TOPLINE
The Infectious Diseases Society of America and the HIV Medicine Association sent a letter to Vice President Mike Pence Wednesday calling for a national strategy on face masks—including a federal directive requiring mask-wearing mandates in all states—saying that “unified national action is again urgently needed to save lives.”
Vice President Mike Pence wears a mask as he departs the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch ... [+]
KEY FACTS
The organizations, which collectively represent more than 12,000 infectious disease and HIV experts, physicians and health professionals, request a “strong federal directive calling for mask requirements in all states,” and to “launch a public education campaign about the importance of wearing masks.”
The letter also specifically asks for the federal government to require individuals in the White House complex to wear masks and “lead by the power of example”, though masks are currently not required in the complex.
The letter also said that the U.S. has a “critical window of time” to bring down its cases of Covid-19 before influenza season starts, at which point “it is likely that hospitals will become overwhelmed and lives will be lost due to a shortage of ICU beds, ventilators and other essential equipment.”
The letter points to research from Goldman Sachs that projects expanding mask-wearing by 15% would prevent having to implement further stay-at-home orders that would cost an estimated $1 trillion.
Face masks are “integral” to a “broader national strategy” on Covid-19, the letter notes, which should also include measures like “increasing testing capacity and its timeliness to bolster the impact of contact tracing,” widely available personal protective equipment and support for the “discovery, development and equitable distribution” of Covid-19 vaccines and therapeutics.
An NPR/Ipsos poll released Tuesday found that 67% of Americans want a national Covid-19 strategy and 76% support state laws requiring masks, but President Donald Trump has so far resisted calls for a national mask mandate and said only that his administration is currently “in the process of developing” a national strategy.
Key Background
Mask wearing has become a major source of partisan controversy despite their effectiveness, and a number of GOP governors—including in hard-hit states like Florida—have continued to resist calls to impose statewide mask-wearing mandates. Trump has made an effort to push mask-wearing in recent weeks after previously opposing it, however, calling the practice “patriotic” in a tweet and sending an email to Trump campaign supporters saying mask-wearing is something “we should all try to do when we are not able to be socially distanced from others.” Recent polls suggest that the vast majority of Americans—95% of adults, per a Morning Consult poll—are now at least sometimes wearing masks, though Democrats remain more likely than Republicans to wear them. The widespread mask-wearing is also proving to have a beneficial effect: Kansas Department of Health Secretary Dr. Lee Norman said at a press conference Wednesday that the state was specifically seeing improvement in counties that had mask-wearing mandates, while counties without the mandates have not seen their rates of test positivity decrease.
Further Reading
As COVID-19 Cases Approach 5 Million in U.S., Infectious Diseases Leaders Call on White House for Unified Action on Masks (Infectious Diseases Society of America)
Most Americans Think U.S. Is Handling Coronavirus Worse Than Other Countries—Despite Trump’s Claims (Forbes)
Nearly Three Out Of Four U.S. Voters Support Mask Mandate, Poll Finds (Forbes)
19 States Still Don’t Mandate Masks. 18 Are Run By Republican Governors. (Forbes)
