What Epidemiologists Make of the President’s New Stance on Mask Wearing
Progress is progress, even if it feels like too little too late
After months of downplaying the dangers of the coronavirus and not wearing a mask, President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that people should wear masks. “When you can, use a mask,” he said during a White House daily coronavirus briefing, the first one held since he canceled them in late April.
He claimed that he always supported wearing masks, even though that’s false: Over the course of the pandemic, he repeatedly claimed that mask wearing was voluntary, mocked Joe Biden for wearing one, and at one point even claimed masks were counterproductive. His example sent mixed signals to a public that was already getting inconsistent messaging about wearing masks from federal, state, and local officials, even though scientists and public health organizations made it abundantly clear that masks can help stop the spread of Covid-19. While data suggests two-thirds of Americans say they regularly wear a mask, there needs to be more consistent adoption. In many ways the mask debate has become political: Data from June shows conservative Republicans are among the least likely to say they have worn a mask all or most of the time in the past month, for example. Forty-nine percent say they’ve done so, compared…
