An about-face
President wears mask in public for first time since March start of pandemic
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump wore a mask during a visit to a military hospital Saturday, the first time the president has been seen in public with the type of facial covering recommended by health officials as a precaution against spreading or becoming infected by COVID-19.
Trump flew by helicopter to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, to meet wounded service members and health-care providers caring for COVID-19 patients. As he left the White House, he told reporters: “When you're in a hospital, especially ... I think it’s a great thing to wear a mask."
Trump was wearing a mask in Walter Reed's hallway as he began his visit. He was not wearing one when he stepped off the helicopter at the facility.
The president is a latecomer to wearing a mask during the pandemic, which has raged across the United States since March and infected more than 3.2 million and killed at least 134,000. Most prominent Republicans, including Vice President Mike Pence, endorsed wearing masks as the coronavirus gained ground this summer.
Republican governors have been moving toward requiring or encouraging the use of masks as the pandemic has grown more serious in some states in the South and West.
Trump, however, has declined to wear a mask at news conferences, coronavirus task force updates, rallies and other public events. People close to him have told the Associated Press that the president feared a mask would make him look weak and was concerned that it shifted focus to the public health crisis rather than economic recovery. They spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private matters.
Meanwhile, a member of the White House coronavirus task force said Sunday that "we have to have people wearing a mask in public. It's absolutely essential."
Brett Giroir, assistant secretary at the Health and Human Services Department, said it’s going to take “a lot of effort and everybody’s going to have to do their part’’ to combat the pandemic.
Giroir told ABC’S “This Week” that officials would like to see something like 90 percent of people wearing a mask in public in areas that are hot spots.
He said that “if we don’t have that, we will not get control of the virus.’’ Giroir also said there’s no downside to wearing a mask.
When Giroir was asked about whether states that are seeing a spike in cases should consider more stringent lockdowns, he said, “Everything should be on the table.”
And looking ahead, Giroir said it’s possible that the situation “could be worse in the fall” and he thinks that in the fall “we’re going to need tens of millions of more tests a month.” He also said there’s some data that people can get both the flu and COVID-19 at the same time and “that’s not really good.”
Trump has sent mixed signals about masks, acknowledging that they would be appropriate if worn in an indoor setting where people are close together. But he has accused reporters of wearing them to be politically correct and has retweeted messages making fun of Democratic rival Joe Biden for wearing a mask and implying that Biden looks weak.
Questions remain whether Trump will wear a mask with any regularity.
The wearing of masks has become another political dividing line, with Republicans more resistant to wearing them than Democrats. Few masks were seen at recent Trump campaign events in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Phoenix and South Dakota’s Mount Rushmore.
Before Saturday, the only time Trump has been known to wear a mask was during a private part of a tour of a Ford plant in Michigan.
A spokesman for the Biden campaign cast the president's action as too little, too late.
“Donald Trump spent months ignoring the advice of medical experts and politicizing wearing a mask, one of the most important things we can do to prevent the spread of the virus," spokesman Andrew Bates said in a released statement. “Rather than taking responsibility and leading, he wasted four months that Americans have been making sacrifices by stoking divisions and actively discouraging people from taking a very basic step to protect each other."
On its website, Walter Reed carries this recommendation: “Whenever you’re out in public, like at your local grocery store or pharmacy, where it’s difficult to maintain 6 feet of social distance, you should wear a cloth face covering.” The facility also notes that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends wearing cloth face coverings to slow the spread of the coronavirus.”