Breaking news: A mask!

President Donald Trump finally wore a face mask! In public! This development came more than three months after his own administration recommended that all Americans wear masks in situations where social distancing is not possible.

Granted, wearing one should have been a no-brainer, given that Trump was visiting Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, a facility full of vulnerable patients and front-line healthcare workers.

Trump’s decision to wear a mask came as the number of covid-19 cases is spiking in many states. On Saturday, there were nearly 63,000 new ones. The death toll since February has topped 131,000. Public opinion of the president’s handling of the crisis continues to decline, with only one-third approving of it in the latest ABC News-Ipsos poll, further endangering his re-election chances.

But Trump has reportedly told aides that he feared following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines would make him look weak and “unpresidential.” He mocked his poll-leading rival, presumptive Democratic nominee and former vice president Joe Biden, for wearing a mask that was nearly identical (minus the presidential seal) to the one that Trump finally put on Saturday.

Maybe some of his supporters will begin to understand that the virus has no ideology. Our smartest scientists are still learning about this disease, and their recommendations have evolved over the past months.

Eventually—and let’s hope it is soon—there will be a vaccine. But for now, sensible policies such as social distancing, frequent hand-washing and, yes, covering our faces are the best means we have for protecting ourselves and others.