CNN’s Erin Burnett Points Out Rand Paul’s Blacklisted YouTube Mask Comments Mirrored Fauci

CNN’s Erin Burnett acknowledged Wednesday that Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-KY) banned YouTube commentary on masks was similar to commentary from medical professionals including Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Michael Osterholm.

Paul said in the weekend video that “most of the masks you get over the counter don’t work,” and quoted two peer-reviewed articles that questioned the value of wearing cloth masks.

“I will point out, Paul did say in the video — not the part that YouTube says they’re banning him for — but in the video, that he believes N95 masks do work,” Burnett noted in an evening segment with Scott Jennings and Paul Begala. “Other medical experts, including Dr. Osterholm, are now raising red flags about cloth masks.”

Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research at the University of Minnesota and a former adviser to President Joe Biden’s transition team, told CNN in an August 2 interview he believed “the face cloth coverings that people wear are not very effective in reducing any of the virus movement in or out.” Fauci, meanwhile, wrote in a February 2020 email that 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.”

“Back in early 2020, obviously, before the delta variant, Dr. Fauci did say in an email the typical mask you buy in the drugstore is not really effective in keeping out virus which is small enough to pass through the material,” Burnett added.

However, she postulated that YouTube might have banned Paul — who became the first senator to contract a confirmed case of Covid-19 in March 2020 — for his behavior rather than his message.

“There are possible reasons why YouTube would pick on Senator Paul and not on Dr. Osterholm, right?” Burnett said. “The primary one is that Senator Paul has flouted covid guidance frequently, right? Especially on masks. … He showed up for work while he waited for what ended up being a positive test result in March 2020 and used the Senate gym. He ended up having it. When he came back in May he refused to wear a mask, and that refusal has been on display with the senator again and again and again.”

Watch above via CNN.