Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) Suspended By YouTube Over COVID-19 Mask Claims

YouTube suspended Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) for seven days on Tuesday night over a video where he claimed that cloth masks are ineffective against COVID-19. Paul said in the video that "most of the masks you get over the counter don’t work," but added that he has "always said" that N-95 masks work. The senator then pointed to how Dr. Fauci "knew that too," but originally "lied to the public" about N-95 masks being ineffective against COVID-19 so that enough health workers could buy them. "He justified his lies by explaining that he was trying to shape human behavior," Paul continued. The three-minute clip ended with Paul labeling YouTube's censorship as "very dangerous," adding that it can "stifle debate and promotes group think where the truth is defined by people with a political agenda." A YouTube spokesperson told The Hill that they removed the senator's video because it violated their COVID-19 medical misinformation policy. The platform previously removed an eight-minute Newsmax interview from his channel where he said “there’s no value” in wearing masks. In other censorship news, Twitter suspended Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) for a week after claiming that COVID-19 vaccines are “failing.”

Right-leaning outlets were more likely to emphasize Paul's apprehension about the effectiveness of cloth masks specifically. On the other hand, left-leaning outlets were more likely to reiterate that the CDC and "countless" public health experts said that face masks can prevent the spread of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. UNSW Sydney, one of the two publications that Paul cited, released a study in 2020 that said cloth masks can be protective against infection but must be washed daily at high temperatures to be effective.