C.D.C. Recommends Wearing Masks in Public; Trump Says, ‘I’m Choosing Not to Do It’ (Published 2020)
Alabama became the 41st state to issue a stay-at-home order, and the attorney general expanded the pool of prisoners eligible for early release from federal prisons.
President Trump said at his daily White House briefing on Friday that the Centers for Disease Control recommended that Americans use basic "non-medical, cloth" masks on a voluntary basis.
"You can do it. You don't have to do it. I'm choosing not to do it," Mr. Trump said. "It's only a recommendation."
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Top officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had been pushing for President Trump to advise everyone — even people who appear to be healthy — to wear a mask when shopping at the grocery store or in other public places.
But some White House officials resisted, according to a top C.D.C. official who has seen emails from people in the West Wing. The official said that people around Mr. Trump pressed him to limit the mask-wearing guidance only to people in "areas of widespread transmission."
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The issue took on greater public urgency this week, when officials said that as many as a quarter of those already infected may show no symptoms but still contribute to "significant" transmission.
At a W.H.O. briefing on Friday, Dr. Michael J. Ryan, executive director of the health emergency program, said that while the agency still recommended masks only for front line health workers and those who are sick or caring for the sick, "we can certainly see circumstances in which the use of masks, both homemade or cloth masks, at community level may help in an overall comprehensive response to this disease."
Official CDC Links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPx1yqvJgf4
Use of Cloth Face Coverings to Help Slow the Spread of COVID-19
COVID-19 and Your Health
Symptoms, testing, what to do if sick, daily activities, and more.
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