Trump Repeatedly Ridiculed Mask Wearing…
…Despite Encouragement From His Own Administration, Experts, Data and Examples From Other Countries
Just as President Trump finally encouraged mask-wearing for the first time, the United States reached 4 million coronavirus cases — far more infections than reported by any other country — and reported its second day in a row of 1,000+ deaths.
Things never had to be this way. And the fact that President Trump only now — after more than 143,000 fatalities and surging infections — has deigned to encourage masks, should strike Americans as little more than a slap in the face.
The President was told, for months, that masks could save lives but rather than encouraging their use, he ridiculed and discouraged them — despite what his White House Press Secretary says. This crisis is a failure of Trump’s own making, and despite his final-hour showmanship, Americans are continuing to pay the price of his incompetence.
Trump Has Ridiculed Mask-Wearing Since the Pandemic Began.
Even As President Trump Finally Encouraged Mask-Wearing On July 21, He Also Baselessly Told Reporters: “In Theory, You Don’t Need The Mask.”
- “Despite his insistence during his prepared remarks that American embrace widespread mask usage, during reporter questions, the president took a softer stance on them, saying without evidence: “In theory, you don’t need the mask,” but acknowledging that he was growing more comfortable with wearing them.” [NPR, 7/21/20]
As Recently As June 20, Trump Flouted CDC Guidelines And Did Not Require Mask Wearing During His Indoor Rally In Tulsa, Oklahoma.
- “Inside, virtually none of those assembled in front of the stage wore masks, and few throughout the rest of the arena had face covers. The few who did were vastly outnumbered by those who did not. ‘What we are seeing at this rally is a very overt denial’ that coronavirus still poses a health danger, Dr. Irwin Redlener, the director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University, said on MSNBC. ‘How bizarre has this gotten?’” [NBC News, 6/20/20]
On June 19, Trump Claimed Americans Were Wearing Facemasks Only To Signal Disapproval Of Him.
- “Mr. Trump said testing for Covid-19 was overrated and allowed for the possibility that some Americans wore facial coverings not as a preventive measure but as a way to signal disapproval of him. Many public-health experts say testing followed by quarantining sick individuals and their close contacts is crucial to contain the spread of the virus.” [Wall Street Journal, 7/19/20]
Trump Baselessly Claimed That Mask Wearing Was Contributing To Increased Infections Because People Touch Their Faces While Wearing Them.
- “The president said his bigger problem with masks was that many people fidget with the coverings, which he said made them more likely to be infected. The federal-government guidelines stipulate that wearing cloth face coverings helps slow the spread of Covid-19 and recommends washing hands before putting on the mask. ‘They put their finger on the mask, and they take them off, and then they start touching their eyes and touching their nose and their mouth,’ Mr. Trump said. ‘And then they don’t know how they caught it?’” [Wall Street Journal, 7/19/20]
Despite McEnany’s Claims That The President “Wore A Mask In May,” Trump Accused A Reporter On May 26 Of Only Wearing A Mask At The White House Because He Wanted To Be “Politically Correct.”
- “President Donald Trump suggested to a news reporter they were being ‘politically correct’ for wearing a face mask during a press conference at the Rose Garden of the White House on Tuesday afternoon. Trump, who was speaking about federal assistance for senior citizens with diabetes, was answering two questions from Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason. The president was asked about his remarks about former Vice President Joe Biden’s decision to wear a mask outside in public on Memorial Day weekend, and about Trump fueling a debunked conspiracy theory in recent days.” [Business Insider, 5/26/20]
On May 26, President Trump Even Mocked Vice President Joe Biden For Wearing A Mask In Public.
- “President Donald Trump on Monday shared a tweet mocking his presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential challenger, Joe Biden, for wearing a face mask during a public appearance for Memorial Day. ‘This might help explain why Trump doesn’t like to wear a mask in public. Biden today,’ said the message by Brit Hume, a Fox News political commentator, alongside a message of Biden wearing a black mask and sunglasses.” [Business Insider, 5/26/20]
Trump’s Refusal to Wear a Mask Persisted Despite Experts and Members of His Own Administration Making Clear That Masks Could Bring the Pandemic Under Control
CDC Director Robert Redfield: “If We Could Get Everybody To Wear A Mask Right Now, I Really Do Think Over the Next Four, Six, Eight Weeks, We Could Bring This Epidemic Under Control.”
- “‘The time is now,’ Redfield said during an interview with the Journal of the American Medical Association that was streamed live Tuesday. ‘If we could get everybody to wear a mask right now, I really do think over the next four, six, eight weeks, we could bring this epidemic under control.’” [Forbes, 7/14/20]
Dr. Anthony Fauci: “The Message Should Be, Wear A Mask, Period.”
- “The longtime head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases on Tuesday said he was ‘strongly in favor’ of mandating mask use amid a rise in COVID-19 cases in Alabama and around the nation. Speaking on a Facebook event with U.S. Sen. Doug Jones on Tuesday morning, Fauci said ordinances requiring mask use — like one instituted by Montgomery last month — sent a clear message about its importance in containing the outbreak. ‘If you say ‘it doesn’t matter whether you put it on or take it off,’ you’re giving a wrong, mixed signal,’ he said. ‘The message should be, Wear a mask, period.’” [Montgomery Advertiser, 7/7/20]
Dr. Christopher Murray, Director Of The IHME: “Those Who Refuse [To Wear Masks]” Are Putting Their Lives, Their Families, Their Friends… At Risk.”
- “‘People need to know that wearing masks can reduce transmission of the virus by as much as 50%, and those who refuse are putting their lives, their families, their friends and their communities at risk,’ Dr. Christopher Murray, director of the IHME, said in a statement, according to KIRO.” [Institute For Health Metrics And Evaluation, 6/24/20]
The Data Shows That Masks Are the Closest Things Americans Have to a Magic Bullet for Fighting the Virus
A Study Conducted At The University Of Washington Concluded That If 95 Percent Of Americans Wore Masks That Tens Of Thousands Of Lives Would Be Saved.
- “If nearly everyone wears masks in public, tens of thousands of lives could be saved during the coronavirus pandemic, an updated forecast from the University of Washington predicted. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation’s (IHME) model, which is often cited by the White House, predicted that more than 179,000 people in the U.S. will die from COVID-19 by Oct. 1, U.S. News reported. But the model also showed the number of deaths would fall to about 146,000 if 95% of the population wore masks in public, according to KIRO.” [News-Tribune, 6/24/20]
Other Researchers At The University Of Washington’s Institute For Health Metrics And Evaluation Conservatively Estimate That If 95 Percent Of People Wore Masks, Transmission Could Be Reduced By At Least 30 Percent…
- “[Ali] Mokdad and colleagues with the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation did what’s called a meta-analysis…. Their bottom-line estimate: If 95% of people wear cloth masks when they’re out and about interacting with other people, it reduces transmission by at least 30%. In other words, each infected person will go on to infect 30% fewer people. Mokdad stresses that this is a conservative finding. It uses the lower bound within the range of estimates. And it assumes all the masks are cloth rather than surgical masks or N95 respirators, which are even more effective.” [NPR, 7/23/20]
…Triggering Exponential Decay And Having Massive Cumulative Impact On A Community.
- “Yet even with a 30% reduction in transmission, the cumulative impact on a community can be massive. …If you curb the transmission rate by 30%, this means that instead of infecting 1.03 others, each infected person passes the virus on to only 0.72 others. So now 100 infected people go on to infect only 72 people. These 72 go on to infect just 52 people in the next cycle. By the seventh cycle, only 10 new people are infected, and only a total of 332 people have contracted the virus altogether. Essentially, instead of exponential growth you’ve triggered what’s called exponential decay.” [NPR, 7/23/20]
No New Coronavirus Cases Were Connected To Two Missouri Hairstylists Who Had Tested Positive And Saw 139 Clients While Wearing Face Coverings.
- “One went to work and saw clients for eight days, when she learned she had tested positive for Covid-19. Her colleague also developed symptoms, three days after her co-worker, and also kept working until she tested positive, two days after the first stylist. Together, they saw 139 clients, with appointments for haircuts, shaves, and perms lasting 15 to 45 minutes. Yet when the local health department identified and contacted the 139 clients, asking them to self-quarantine for 14 days and checking in daily about whether they had developed Covid-19 symptoms, not a single one (of the 104 who agreed to be interviewed) did. Of the 67 who consented to a swab test, every one tested negative. There was one other notable fact about the case: Both stylists and every client had worn a face covering.” [Stat, 7/14/20]
Massachusetts’ Largest Health Care System Saw Rates Of Infection Increase Exponentially Among Health Care Workers Until They Adopted A Masking Policy In Late March.
- “At the largest health care system in Massachusetts, Mass General Brigham, before administrators adopted a policy of universal masking for health care workers in late March, new Covid-19 infections in that population were increasing exponentially, from 0% to 21%, or 1.16% per day, on average, researchers reported in another JAMA paper published Tuesday. With everyone masked, the rate of Covid-19 in health care workers fell to 11.5% by late April, dropping 0.49% per day, on average.” [Stat, 7/14/20]
In Other Countries, Mask-Wearing Reduced Caseloads, Fatalities
In An Analysis Of 194 Countries, Those That Did Not Have Mask Policies Saw Per Capita Weekly Mortality Increase 54 Percent After Their First Confirmed Case, Compared To Only 8 Percent For Countries That Did.
- “In an unpublished analysis of 194 countries, those that did not recommend face masks saw per-capita Covid-19 mortality increase 54% every week after the first case appeared; in countries with masking policies, the weekly increase was only 8%.” [Stat, 7/14/20]
Shan Soe-Lin, Managing Director Of Pharos Global Health Advisors: “Countries With Very Strong Mask-Wearing Cultures Continue To Kick Our Butts.”
- “‘The strongest evidence is the real-life examples we see on really big population samples,’ says Shan Soe-Lin, managing director of Pharos Global Health Advisors, a nonprofit that advises governments and philanthropies. ‘Countries with very strong mask-wearing cultures continue to kick our butts.’ Take a look at Hong Kong, for example, says Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health epidemiologist Michael Mina. ‘Hong Kong is extraordinarily densely populated, but it really didn’t have any big outbreaks,’ he says. ‘And that’s probably, I think, more due to mask-wearing than exceptional contact tracing.’” [WBUR, 6/30/30]