Anthony Fauci is in the manipulation business, not the science or public health business

When it suits Fauci, he insists on ‘Gold Standard’ evidence. For example, he will block an already authorized safe medication such as HCQ for off-label use like a medical tyrant, because it does not have the level of proof of efficacy that he considers sufficient.

NB: His double standards on medications are abundantly clear. For off-patent (thus low-profit) medications there will always be ‘insufficient evidence’. For on-patent (thus highly profitable) medications, even the scantest ‘evidence’ will be sufficient for him.

At other times, Fauci will ignore ‘Gold Standard’ evidence, such as the Cochrane meta-analysis on face mask trials.

Some people will dismiss the Cochrane meta-analysis using ‘Absence of evidence is not the same evidence of absence,’ but this defense is invalid in this case.

If there is no high quality unbiased research, then this defense is reasonable. However, in this case there is high quality research that was almost certainly biased *in favor of* masks, and still the researchers couldn’t find evidence of efficacy.

Even if there actually was inadequate evidence, the burden of proof is on the pro-maskers. We should all assume that masks don’t work until it is perfectly proven that they do, not the other way around.

There is not even a weak signal that masks are beneficial to prevent disease. Also, mechanically they can’t work, because ‘viruses’ are way smaller than the holes in masks so they will go past and through the masks. It’s like trying to stop mosquitos using a tennis net.

Even if masks were somewhat effective, it is clear beyond a shadow of a doubt that (1) their benefits do no surpass their harms, and (2) there are much better alternatives.

REFERENCES

Cochrane study
https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD006207.pub6/full

New York Times article
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/21/opinion/do-mask-mandates-work.html

SOURCES

CNN interview
https://edition.cnn.com/videos/us/2023/09/02/anthony-fauci-masks-donald-trump-smerconish-vpx.cnn

HCQ hearing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDjVwXM8ESE

Roger Waters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VH5xJpjnxc