Donald Trump rules out national mandate requiring people to wear face masks

The United States President Donald Trump, who has been facing backlash over his handling of the deadly coronavirus pandemic, reportedly ruled out a national mandate requiring people to wear face masks. Despite the fact that the country has been reporting over 60,000 new infections daily, Trump, in an interview with an international media outlet, said that he wants people to have a ‘certain freedom’. He reportedly added that he ‘doesn’t agree’ with the statement that if everybody wears a mask, everything will suddenly disappear. 

Trump on previous occasions has repeatedly refused to wear a mask, however, he was recently seen donning a face covering. Trump, during his latest visit to see wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army hospital, was spotted wearing a dark-coloured mask. Later, speaking at a press briefing, he said, “I think when you are in the hospital, especially in a particular setting when you are talking to a lot of soldiers, people that in some cases just got off the operating table, I think it is a great thing to wear a mask." Doubling down on his decision, he said that had never been against masks but there is always a “time and a place”.

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‘Heartening’ to see Trump donning a mask 

While the Trump family pivoted on COVID-19 masks, the US President still refuses to make face-covering mandatory. Currently, the US has crossed 3.6 million cases and nearly 139,266 people have died, as per the latest tally by Johns Hopkins University. With the rapid spread of the deadly virus, Robert Redfield, the director of US’ Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said that the coronavirus cases in the country could be brought into control within four or eight weeks, only if Americans start wearing masks.

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Redfield's comments were published in an editorial by Journal of the American Medical Association which highlighted that infection rate in populations could be drastically reduced with masking. Encouraging people to wear face coverings he said, that the time was now to embrace masking.

Meanwhile, elaborating further the CDC chief also said that it was “heartening” to see more and more people wear masks.“I am glad to see the president and the vice president wear masks this weekend”. Highlighting that the leaders need to lead by example, he said that in Trump’s and Pence’s situation, they really did not need to wear masks as they were surrounded by testing, however, they were needed to do that o set an example.

(Image: AP) 

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