Jonathan LaPook: There’s a lot of confusion among people, and misinformation, surrounding face masks. Can you discuss that?

LaPook: You’re sure of it? Because people are listening really closely to this. | Fauci: …There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask. When you’re in the middle of an outbreak, wearing a mask might make people feel a little bit better and it might even block a droplet, but it’s not providing the perfect protection that people think that it is. And, often, there are unintended consequences — people keep fiddling with the mask and they keep touching their face. | LaPook: And can you get some schmutz, sort of staying inside there? | Fauci: Of course, of course. But, when you think masks, you should think of health care providers needing them and people who are ill. The people who, when you look at the films of foreign countries and you see 85% of the people wearing masks — that’s fine, that’s fine. I’m not against it. If you want to do it, that’s fine. | LaPook: But it can lead to a shortage of masks? | Fauci: Exactly, that’s the point. It could lead to a shortage of masks for the people who really need it. | Interview with Jon LaPook, chief medical correspondent for CBS News, CBS' 60 Minutes, 8 March 2020. As quoted in Outdated Fauci Video on Face Masks Shared Out of Context (May 19, 2020) by Saranac Hale Spencer, FactCheck.org