Anniversary: Anthony Fauci Appeared Maskless at Nationals Baseball Game, Contradicting Own Advice

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,
Alex Brandon/AP Photo

Dr. Anthony Fauci contradicted himself one year ago Friday at a Washington Nationals baseball game by not wearing a mask or social distancing during the throes of a global pandemic.

Fauci originally wore the mask to throw the first pitch before the game but decided to pull the mask down when he sat next to two people, not socially distanced, perhaps believing he was no longer on camera.

A photo shot by Associated Press photographer Alex Brandon captured Fauci smiling, his mouth and nose exposed, turning directly to his friend with his mouth open and teeth unveiled:

Just a month earlier, in June, Fauci claimed masks “can protect you a certain degree, not a hundred percent, in protecting you from getting infected from someone who, either is breathing, or coughing, or sneezing, or singing or whatever it is in which the droplets or the aerosols go out. So masks work.”

“The important thing is actually physical separation,” Fauci added.

But Fauci was not socially distanced or wearing a mask when he presumably thought he was not on camera watching the Nationals game against the New York Yankees.

Breitbart News reported in March 2020, Fauci said there was “no reason to be walking around with a mask” even though it “might make people feel a little bit better,” but he has since reversed his opinion in favor of frequent mask-wearing.

In July, however, “it became clear that the infection could be spread by asymptomatic carriers who don’t know they’re infected that made it very clear that we had to strongly recommend masks,” Fauci changed his mind.

“In the context of the time in which I said it, it was correct,” he reiterated.

The alterations of opinion from the leading expert in infectious diseases and his blatant disregard for his own rules soon garnered snickering from the peanut gallery.

“And there’s Dr. Anthony Fauci showing us all he knows exactly how well masks work!” wrote Alex Berenson, a former New York Times reporter. “Thanks for the lesson, doc”:

Jake Shields tweeted, “Good thing Fauci wears his mask and stays 6 feet apart”:

“Nothing screams ‘I’m a fraud!’ more than being against masks until your fans demanded them, lying about why you were originally against them, signaling your virtue by needlessly wearing 1 while throwing out 1st pitch (poorly & like a fame whore) & then doing THIS! #FauciTheFraud,” John Ziegler also tweeted:

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