There’s some revisionist history being written so to clarify:

There was ZERO consensus in Feb/March that masks worked against coronavirus. Insofar as there was agreement it was that they DIDN’T work & SHOULDN’T be worn.

Don’t remember? Well the internet is forever.

THREAD

This started from a tweet from @jaketapper wishing @realDonaldTrump had urged people to wear masks back then.

In hindsight, that’s a good wish to have. But let’s not pretend that the media was urging mask adoption then.

Here’s @CNN in that timeframe.

@CNN’s top medical expert, @drsanjaygupta, struck a similar note on March 5th.

@jaketapper brought someone on his show, @TheLeadCNN, to echo this same concern on February 26th.

And CNN wasn’t alone. This was what most media outlets were reporting at the time.

Here’s @MSNBC.

@ABC was saying the same thing. With a special shoutout to @BilldeBlasio, who has handled this public health crisis worse than probably anyone in America.

This from @nytimes captures the sentiment at the time well.

Is this consensus? I sure don’t see it.

@NBCNews actually criticized @realDonaldTrump for ***focusing too much on masks*** on March 14th.

@washingtonpost, these from late February and early March.

These from @voxdotcom are from February 4th and 5th respectively. Not the same note we’re hitting today.

This, from @Newsweek on February 28th says not to get a mask and then **reiterates it to a skeptical audience three more times**

I am duty bound to ensure that @kurteichenwald is highlighted in these threads.

Ditto for @SethAbramson (this from April 13th).

All of this was based on what we knew at the time. Which wasn’t much. Even through March, @WHO was encouraging people not to wear masks if they were healthy. So was the Surgeon General and the CDC.

Here’s @thedailybeast on March 23rd, saying that masking is “not an evidence-based, scientifically sound approach.”

@USATODAY did the same thing, and even took a jab at @mattgaetz for wearing a mask.

All these were from the first week of March.

None of this is a defense of the Trump Administration’s response.

But we’ve got to be honest about what we knew when if we’re going to look back on this experience and learn from it.

The reality is, just a few short months ago, we didn’t know much.

And the responsibility to be judicious is more critical for journalists than for most - they’re the ones writing the history as we live it.

If instead of focusing on the truth they use it as an excuse to dunk on the president, we’ll all be worse off for it.