“Public health authorities define a significant exposure to Covid-19 as face-to-face contact within 6 feet with a patient with symptomatic Covid-19 that is sustained for at least a few minutes (and some say more than 10 minutes or even 30 minutes). The chance of catching Covid-19 from a passing interaction in a public space is therefore minimal.”

That same paragraph concludes with this sentence: “In many cases, the desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the pandemic.”

Kevin Dietsch / Pool via APDr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks during a House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis hearing on July 31, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Dietsch / Pool via AP)

Here we are, five months into the coronavirus pandemic. Five months into a raging fire that two weeks of shutdowns were supposed to save us from back in March, and the flames continue to rip through state after state, city after city.

Places that held the virus at bay early on are firmly in its grasp now. Some locales are seeing their second battle with this beast. The narrative from the experts is more fluid than that 5W-30 that keeps your car engine from locking up.

Don’t wear masks? Now everyone wear masks. Goggles … people should probably start wearing goggles. It might be necessary to wear masks in your own home. If we don’t get a vaccine soon, those experts may suggest everyone have a mask surgically attached to their face.

With each new restriction, politicians and bureaucrats tell us to trust the science, but the science keeps changing. Or does it?

On March 31, NBC News published an article titled “Do you need a mask? The science hasn’t changed, but public guidance might.”

NBC quoted the oft-stated official line “a mask does not help a healthy person avoid infection.” How many times have we heard, “My mask protects you; your mask protects me”?

But in this same article, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is quoted as saying the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may need to look at changing the guidance to recommend widespread mask use “as long as we’re absolutely certain we don’t take the masks away from who are health care providers who need them.”

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