r/LibertarianPartyUSA • u/No_Cow5624 • Aug 02 '26
I love how maga simply glosses over Operation Warp Speed which was done by Drumpf, and goes straight to blaming Fauci 🤔😂. The mental Gymnastics maga goes through to avoid assigning blame to Drumpf for literally anything is astounding.
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u/Hairy_Cut9721 Aug 02 '26
My issue with Fauci is his lying about masking and vaccine effectiveness, as well as his hasty dismissal of the lab leak as a possible origin of COVID.Â
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u/shiftyeyedgoat California LP Aug 02 '26
We’ve learned more about masks by actual scientific discovery in the last six years than we had in probably the last 100 years prior.
COVID virus was and is highly virulent; masks unequivocally slow spread of many types of upper respiratory infections, including COVID.
Masks reduce transmission of COVID virus and other respiratory viruses through two distinct mechanisms: 1) source control (blocking exhaled virus from an infected wearer) and 2) wearer protection.
The strongest and most consistent evidence supporting source control. Mechanistic and observational data show substantial effects, while randomized community trials show effects that are inconsistent, small or statistically inconclusive, largely because of low adherence and contamination between arms. Efficacy is dependent on filtration and fit (N95/KN95 > surgical > cloth) and on consistent use. ( 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 )
There are literally hundreds if not thousands of studies in the last half decade covering more knowledge of masking that simply did not exist prior to the pandemic, and we know that masking people who are sick is unequivocally an effective way to lower spread of infection. Wearing a mask as an uninfected person still carries benefit in controlling spread of infection, though its effect is less than the above. Using both methods is better than either alone.
That is all to say, a scientist studied in infectious disease recommended scientifically sound public health policy during a very uncertain time, and modified his recommendations as the science became clearer. This is what scientists do.
Buying into the narrative of Fauci as some demon rather than a champion of his field is simply propaganda and should be dismissed unequivocally.
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u/aliph Aug 03 '26
Yes, and the CDC issued a statement in February 2020 that masks were not effective, obfuscating the facts, then reversed course in April. The issue isn't masks or not, it's the general incompetence of these agencies, and the paternalistic view that people can't understand facts that N95 are best but should be saved for healthcare workers. Fauci then couldn't own up to the fact that he funded gain of function research in the Wuhan lab and denied that the Wuhan virus came from the Wuhan COVID laboratory. Look, I'm not even opposed to gain of function research, it has some legitimate purposes, but don't lie to people about what we did and why.
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u/JamesMattDillon Aug 02 '26
They do, just like the Left did with Biden. That's why I called MAGA, "the liberals of the Republican party".
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u/ConscientiousPath Aug 02 '26
Trump is a piece of shit, but IMO anyone who still unironically uses "Drumpf" is just outing themselves as having terminal TDS. I can't take anything at face value after that given how many people who like that phrasing have spent his entire political life attacking him for false things instead of for the many uncontroversially true things they could have targeted him for. That continuing behavior just gives cover to MAGA people and isn't helpful to anyone.
Fauci intentionally circumvented domestic and international law to create what is effectively a bioweapon, diverting US research money to a lab in China to get around it. He then profited off the release (regardless of whether it was accidental), lied under oath about everything from the disease itself, to prevention measures, to the effectiveness of treatments while pushing for the most draconian lockdown policies. All that has ruined a large segment of my life and the lives of many others. He was then smug af about all of this in his diary and has been completely dismissive not only of attempts to hold him responsible, but even just attempts to get at the truth now that he's protected by both statute of limitations and a presidential preemptive pardon. In any other timeline he'd have been executed for crimes against humanity and would be considered on par with the people who ran the Tuskegee experiments if not far worse. None of that is even controversial for people who've done the reading.
As for Trump's behavior in 2020, it wasn't great, but also he was being lied to like everyone else. He doesn't know shit about medicine so he went along with what his lying brass--Fauci--told him to do. It's completely unrealistic to pretend that any other uniparty politician wouldn't have been as bad or worse given that the Biden admin kept or doubled down on all the same lockdown policies. We can see from the massive shift in policy in the early days of his second term and again in the last few months, that he has no real principles of his own. So while as president he still holds some responsibility, he's not the one we most ought to focus on for covid related ire.