along the bogus right-left faultline, but there’s no denying this is the most significant amount of criticism Fauci has received in the mainstream media since Covid began.

Could it be Anthony Fauci – establishment darling – is for the chop? Is he going to be made a scapegoat to appease the still-simmering public anger? After all, they have been preparing for that course of action since his emails were “leaked” in 2021.

Not really, of course. He’s not going to actually lose anything. If Fauci is dumped it will be as a worthy sacrifice to the cause, a theatrical exit in service of the narrative.

After all, he just got a cushy new job at Georgetown University – the most establishment of establishment schools. You can see that as compensation for a heel turn or a nice retirement gift, either way it works.

But there’s another possible explanation too.

It could be that rather than dropping Fauci completely they are trading in full-scale hero worship for managed controversy. Feeding Covid sceptics some rage bait in the hopes of corralling that large mass of people who were totally disillusioned by Pandemic 1.0.

Yes, another fake binary.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the aisle, Trump is busy attempting to pass himself off as some kind of Covid sceptic, railing against “Covid tyrants” and their “mask mandates”, and desperately hoping people are gullible enough to forget Operation Warp Speed and all the other ways he helped sell Covid to the world.

This could just be about the 2024 election, but it could be prep another wave of “pandemic”, a bi-partisan one. Time will tell.

But, if they are indeed gearing up for another Pandemic this winter, don’t be surprised if there’s a lot more controlled dissent this time around.