"The typical mask you buy in the drug store is not really effective in keeping out virus, which is small enough to pass through the material. I do not recommend that you wear a mask."
On February 5, 2020, Fauci emailed a colleague advising against wearing a mask. Eight weeks later, the CDC recommended universal masking. No new major study on mask effectiveness had been published in that window. When deposed under oath in November 2022, Fauci was asked which study changed his mind. He could not name one.
The February email was released via FOIA in June 2021. The mask email was covered mostly by right-leaning outlets and dismissed as 'missing context.' The deposition testimony confirming he couldn't cite a study was barely covered at all. The gap between his private February assessment and his public April mandate was never the subject of a serious investigative piece.
If the mask guidance changed because of new evidence, name the evidence. Fauci couldn't under oath. The two most likely alternative explanations — that the reversal was driven by politics and PPE supply chain concerns, or that the original February assessment was simply correct — were both available in the public record. Neither was pursued.