Media top headlines August 3
In media news today, CNN's Jake Tapper defends Nancy Pelosi after Sen. Susan Collins knocks speaker for 'partisan' Jan. 6 committee, PBS' Yamiche Alcindor lobbies Biden to extend eviction moratorium, and the Washingtonian attempts to cover for DC Mayor Muriel Bowser's photo scandal
Former President Biden COVID-19 adviser and top epidemiologist Michael Osterholm admitted that typical paper masks are ineffective and suggested that Americans may need to switch to heavier duty N-95 masks to battle the new wave of cases in an interview on CNN Monday.
"We know today that many of the face cloth coverings that people wear are not very effective in reducing any of the virus movement in or out," Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said.
"We need to talk about better masking," he continued. "We need to talk about N-95 respirators, which would do a lot for both people who are not yet vaccinated or not previously infected."
Osterholm said he hoped his comments didn't cause more confusion. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was criticized even by left-leaning outlets last week for sending a "confusing message" after reversing guidance on masks, recommending that fully vaccinated individuals once again wear face masks indoors, citing the spread of the new Delta variant of the coronavirus.
ANALYSTS REACT AS RANDI WEINGARTEN PUSHES FOR ‘UNIVERSAL MASKING’ IN SCHOOLS: ‘JUST INSANE’
Osterholm's remarks caught fire on Twitter, causing some to wonder why they were forced to wear masks in the first place.
"Joe Biden’s top covid advisor just went on CNN and admitted the masks people are wearing don’t work against covid," OutKick's Clay Travis tweeted. "As I’ve been saying, this is all just cosmetic theater."
"As we have been saying from the start, masks are simply an arbitrary government power grab," Ohio Republican congressional candidate Jonah Schulz said.
Others wondered when they would see some accountability, particularly after the CDC advised universal masking for schoolchildren.
MASK GUIDANCE AMID RISE IN DELTA VARIANT DIVIDES PARENTS HEADING INTO NEW SCHOOL YEAR
Still more social media users were concerned that such comments could lead to more restrictive mandates.
"Which city will be the first to mandate MOPP gear?" asked Capital Research Center's Michael Watson, referring to Mission Oriented Protective Posture, protective gear worn by the U.S. military in toxic environments.
Yet Osterholm isn't the only Biden adviser to have admitted that cloth masks do little to stop the spread of the coronavirus. In one of his thousands of emails unearthed by the Washington Post and BuzzFeed News via Freedom of Information Act requests, White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci advised that the "typical mask" one gets from the drug store "is not really effective in keeping out" the virus.
"Masks are really for infected people to prevent them from spreading infection to people who are not infected rather than protecting uninfected people from acquiring infection. 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," Fauci wrote in one of the emails obtained by BuzzFeed News. "It might, however, provide some slight benefit in keep out gross droplets if someone coughs or sneezes on you. I do not recommend that you wear a mask, particularly since you are going to a vey (sic) low risk location."
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