“And I disagree with the claim that if everyone wears a mask, it all goes away,” the president told Fox News presenter Chris Wallace in the interview, undermining messages from his own government experts.
Several months after a global pandemic that has infected 3.7 million Americans and killed more than 140,000 people in the U.S., the nation still lacks a unified approach to managing Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, including the use of facial coatings.
Cities, counties, and states are taking their own approaches to dealing with the resurgent virus that has devastated southern and western states at a record pace in recent weeks. In fact, the lack of a clear strategy is developing as both the entire nation and individual states set records for positive coronavirus cases and deaths amid pressure to completely reopen the economy ahead of the November election.
Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters on Monday that “we could take this epidemic to the ground” if everyone wore a face covering the next four to six weeks. In a editorial Published in the JAMA medical journal on Tuesday, Redfield and other CDC officials cited case studies claiming the effectiveness of facial covers.
“[T]The public needs consistent, clear, and engaging messages that standardize the masking of the community, “they wrote.” At this critical juncture when COVID-19 is re-emerging, widespread adoption of fabric coverings is a civic duty, a small sacrifice that depends on a highly effective low-tech solution that can help turn the tide favorably in national and global efforts against COVID-19. “
Trump, however, has provided inconsistent and mixed messages on the masks. The president called Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Surgeon General Jerome Adams for recommending the use of masks before the CDC recommended them in April.
“Everyone who says they don’t wear a mask suddenly everyone should wear a mask and, as you know, the masks also cause problems,” Trump said in the Fox News interview, which was recorded on Friday at the White House. That being said, I believe in masks. I think the masks are good. But I leave it to the governors.
Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, began his “Meet the Press” interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd on Sunday while wearing a mask.
“I’m going to take it off for this interview,” Collins said, noting that no one was within 10 feet of him. “But I did not want anyone to think that we take the masks as optional for people who want to protect themselves and the people around them.”
Collins called it “strange” that the masks had become a political problem.
“How could something as basic as a public health action, that we have very strong evidence, help, appear to be linked to the people’s political party?” I ask. “That virus is very cunning and stealthy, and our best chance is for all of us to get together and do the right thing, and stop fighting so much for the divide between different political perspectives, that it’s getting in the way.”
Twenty-eight states, and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, have mask mandates across the state, according to a ABC News Analysis. The list includes Arkansas and Colorado, whose governors sat down for a joint interview with Martha Raddatz on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.
Eight out of 10 Americans said they wear a mask all or most of the time, according to a Washington Post-ABC News Poll, including 66 percent of Republicans. And 60 percent of Americans disapprove of the president’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak. Only 38 percent approve.
Governor Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, a Republican, said he did not support a national mandate, but challenged “our national leadership” to lead by wearing masks. Trump wore a mask in public for the first time last week during a trip to the Walter Reed National Medical Center.
Hutchinson acknowledged that a state order “was not something I wanted to do,” but he acknowledged that “it is something everyone can do to ease the pressure on our hospitals, to give us hope to reduce those cases.”
Arkansas peaked in coronavirus cases on July 9. The state averaged nearly 700 cases daily over the past week, and more than 450 Covid-19 patients remain hospitalized, according to data from the health department.
“It is not popular. It is not something we want to do, ”Hutchinson said of the mask’s mandate. “It is not the first lever that we throw. But it’s one that, when the data says it’s necessary, we do it. “
Colorado Governor Jared Polis, a Democrat, agreed.
“There is no governor who runs for office or gets up every morning saying, ‘I want people to wear masks,'” he said. “And so, you know, Asa had concerns about it. Me too.”
But “the mask mandate was really an easy decision after looking at that data,” Polis said. “I think what is important for people to know is that this is not ideological. It is not partisan. It is based on science. Masks are a ticket to more freedom. It makes companies less likely to shut down. It makes people less likely to die. “
Representative Donna Shalala (Democrat of Florida), who served as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services under President Bill Clinton, told Raddatz that “the virus is out of control” in her district.
Florida was the 34th state in the country to issue a stay-at-home order, but one of the first states to start reopening. And despite avoiding the early outbreaks that some experts predicted, the state is now experiencing a full-blown emergency. Florida reported more than 12,500 cases on Saturday.
Governor Ron DeSantis, a Trump ally, suspended alcohol consumption in Florida bars. But he has said the state will not close again and opposed making the masks mandatory across the state.
Shalala on Sunday questioned those positions.
“We need to close in Florida,” he said. “We have asked the governor to do that. And we’ve even asked him to do the simplest thing, and that is requiring masks for everyone. He has not done that. Fortunately, our mayors in South Florida have done it. But that’s only a small part, because this disease doesn’t know what county or city it is in. “
Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine warned his state was referring to where Florida was a month ago.
“We are very, very concerned,” he said on “Meet the Press.” “However, it is not just about masks.”
DeWine said his administration would begin running television commercials to promote mask use and that more mask mandates could come at the county or even state level.
“We are at a crucial moment,” he said. “And this week, you may see many more counties under that mask requirement. So we certainly wouldn’t rule out going statewide. We are certainly seeing that. “
