Claim: Dr. Anthony Fauci co-authored a paper that found masks caused most deaths during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. Though he did co-author a paper examining the role of bacterial pneumonia in deaths during the Spanish flu pandemic, the paper did not conclude that masks caused those infections. It is titled, "Predominant Role of Bacterial Pneumonia as a Cause of Death in Pandemic Influenza: Implications for Pandemic Influenza Preparedness." However, those studies examined contamination of the masks and did not prove that wearing them directly caused bacterial pneumonia. However, that figure does not represent the percentage of all pandemic deaths caused by bacterial pneumonia.