Biden implores state and local leaders to keep mask requirement in place.
CDC director concerned about rising numbers of infections across the U.S.
“Please, this is not politics. Reinstate the mandate if you let it down, and businesses should require masks as well. The failure to take this virus seriously is precisely what got us into this mess in the first place.” PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN
Washington — President Joe Biden on Monday implored leaders of state and local governments to continue requiring face coverings in public in an effort to curb coronavirus infections that are back on the rise across the country.
The president made the plea during his remarks Monday afternoon as more states, counties and cities are lifting their mask mandates and relaxing other restrictions.
“Please, this is not politics,” Biden said. “Reinstate the mandate if you let it down, and businesses should require masks as well. The failure to take this virus seriously is precisely what got us into this mess in the first place.”
Biden’s remarks came after the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an emotional warning about rising caseloads in the U.S., describing a feeling of “impending doom.”
“We have so much to look forward to, so much promise and potential of where we are and so much reason for hope,” Rochelle Walensky said during a White House news briefing, her voice breaking at times. “But right now, I’m scared.”
States ending mandates include Iowa, Mississippi and Texas, where a legal battle over local control of public health orders is playing out.
Seniors should get vaccinated
Biden also urged seniors who have not yet been vaccinated to get shots, announcing a new effort by the Department of Health and Human Services that will make “millions of dollars” available to provide assistance, including transportation, to the elderly and people with disabilities.
He said his administration is aware that there are people among those populations who want to be vaccinated but simply can’t get a ride to a site, citing what has emerged as a significant obstacle to inoculating communities of color.
“We cannot let transportation be a barrier to any senior getting a vaccination,” he said.
Biden said the funding would probably go to community groups already working to help people get their shots.
“Neighbors helping neighbors,” he said. “What a truly American effort.”
Biden responded with a simple “yes” when asked whether he thinks some states should pause their reopening efforts.
The president answered the question from Associated Press reporter Jonathan Lemire as he completed remarks warning Americans about the rising number of coronavirus cases even amid progress in vaccinations.
Hot spots emerging again
Hot spots have started to emerge in the United States, with some states seeing numbers creep up after weeks of declining counts. Some states are racing to reopen, and lifting mask mandates in the process, including in Mississippi and Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott boasted about opening “100%.”
During his remarks Monday, Biden said he would reiterate his call for every “governor, mayor and local leader to maintain and reinstate the mask mandate.”
He said that until the nation is “vaccinated, each of us has to do our part. We have an obligation, patriotic obligation. Wash your hands, stay socially distanced, wear a mask as recommended by the CDC, and get vaccinated. Get your friends and family vaccinated when you can help.”
He added: “Now’s not the time to let down, now’s not the time to celebrate.”
McConnell to GOP men: Get the shot
Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Monday that the only way to end the coronavirus pandemic is for everyone to get vaccinated, and he issued a special plea to reluctant Republican men.
“I can say as a Republican man, as soon as it was my turn, I took the vaccine. I would encourage all Republican men to do that,” McConnell told reporters after a visit to the Appalachian Regional Healthcare Hazard Clinic in Hazard, Ky.
McConnell, a polio survivor, said it was a “modern medical miracle” that three vaccines — from Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson — had been produced in less than a year and highlighted their efficacy. He urged everyone to get a vaccine.
“The only way this ends is with the vaccine,” McConnell said.
He was pressed about the resistance of some Americans to getting vaccinated, with surveys showing that members of the GOP are particularly wary. He said there was “no good argument” against vaccination.