[RobA_Oz]

Doctors getting up close and personal with known sick and cut open patients is entirely different from passing random people several feet away and only with a few seconds of contact. Trying to equate medical personal trained and and practicing proper PPE care is in no way corollary to your average Joe wearing a random strip of fabric over his face and ignoring proper handling.

And to say one person's opinion is valid or not only because of their profession is nothing but deflection and character attacks, not actually debating the issue. I've known people that trust whatever their doctor tells them, even to their own detriment. When the problems are pointed out to them, it's always "doctor knows best," even in the face of worsening health as a result. Recent medical history in the U.S. is rampant with medical malpractice claims and class action lawsuits due to failed drugs. So to simply take them at their word and ignore any evidence or suggestion to the contrary is to exercise a severe lack of critical thinking.

I wouldn't expect a brain surgeon to know how to drive a truck, but if I happen to ask one for directions and he tells me about a truck restricted road to avoid, I'm going to confirm it and avoid the road if possible. I'm not going to ignore him simply because he isn't a trucker.

I think we can agree to disagree. I'll listen to the (literally) millions of health care professionals including people like Dr. Fauci who has made a career out of saving peoples lives from pandemics, and you carry on listening to whoever agrees with how you want the world to be.

I suspect the bulk of the difference between those two views is the difference between certainty and risk. Having spent much of my recent career immersed in risk management processes, I’d go with reducing risk, even though I know there’s no such thing as certainty in that field and many others.

[Mooncatt]

I think we can agree to disagree. I'll listen to the (literally) millions of health care professionals including people like Dr. Fauci who has made a career out of saving peoples lives from pandemics, and you carry on listening to whoever agrees with how you want the world to be.

You do know Dr. Fauci lied about masks, right? (Or rather, lied relative to his real opinion on them) Not a simple case of an evolving understanding, but specifically to prevent the public from causing a run on the supply. You may agree with the justification, but it's not the kind of mentality I put much trust in. Considering how quickly other restrictions were put in place, and that some stores reserved their shipments for medical workers, there's no reason he couldn't have been honest about the situation and immediately have an order that masks are to be reserved for medical workers until the supply increased.

[MikeyBugs95]

For what it's worth, I don't put much stock in what random strangers are saying on the internet about a serious global health problem. Instead, I prefer to trust a professional medical expert with over 50 years of experience in public health and infectious diseases.

[dstar]

Make me clear Dr Fauci not lied about mask and social distance Human use protection thousand years from any device cover face or keep sick people in house or 40 day isolation from time Black Death
Questions only are we mentally ready for restriction as social distance and mask or stay at home
Mostly important in this awful disaster one rule for all country
Not state by state Different approach
I am in personal want all news stop add political fire in this disaster just Give priority speak professional
with really practical experience in epidemiology and infection control

[slartibartfast01]

When it comes to opinions on the internet anyone who use the terms "Do your own research", "Seek the truth", "Wake up sheep" etc can safely be ignored.

[Cerebum]

When it comes to opinions on the internet anyone who use the terms "Do your own research", "Seek the truth", "Wake up sheep" etc can safely be ignored.

You tend to find denyers resort to abuse as a first choice lol I get my advice from my sons friend who is an advisor to the WHO

[Fontan]

Regardless of what you believe, or what others want you to believe, I think we have to remember that the consequences is death, and this is not just for you but for others who come in contact with you. In some ways it is all about what you can live with. I have taken care of folks until the end this was a hoax to them that they could not accept that this was killing them and they have died believing that they have died of something else, or that some goofy conspiracies were the cause of their demise.

[Raffwal]

Also what many deniers saying "it is just a flu" and such crap don't realize it's not a binary situation where people either die or recover 100%. There are many long term sequelae caused by this infection, "long covid".

[Cerebum]

What gets me is the anti mask rally. Wearing a mask is no imposition if you are healthy! As for the trade off, if they are right and masks were unnecessary, we have all lookeded a bit odd, if, as I suspect, they are wrong, PEOPLE DIE! We are not winning or losing a few bucks here, it really can be life or death. I always think there is a very sad irony when denyers have a party then a significant percentage test positive and some even die!

[Rondec]

You do know Dr. Fauci lied about masks, right? (Or rather, lied relative to his real opinion on them) Not a simple case of an evolving understanding, but specifically to prevent the public from causing a run on the supply. You may agree with the justification, but it's not the kind of mentality I put much trust in. Considering how quickly other restrictions were put in place, and that some stores reserved their shipments for medical workers, there's no reason he couldn't have been honest about the situation and immediately have an order that masks are to be reserved for medical workers until the supply increased.

I think many medical professionals last February and March thought that the main method of transmission was fomites -- that is people touching infected things and then touching their mucus membranes. In this scenario, washing hands and maybe packages from the store are the most important things and masks don't make as big a deal.

What Dr. Fauci said in March was that only people who were infected needed to wear masks. The assumption then was that people always knew when they were infected -- that they had symptoms -- if you didn't have symptoms you weren't contagious. And with this in mind he said, "The masks are important for someone who's infected to prevent them from infecting someone else. Now, when you see people and look at the films in China and South Korea, whatever, and everybody's wearing a mask. Right now in the United States, people should not be walking around with masks... It could lead to a shortage of masks for the people who really need it." To me, lying is saying something deliberately wrong and defending your statements over time, even when they are shown to be wrong. As more information came in, he did change what he said and admitted that his earlier statements were inaccurate.

As to the whole vaccine risk/benefit equation, the risk of the vaccine does seem to be small compared to the risk of COVID. We know that about half a percent of people who get COVID die -- certainly the risk of that with the vaccine is miniscule. The risk of chronic symptoms with COVID, hospitalization from COVID all are fairly significant and increase with the age of the person involved. At this point, I just am concerned that people who want the vaccine are able to get access to it, if others would rather get the disease, I guess we will take the best care of them we can too.

[eddie1960]

Regardless of what you believe, or what others want you to believe, I think we have to remember that the consequences is death, and this is not just for you but for others who come in contact with you. In some ways it is all about what you can live with. I have taken care of folks until the end this was a hoax to them that they could not accept that this was killing them and they have died believing that they have died of something else, or that some goofy conspiracies were the cause of their demise.

Conspiracy theories have become far more rampant with the unchecked nature of social media sadly. And in a rapidly changing world with economics models that have enriched a few and left behind many has left some people lost and searching for a blame. Sadly once people fall down that rabbit hole it is incredibly difficult to pull them out as it is constantly reinforced by unchecked rampant falsehoods online
I have lost a couple of friends who just became completely absorbed in conspiracy to the point you couldn’t talk with them.

[timb64]

My wife is a nurse and presently queuing for her vaccination.

[Wheatfield]

You do know Dr. Fauci lied about masks, right? (Or rather, lied relative to his real opinion on them) Not a simple case of an evolving understanding, but specifically to prevent the public from causing a run on the supply. You may agree with the justification, but it's not the kind of mentality I put much trust in. Considering how quickly other restrictions were put in place, and that some stores reserved their shipments for medical workers, there's no reason he couldn't have been honest about the situation and immediately have an order that masks are to be reserved for medical workers until the supply increased.

Just stop. You are spewing lies and garbage.

[clackers]

Just to give a Melbourne, Australia perspective. I live in a city of about five million.

We went to and fro earlier last year with half-hearted measures - localized restrictions, suggestions rather than rules, etc. Not really serious.

Then in August, when we hit 700 cases a day, despite opposition from a minority of trouble makers, our State government took advice from a custom designed software model for Melbourne written by academics at three universities about covid transmission that took into account 1,000 variables, and ran the simulation over and over again with different parameters.

For three months, we could only go to work, and within 5 kilometres only of our home, shop, exercise outside for an hour. No visiting other people. No leaving home after 7pm - a curfew was imposed except for essential workers, who needed a permit from their employers to show police. All education happened online. We offered casual workers $500 to take the covid test if they had symptoms, because they needed to isolate for two days until the results came back. And if they were positive, they could receive $1500 to tide them over until their 14 days of self quarantine was up. We had police and the army doorknock the homes of tested people to see if they were complying.

And we wore masks when we left the house. The model estimated that took 2-3 weeks off our lockdown, FWIW.

But we eliminated the virus.

I don't mean, reduced it. We eliminated it.

That's just food for thought. If a city of five million can do that, why can't a city of five million elsewhere do it?

The biggest factor was compliance, because it cost everyone economically and emotionally. All but a minority (who were arrested periodically doing maskless protests) cooperated, and got the outcome.

In WW2, this was simply called 'Civil Defense'.

I've noticed that afterwards, everyone is more polite and considerate of each other, and when little things go wrong in day to day life, we don't get as upset, we push through.

The lockdown was something we went through together, as a society, and we came out - in personality - better for it, IMHO.

[luftfluss]

Fact check:*Outdated video of Fauci saying "there's no reason to be walking around with a mask"* | Reuters

A video circulating on social media shows Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), saying “there’s no reason to be walking around with a mask.” Fauci’s remarks were made on March 8, 2020 and do not represent his current stance on face coverings nor the updated guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In the clip, Dr Fauci says “There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask. When you’re in the middle of an outbreak, wearing a mask might make people feel a little bit better and it might even block a droplet, but it’s not providing the perfect protection that people think that it is. And, often, there are unintended consequences — people keep fiddling with the mask and they keep touching their face.”Fauci made this comment on an interview with 60 Minutes on March 8, during the early stages of the novel coronavirus outbreak in the United States. A longer extract of the interview is visible youtu.be/PRa6t_e7dgI (see 30-second mark).

As Fauci told the Washington Post here , at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, masks were not recommended for the general public, as authorities were trying to prevent a mask shortage for health workers and the extent of asymptomatic spread was unknown.
As more information became available about SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, health authorities and organizations around the world have changed their stance towards the impact of face masks and the spread of the disease ( here ).
As of the publishing of this fact check, Fauci is encouraging people to wear face coverings. Fauci has reaffirmed this stance on interviews on Sept. 21, Aug. 10 and Aug. 5 that are visible here ( bit.ly/3dbpHsA , bit.ly/36GS9Bz , bit.ly/2GKAw94 )

VERDICT
Partly false. Video shows Fauci’s remarks at early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic when masks were not yet recommended by the government. As of the publishing of this check, Fauci recommends the use of face masks.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work to fact-check social media posts   here .