United States President Donald Trump wore a mask during a visit to
a military hospital on Saturday, the first time the president has been seen in
public with the type of facial covering recommended by health officials as a
precaution against spreading or becoming infected by the novel coronavirus.
Trump
flew by helicopter to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in suburban
Washington to meet wounded service members and health care providers caring for
Covid-19 patients. As he left the White House, he told reporters: “When you’re
in a hospital, especially .... I think it’s a great thing to wear a mask.”
Trump
was wearing a mask in Walter Reed’s hallway as he began his visit. He was not
wearing one when he stepped off the helicopter at the facility.
The
president was a latecomer to wearing a mask during the pandemic, which has
raged across the US since March and infected more than 3.2 million and killed
at least 134,000. Most prominent Republicans, including Vice President Mike
Pence, endorsed wearing masks as the coronavirus gained ground this summer.
Republican governors have been moving toward requiring or encouraging the use
of masks as the pandemic has grown more serious in some states in the South and
West.
Trump, however, has declined to wear a mask at news conferences,
coronavirus task force updates, rallies and other public events. People close
to him have told that the president feared a mask would make him look weak
and was concerned that it shifted focus to the public health crisis rather than
the economic recovery. They spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private
matters.
While
not wearing one himself, Trump has sent mixed signals about masks,
acknowledging that they would be appropriate if worn in an indoor setting where
people were close together. But he has accused reporters of wearing them to be
politically correct and has retweeted messages making fun of Democratic rival
Joe Biden for wearing a mask and implying that Biden looks weak.Questions
remain whether Trump will wear a mask with any regularity.
The
wearing of masks became another political dividing line, with Republicans more
resistant to wearing them than Democrats. Few masks were seen at recent Trump
campaign events in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Phoenix and South Dakota’s Mount Rushmore.The
only time Trump has been known to wear a mask was during a private part of a
tour of a Ford plant in Michigan.A spokesman for the Biden campaign cast the
president’s action as too little, too late.
“Donald
Trump spent months ignoring the advice of medical experts and politicising
wearing a mask, one of the most important things we can do to prevent the
spread of the virus,” spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement. “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.”
On
its website, Walter Reed carries this recommendation: “Whenever you’re out in
public, like at your local grocery store or pharmacy, where it’s difficult to
maintain 6 feet of social distance, you should wear a cloth face covering.” The
facility also notes that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
recommends wearing cloth face coverings to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
