Tuesday, during a live-streamed interview with Dr. Howard Bauchner, editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Medical Association, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield said President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence should wear masks to set an example for the public.
Redfield said, “The data is clearly there that masking works weather it’s a face covering, whether it’s a simple surgical mask or whether it’s obviously a mask used in a clinical setting.”
He continued, “I do think if we could get everybody to wear masks right now — I really do think over the next four, six, eight weeks, we could bring this epidemic until control.”
Commenting on Trump wearing a mask in public for the first time when visiting Walter Reed Hospital this past weekend, Redfield said, “Glad to see the president wear a mask this week and the vice president. Clearly, in their situation, they could easily justify that they don’t need to because of all the testing around them, and they know they’re not infected. But we need them to set the example, as you said, for other individuals. This is not a political issue.”
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