shrug It's Factcheck.org so they put their own spin on it. But the fact that widespread mask use curbed transmission of disease was well established during the SARS and MERS outbreaks of prior years. Nevermind the well-known benefit against influenza, established at least as early as 2013.

The claimed need for restraint was driven by Fauci's belief that public demand would cut into professional medical supply. But this was largely an economic concern, not a medical one. Same shit we saw with the AIDS epidemic, where the Federal response was bungled with poor consideration of actual scientific study.