Reluctance against masks was not unique to the USA
Comment on Public trust
FlaminGoku@reddthat.com 3 months ago
Fauci is to blame. The path of evil is paved in good intention.
The fucker told everyone that they didn’t need masks.
What he was intending to do was make sure doctors and emergency personnel had masks. instead, it became an inflection point or publicly dividing the nation.
Akasazh@feddit.nl 3 months ago
RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Fauci is a human being who gave advice, then changed his mind when more information became available. He did not invent the virus.
Zuzak@hexbear.net 3 months ago
Exactly. The surgeon general tweeted out, “STOP WEARING MASKS” and CNN was publishing articles with all the anti-masker claims, including that they don’t work and could increase your risk of getting it instead, and people just pretend like it never happened and the anti-maskers came out of thin air.
It wasn’t just an idiotic ploy to deliberately spread misinfo to trick people into leaving masks for doctors, it was also about the government trying to cover their own ass for having sold off their emergency stockpiles for fast cash.
Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world 3 months ago
The worst part is it was very clearly worded. People had to purposely, disingenuously misinterpret it. So of course they did.
Chuymatt@beehaw.org 3 months ago
Well, then there was the intent to let it run its course, as it was only hitting blue states at that time… it was a bit of a cluster…
Chuymatt@beehaw.org 3 months ago
Do you recall the people hoarding and trying to profit off of toilet paper, alcohol sanitizer, Clorox wipes? 
TexMexBazooka@lemm.ee 3 months ago
Let’s be real, the misinfosphere would’ve have found something else to misguide the morons. He didn’t even say “you don’t need masks”, he said “don’t buy all the masks, stay inside”
agressivelyPassive@feddit.de 3 months ago
I think the much deeper reason is, that stupid people can’t fathom that knowledge can change. They can’t understand that scientists legitimately didn’t know better, despite their best efforts. They can’t accept, that scientists come to other conclusions based on new data, instead they assume some ulterior motive.
Patches@sh.itjust.works 3 months ago
octopus_ink@lemmy.ml 3 months ago
Seems a totally reasonable response when we had folks hoarding and scalping toilet paper. Stay home was always better advice than go out masked, esp at the beginning.
MotoAsh@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Yes, but the point is, a government official GASLIT THE PUBLIC, which gave a HUGE validation boost to the conspiracy nuts.
He directly aided morons in spreading their moronery.
TexMexBazooka@lemm.ee 3 months ago
Except the public official didn’t gaslight anyway. Fauci made the right call asking people to prioritize social distancing over masks in the initial phases of the pandemic so that medical personnel would have enough.
He didn’t say “you don’t need masks” He didn’t say “masks don’t work” He didn’t say “don’t wear masks at all”
Furthermore, the WHO also advised against wearing masks initially, for the same reasons. They were actually more against the efficacy of masks, but backtracked that opinion after more data came out.
Like what is this take? Really? The only people who have a hate boner for Fauci coincidentally don’t know a fucking thing he said, and are going to believe what makes their fee fees hurt less anyway.
He was handed a deadly pandemic while dealing with the most corrupt and incompetent leadership our country has ever seen. He did alright. If only Obama was still in office at the time.
MotoAsh@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Right, because dishonest actors exist, his job as a public health policy communicator was directly subverted by himself for making such an increadibly unwise blunder of giving them ammunition.
His job is to not give public health measures a bad image, and he failed completely.
Bananigans@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 months ago
Comprehension of the underlying reasons for a particular set of events or advice isn’t really a conspiracy nut’s bread and butter. That’s why they’re idiots and professionals aren’t to blame. Keeping the healer alive is a pretty basic strategy and Fauci was right to do it.
MotoAsh@lemmy.world 3 months ago
His one job is to not give public health measures a bad image, and he did the exact opposite by gaslighting. It’s amazing how people are defending being gaslighted. Pathetic.
EtherWhack@lemmy.world 3 months ago
It’s such a bad idea to prioritize medical personnel having masks. There’s no way they would become high-risk vectors with the multitude of sick people they handle daily. /s