Trump ignores his own scientists’ advice to wear face mask

DONALD TRUMP said he would ignore the advice of his own government scientists after they urged all Americans to wear masks in public.

The US president announced that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] was advising citizens to make cloth or fabric face coverings from materials in their homes, and to wear them for activities such as food shopping. It said surgical masks should be saved for healthcare workers.

Speaking at the White House, Mr Trump said: “So, with the masks, it’s going to be, really, a voluntary thing. You can do it. You don’t have to do it.

“I’m choosing not to do it, but some people may want to do it, and that’s OK. It may be good, probably will.”

Pressed on why he would not wear a face mask, he added: “Well, I just don’t want to wear one myself. I just don’t want to be … somehow sitting in the Oval Office behind that beautiful Resolute desk … wearing a face mask as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens, I don’t know.”

The CDC had previously only recommended masks for people who were sick, or caring for someone who was.

Mr Trump said the change in advice was because transmission from those without symptoms was playing a bigger role than previously understood.

Last night, Mr Trump said the US was probably entering its “toughest week” and added: “There will be a lot of death, unfortunately.” He said 1,000 military medical personnel were being sent to New York and that the government had ordered 180million masks, adding: “We need the masks. We don’t want other people getting them.”

Almost 8,000 people have died in the US with the number of confirmed cases nearing 300,000. That includes around 3,500 deaths in New York state, which has more than 110,000 cases.

Mr Trump said he would stop US companies from exporting masks, surgical gloves and other medical protective gear, although exceptions could be made to help Italy and Spain. 3M, a firm exporting masks to Canada and South America, said the move raised “significant humanitarian implications” and would lead other countries to retaliate.

Jared Kushner, Mr Trump’s son-inlaw and senior adviser, faced a backlash after stating that the dwindling Strategic National Stockpile of medical supplies was “our stockpile,” and “not supposed to be states’ stockpiles”.

New York received 1,000 ventilators from the Chinese government and Jack Ma and Joseph Tsai, the billionaire cofounders of the online marketplace Alibaba. The state of Oregon also sent 140.