After 3.2M Confirmed COVID-19 Cases And 135K Deaths, Trump Finally Wears A Mask In Public

After months of refusing to mask up, the President of the United States has been photographed wearing a CDC-recommended face mask

Way back in April, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) — the county’s leading authority on all health-related matters — issued a recommendation that all Americans wear a cloth mask when out in public to prevent the spread of COVID-19. While much of the country obliged without a fuss, there were a number of people who refused to mask up for a variety of reasons, ranging from an overall denial of the severity of the virus to claims that it infringes upon their legal rights. The President of the United States, Donald Trump, is one of those who fall into this group. Since April, our country’s leader has stubbornly refused to wear a mask in public. However, after three months of mask-wearing by the rest of the country, POTUS has finally been photographed modeling a protective facial covering. Sadly, because this is 2020 and he is president, this is considered news.

On Saturday, Trump visited wounded service members at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and finally saw the need to protect the health of others.

“I think when you’re in a hospital, especially in that particular setting, where you’re talking to a lot of soldiers and people that, in some cases, just got off the operating tables, I think it’s a great thing to wear a mask,” he told reporters during the visit. “I’ve never been against masks, but I do believe they have a time and a place.”

OK, so this might be the second time Trump has covered up. In May, he briefly put one on during a tour of a Ford Motor company plant. However, during the public portion of the tour, he took it off because he “didn’t want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it.” In doing so, he violated the factory’s policy.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has been endorsing mask wearing from the get-go, on Sunday applauded Trump for finally doing something that the rest of us have been for months — in her own snarky way, of course.

“I’m so glad that he obeyed the rules of the Walter Reed. You can’t go see our veterans who are there without wearing a mask. Now, he’s crossed a bridge,” Pelosi told CNN‘s Dana Bash on State of The Union. “That’s an admission that if you’re going to see our soldiers, you have to wear a mask. If you’re going to be with our children, you have to wear a mask. If we want to stop the spread of the coronavirus, you have to wear a mask.”

“So hopefully by his example, he will change his attitude, which will be helpful in stopping the spread of the coronavirus,” Pelosi continued.

Dr. Peter Hotez, the Dean for the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, explained to CNN‘s Ana Cabrera during an interview on Newsroom Saturday the irony of it all.

“This should not be a lead story in the news,” he bluntly stated. “Back in February or March, it would have been the lead story, but not now. We are way past that. We have this terrible public health crisis right now. The fact that we are still discussing masks is ridiculous. We have to do so much more right now to help slow this terrible onslaught that we are facing from Covid-19. With a steep acceleration, we are going to hit 70,000 cases this week.”

Over on social media, Trump’s mask was a hot topic, with many pointing out that it was several months too late.

In case you still aren’t sold about the importance of masks, head over to the CDC’s website where they cite numerous studies supporting their effectiveness in reducing the spread of coronavirus, resulting in less people being killed by it.

Information about COVID-19 is rapidly changing, and Scary Mommy is committed to providing the most recent data in our coverage. With news being updated so frequently, some of the information in this story may have changed after publication. For this reason, we are encouraging readers to use online resources from local public health departments, the Centers for Disease Control, and the World Health Organization to remain as informed as possible.