No, this isn’t a video of someone wearing a Fauci mask

Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser for COVID-19, has encouraged Americans to wear face masks to slow the spread of the disease. But a video that’s being shared on social media makes an unfounded claim about another kind of mask.

In a video clip of Fauci on the show "Meet the Press," a woman filming the footage can be heard exclaiming and zooming in on Fauci’s neck where it meets his shirt collar. 

"It’s the bottom of a mask," someone else can be heard saying in the background.

One account sharing the video suggested that perhaps it wasn’t a mask but computer generated imagery. There’s no evidence to support either allegation. 

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stated on November 19, 2024 in a Threads post

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hospitalized with “serious health issue.”

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The clip in the Facebook post is from a Feb. 28 appearance on "Meet the Press." Some social media users shared it on March 4, when people in the QAnon conspiracy theory community wrongly maintained that former President Donald Trump would be re-inaugurated. False claims that Fauci among others had already been arrested or executed for treason appeared on a Telegram channel connected to QAnon, the New York Times reported.

Fauci appeared on CNN that day. There is no evidence to support the claim that he has been arrested, much less executed. Fauci is 80 years old. And what some social media users are describing as a mask is simply the skin on his neck.

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