In a July 2020 interview with The Washington Post, Fauci explained his conversion this way: "Back then, the critical issue was to save the masks for the people who really needed them, because it was felt that there was a shortage of masks. Also, we didn't realize at all the extent of asymptomatic spread." But "as the weeks and months [went] by," Fauci said, federal health officials realized "there wasn't a shortage of masks," especially given the availability of "plain cloth covering[s]." At the same time, "we fully realized that there were a lot of people who were asymptomatic who were spreading infection." Both of those explanations are suspect. While Fauci had previously mentioned that health care workers needed masks, he had also counterintuitively suggested that masks did not work. He especially dismissed the value of "the typical mask you buy in the drug store," which implied that DIY "cloth covering[s]" were even less useful. And while Fauci told the Post "we didn't realize at all the extent of asymptomatic spread," there was plenty of reason to worry about asymptomatic transmission well before he and the CDC changed their advice.