> This is why "masks don't work" was truth from Fauci but wrong with Rand Paul said so about cloth masks.

This only works because you’re misrepresenting the claims: we always knew that masks worked but it was initially unclear how effective they were and widespread shortages lead to reasonable questions about reserving them for the highest risk jobs, not to mention avoiding people unnecessarily exposing themselves because they thought wearing a mask was safe. Remember, it still wasn’t clear exactly how COVID spread and it was quite plausible that someone might have, say, worn a mask but gotten infected by a droplet on their skin. There was also, as you might recall, considerable political pressure from the White House muddying the waters, too.

What’s tellingly different is what happened as the data became clear and the supply situation improved: Fauci wasn’t afraid to update what he said based on the evidence but the right-wingers you’re relying on repeatedly switched from one wrong thing to another because their goal was being politically correct rather than actually correct.