#FauciEmails: Anthony Fauci Admitted Privately That Masks Don't Work Against Coronavirus

The true thinking of the top US government epidemiologist and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases NIAID -- who has previously been criticized for changing his positions on masks -- was revealed in his email exchanges in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. The emails were obtained by media outlets through the Freedom of Information Act request.

In one message, Sylvia Burwell -- who was health and human services secretary for three years under President Barack Obama -- had asked for advice about wearing face masks while traveling.

"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," Fauci wrote back in a reply dated February 5, 2020. "The typical mask you buy in the drug store is not really effective in keeping out virus, which is small enough to pass through material. 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 very low risk location."

Against critics' skepticism about the efficacy of masks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC, in its April 3, 2020 updated guidance, recommended that people wear face coverings "in public settings when around people outside their household, especially when social distancing measures are difficult to maintain."

Fauci has since encouraged mask-wearing going as far as telling NBC News on January 25 that wearing two masks was "common sense."

"So, if you have a physical covering with one layer, you put another layer on, it just makes common sense that it likely would be more effective," he said. "That's the reason why you see people either double masking or doing a version of an N95 [respirator]."

Fauci had earlier on March 8, 2020, said "there's no reason to be walking around with a mask."

The email dump also revealed that Fauci contrary to his many denials, was well aware of that gain of function research was going on on coronavirus.

In one email exchange between him and his deputy Hugh Auchincloss, Fauci wrote: "It is essential that we speak this AM. Keep your cell phone on. I have a conference call at 7:45 AM with Azar. It likely will be over at 8:45 AM. Read this paper as well as the e-mail that I will forward to you now. You will have tasks today that must be done."

Auchincloss wrote in a reply to Fauci: "The paper you sent me says the experiments were performed before the gain of function pause but have since been reviewed and approved by NIH. Not sure what that means since Emily is sure that no Coronavirus work has gone through the P3 framework. She will try to determine if we have any distant ties to this work abroad."

The emails also revealed that Fauci conspired with big tech to shutdown reports in conservative media outlets about possible Wuhan lab leak origins of the coronavirus.

EcoHealth, received millions in grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), including a $600,000 grant from Fauci's agency, the NIAID that it later paid to the Wuhan Institute of Virology to study the risk that bat coronaviruses could infect humans. Peter Daszak is the president of EcoHealth.

In one email exchange, Daszak thanked Fauci for pouring cold water on the lab leak reports. Daszak was a member of a World Health Organization team that visited the Wuhan Institute of Virology as part of an investigation earlier this year into the virus' origins that's been widely panned as lacking transparency, even by the White House.

"I just wanted to say a personal thank you on behalf of our staff and collaborators, for publicly standing up and stating that the scientific evidence supports a natural origin for COVID-19 from a bat-to-human spillover, not a lab release from the Wuhan Institute of Virology," Daszak wrote in an email. Fauci replied: "Many thanks for your kind note."

Fauci had claimed in a briefing the previous evening that the virus was "totally consistent with a jump of a species from an animal to a human."

In another email, Fauci was warned as early as Jan. 31 by another infectious disease expert named Kristian G. Andersen about the possibility that the virus could have leaked from a lab and been artificially altered. Andersen said in an email to Fauci that when looking "really closely" at the COVID-19 virus, "some of the features (potentially) look engineered."

The revelations in the emails triggered calls for more investigation. Republican leaders -- including Senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul who have been raising concerns about the Wuhan lab leaks and gain of function research -- called for Fauci to be held accountable.

"It seems like he was very troubled early on that there was gain of function," Paul said on the Tom Roten Morning Show  Wednesday. "He's like ‘What, is gain of function still going on? I thought we paused it.' He seemed unclear about whether or not the gain-of-function research, how it got started again in Wuhan. And I think he was very concerned – although he doesn't say it in the email – concerned that he continued to fund it through NIH even though there weren't doing gain of function. This is the thing that once people know this, this is explosive – that he knew about the gain of function and he's trying to cover it u."

Following the email revelations, 'FauciEmail' and 'FireFauci' trended on social media.