MSNBC’s Dr. Vin Gupta: Make Masks Mandatory, ‘I Shouldn’t Have to Breathe Exhaled COVID-19’

Appearing Monday on MSNBC, network contributor Dr. Vin Gupta suggested that lawmakers should mandate mask usage to combat further spread of Chinese coronavirus, comparing the proposal to the ban on smoking inside public facilities.

A partial transcript is as follows: 

CRAIG MELVIN: Would requiring masks across the board help? Is that feasible?

DR. VIN GUPTA: I’m going to say this for the benefit of your family — I know you have young kids — for my family, and for all Americans, we should make masks mandatory in public, just like we ban indoor smoking, because you know what? You shouldn’t have to breathe somebody else’s secondhand smoke. I shouldn’t have to breathe exhaled COVID-19 in somebody’s breath. Nobody should. We should institute mandatory masks in public when you can’t guarantee social distancing. That means retail stores, public transportation, workplaces. That’s absolutely where we should be heading.

It makes no sense we’re not already there. People are flouting the rules. A security guard at a retail outlet in Michigan died trying to encourage a customer to wear a mask. They shot him because they didn’t like the way it was trying to be enforced, that policy. We need to not put the onus on security guards at local outlets to enforce this policy or to encourage Americans to abide by it. It’s all in our interests that we wear masks. The evidence is overwhelming. We just need governors to do their job.