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Joe Biden has long been an advocate for the use of masks to stop the spread of COVID-19. It’s such an ingrained habit in the president-elect that he’s often seen sporting two at a time.
So why is the next POTUS doubling facial tissue?
The exact reasons why Biden wears two masks at once remain unclear, however the habit has been broken multiple times at key events and has been recorded by the US media.
In his first official outing since the US media hailed him as the next president, Biden was seen wearing a grim black mask on Veterans Day with a white surgical mask peeking out from below.
He also appeared to be duplicating his statements while speaking to reporters on election day, and has been photographed wearing a medical mask under a cloth version on the election campaign.
At the ABC News City Council debate in mid-October, he broached the issue when he said a president’s words are important when it comes to protecting yourself from COVID-19.
“When a president doesn’t wear a mask, or makes fun of people, like me, when I wore a mask for a long time, people say, well, it shouldn’t be that important,” he said on stage. .
“I think this is very important, for example, I came in here with this mask, but I have one of the N95 masks underneath. And I left it in the … dressing room.”
“If you listen to the CDC director, he stood up and said, you know, while we wait for a vaccine, and he held a mask, you wear this mask, you will save more lives. Between now and the end of the year than if we had a vaccine, than if we had a vaccine.
“Based on all the major studies from the University of Washington to Columbia, it is estimated that if we did in fact wear masks, we could save 100,000 lives between now and the end of the year.”
The US CDC notes that the SARS-CoV-2 infection commonly known as COVID-19 is “predominantly transmitted by respiratory droplets generated when people cough, sneeze, sing, speak or breathe.”
Recommend the use of masks in the community to avoid the transmission of the virus. They work by reducing the emission of droplets from a potential source that may not know they are infectious, which is estimated to account for about 50 percent of transmissions.
They have the secondary benefit of protecting the user by filtering what they inhale through their nose and mouth.
The World Health Organization also advises wearing masks along with social distancing, avoiding crowds, hand washing and other measures under its “do it all” approach to controlling the virus.
It states that those over 60 (Biden is 77 years old) are considered in a vulnerable group and should make sure to wear a medical or surgical mask rather than a simple cloth version.
It is not known whether Biden’s decision is due to great caution or the feeling that two are more protection than one, his team has not commented on the decision.
However, you may have already provided benefits after you did not need to self-quarantine after taking a charter flight with a person who later tested positive for the virus. The Democrat was not considered to be a close contact and wore his mask throughout the flight.
It may be that he didn’t want to risk having to self-quarantine in the final stages of a crucial campaign, which may have paid off given that many of the upper echelons of the Trump administration, including the president himself, were forced to isolate themselves. . after contracting COVID-19 possibly at a White House event.
Medical experts have told the American media that wearing two masks does not necessarily offer more protection when they are of the medical variety. In fact, it may require special care not to contaminate both.
However, it could help in the case of fabric masks where, generally speaking, “the more layers the better,” Tania Elliott, MD, an immunologist and allergist at NYU Langone Health, told SELF.
Either way, it appears that wearing masks could become more common in the US after the president-elect asked Americans to wear them to address the public health crisis that is still out of control.
“We could save tens of thousands of lives if everyone wore a mask over the next few months. Not Democratic or Republican lives. American lives,” he said.
“I beg you. Wear a mask. Do it for yourself. Do it for your neighbor. A mask is not a political statement.”
Transition website Biden-Harris states that his team plans to incorporate mask mandates nationally by working with governors and mayors across the country.
“President-elect Biden will continue to ask that all Americans wear a mask when around people outside their home,” the team said.