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> I still can’t comprehend why someone like Fauci who said in no uncertain terms not to wear a mask, it won’t help never faced any repercussions

May I ask what exactly you were hoping for here?



Being fired or resigning in disgrace.

If my bad advice cost thousands of lives, I would at least retire from public life.


Or at the very least, not continuing to be worshiped as some sort of saint.


Or maybe, like, an apology. Or an effort to not repeat future lies (e.g. the effort required to achieve heard immunity)


Okay, well let's start with firing, and let's assume since his bad advice was in march 2020 then any repercussions would happen within the next few months when it became obvious that masks should definitely be worn.

The two people with the power to fire Dr Fauci are the NIH director, and the president (via his power over the NIH director). In fact by summer 2020 Dr Fauci had earned the ire of the White House, but for essentially the opposite reason (this was when the White House was still trying to underplay the pandemic as not-that-bad, going-away-soon, it'll be an Easter miracle, etc). As such the NIH director aligned with Dr Fauci against the White house, and Fauci was seen as the "defender of wearing masks" or somesuch. For example, consider the following article:

https://www.statnews.com/2020/07/16/francis-collins-defends-...

I don't think it's impossible to have seen Fauci fired if that's how Trump played it politically. But it's not.

Consider the following:

> Trump, in particular, has openly disagreed with Fauci’s guidance on whether fans should attend professional football games in the fall [...]

> In recent weeks, as the U.S. outbreak has spiraled out of control, Fauci has urged Americans to wear masks and to practice social distancing. The White House, however, has refused to amplify his advice, and instead has escalated its attacks on him.

The white house was trying to stimulate the economy by reassuring people it's okay to go out and spend money. Attacking Dr. Fauci for not being serious enough about masks sends the opposite signal. Hence, Fauci became the "wear a mask" guy (as viewed in opposition to the White House). Thus, everyone forgot / didn't care that early on he was wrong about masks.

Hope that cleared things up.


Was it really bad advice? We certainly didn't have supply at the time and first responders would have been affected.

Can you imagine telling people to take care of covid positive patients without having any face masks?


I'm explaining why Fauci didn't get fired, so I took the GP's assertion that it's bad advice as assumption


He wasn't exactly wrong, as not wearing masks was still the general scientific consensus at the time, right? It was a WHO guideline, if I'm not mistaken.


Repeating bad advice you heard from other sources doesn't make it "good advice".

We expected more from all health authorities all over. Fauci failed us, the WHO, the CDC. We needed more from all of them.


It's not "bad advice", it was the scientific consensus at the time. Things change as we understand the situation better.




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