MASKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN
The Lone Danger finally relents and gives face masks seal of approval
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has worn a face mask in public for the first time, finally yielding to the intense pressure to set a public health example as his country reported a record of 66,528 new COVID-19 cases in just a single day.
Mr Trump sported a dark mask featuring the presidential seal as he visited Walter Reed military hospital outside Washington to talk with wounded veterans.
The President strode past reporters and did not stop to speak to them about what had become a hotly anticipated moment — would he have a change of heart on a practice recommended by the government’s own medical experts, even as he resisted?
“I’ve never been against masks but I do believe they have a time and a place,” Mr Trump said as he left the White House.
News reports this week said aides practically begged the President to relent and wear a mask in public — and let himself be photographed — as coronavirus cases soared in some states and as Mr Trump trails Democrat Joe Biden badly in polls ahead of the November election.
Mr Trump has steadfastly defended his administration’s handling of the crisis, even though the US is the hardesthit country in the world.
The nation has recently recorded several days of more than 60,000 new cases, with Saturday setting a new record for 66,528 confirmed cases for a 24-hour period, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University.
The US has now recorded a total of 3,242,073 infections, the Baltimore-based university said in its latest data as of midday on Sunday (AEST).
The death toll now stands at 134,729, with 760 additional deaths counted, as states have been left to figure out on their own how to reopen without a clear and coherent strategy from the White House.
To wear a mask or not has become a sort of political fulcrum for the deeply divided nation. Conservatives who back Mr Trump often refuse to don one on the grounds it impinges on their freedom, while progressives tend to back the practice as a show of collective responsibility at a time of life-or-death crisis.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends people wear masks in public when they cannot engage in social distancing. But Mr Trump — at political rallies, media briefings and elsewhere — has repeatedly refused to wear a mask, even after staffers at the White House tested positive for the virus and as more aides, including Vice-President
Mike Pence, have taken to wearing them.
In May, Mr Trump even made fun of Mr Biden when his political opponent wore a mask in public, sharing a tweet that featured an unflattering photograph of the former vice-president in a black face covering.
The mask moment came as the President was criticised over his commutation of the prison sentence of longtime ally Roger Stone, who had been set to begin a 40-month prison term. The charges included tampering with a witness and obstructing the House investigation into whether the Trump campaign conspired with Russia to help him win the 2016 election.
Mitt Romney, the only Republican to vote to convict the President in his impeachment trial, described the decision as “unprecedented, historic corruption”.