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HEALTH-VIRUS-US-POLITICS
As virus rages in US, Trump finally wears a mask
BETHESDA, United States, July 12, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – US President
Donald Trump wore a face mask in public for the first time Saturday,
finally yielding to intense pressure to set a public health example as
the coronavirus rampages across America.
Trump had on a dark mask with the presidential seal as he walked
through the corridors of Walter Reed military hospital outside
Washington to meet wounded veterans.
Trump strode past reporters and did not stop to speak to them about
what had become a hotly anticipated moment — would he have a change
of heart on a practice recommended by the government’s own medical
experts?
“I’ve never been against masks but I do believe they have a time
and a place,” Trump said as he left the White House.
News reports this week said aides practically begged the president
to relent and wear a mask in public — and let himself be photographed
— as coronavirus cases soared in some states and as Trump trailed
Democrat Joe Biden badly in polls ahead of the November election.
Trump has steadfastly defended his administration’s handling of the
pandemic even though the United States is the hardest-hit country in
the world.
The country has recently seen several days of more than 60,000 new
cases, nearly 135,000 people have died and states have been left to
figure out on their own how to reopen without a clear and coherent
strategy from the White House.
– ‘Wasted four months’ –
To wear a mask or not has become a sort of political fulcrum for a
deeply divided America.
Conservatives who back Trump often refuse to don one on grounds it
impinges on their freedom, while progressives tend to back the
practice as a show of collective responsibility at a time of a
life-or-death crisis.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend people
wear masks in public when they cannot engage in social distancing.
But Trump — at political rallies, media briefings and elsewhere —
has repeatedly avoided wearing a mask, even after staffers at the
White House tested positive for the virus and as more aides, including
Vice President Mike Pence, have taken to wearing them.
In May, Trump even made fun of Biden when the latter started
wearing a mask in public, sharing a tweet that featured an
unflattering photograph of the former vice president in a black face
covering.
The Biden campaign slammed Trump for not wearing a mask earlier.
“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,” Biden spokesman Andrew
Bates said in a statement, according to NBC News.
“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.”
Trump has reportedly told aides that wearing a mask would make him
look weak and he could not stomach the idea of letting the media
photograph him in one.
Even Saturday as he left the White House to head to Walter Reed,
Trump made it sound like he would wear a mask only because he would be
in a hospital — not that he had come around and embraced the idea of
donning one regularly.
“I think when you’re in a hospital, especially in that particular
setting, where you’re talking to a lot of soldiers and people that, in
some cases, just got off the operating tables, I think it’s a great
thing to wear a mask,” Trump told reporters.
BSS/AFP/MRU/1858hrs