So the smoking gun...
...Druffs perfectly sane conclusion...
"The bigger concern regarding Fauci seems to be actual corruption, but that's getting a bit lost in all of the "masks don't do much" talk.
Apparently Fauci panicked when he started receiving questions via e-mail in early 2020 about a possible Wuhan lab leak, because his organziation had been involved in funding some research there regarding getting ahead of animal-to-human viruses. He sent out e-mails to people shortly after that, naming the people involved in that study, and told someone that they "have an important task to do", and that they needed to have a phone call.
It appears Fauci was really concerned that the Chinese either turned that research into a bioweapon and accidentally allowed it to escape, or they simply weren't careful enough during legitimate research and allowed COVID to escape. Either way, he didn't want the word getting out about this "gain of function" research, which could make him and his department look bad (and even partially at fault), so he pushed the "it jumped naturally" narrative instead, despite likely not believing that.
So basically he lied to everyone for more than a year in order to protect his own ass and reputation.
Regarding the masking, it does seem now that he more was telling the truth at the beginning (that cloth masks aren't useful), and then did an about face once his fellow Democrats wanted to push the mask narrative.
This guy did a horrible job and was self-serving at a time when selflessness was needed.
FIRE HIM"
...what you're actually seeing in the email...
1. Link to a pdf of a study that was published in 2015 that literally everyone can read
2. Asking time for a phone call with Hugh Auchincloss, M.D, NIAID Principal Deputy Director
3. And that's about it. It appears that people talk with each other on the phone. How weird.
4. Oh and this was early February 2020. Really strange that there was something important to discuss back then. As we know from the future, nothing of interest happened globally after that. I can't see any reason why National health officials would have any essential things to do, besides an elaborate conspiracy to cover things that literally everyone could have seen for 5 years.