Sen. Rand Paul is kicked off YouTube for a week for making a false claim that cloth masks are ineffective in fighting Covid-19

U. S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. (Photo from Politico)

YouTube has suspended U.S. Sen. Rand Paul for a week because of a video in which he falsely claimed that masks are ineffective in fighting the coronavirus, a YoutTube spokesperson told CNN. The suspension was announced Tuesday, and came a week after he posted the three-and-a-half-minute video.

YouTube indicated to CNN that one example of the offending content in the video was the line: "Most of the masks you get over the counter don't work. They don't prevent infection."

YouTube also "removed a video of an interview the Kentucky Republican senator did on Newsmax," the Washington Examiner reports.

Paul criticized the suspension but called it "a badge of honor" in a tweet on Tuesday: "Leftwing cretins at YouTube banning me for 7 days for a video that quotes 2 peer-reviewed articles saying cloth masks don't work."

Masks do work to slow the spread of the virus by providing a barrier to stop the flow of respiratory droplets, which is how the virus is spread from person to person, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC also says it's important to mask correctly, over both the mouth and nose, with no gaps on the side, and the best cloth masks have multiple layers and no valves. 

The CDC has compiled the latest studies to show how masks reduce new coronavirus infections. In April, The New York Times broke down what scientists knew in a detailed article that concludes, "The accumulating research may be imperfect, and it’s still evolving, but the takeaway is simple. Right now, masks are necessary to slow the pandemic" and "Among public health experts, there is near-unanimous endorsement of universal mask mandates to shield people from the virus and slow the pandemic."