President Joe Biden, despite being fully vaccinated against COVID-19, said he still wears a mask outdoors because it is “a patriotic responsibility.”
Even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidance Tuesday saying that those who are fully inoculated no longer have to wear masks when outside and not in large crowds, Biden has covered his face several times this week.
His mask was on Wednesday afternoon when he walked to a lectern on the White House’s North Lawn to announce the CDC’s new guidelines and his administration’s efforts to continue vaccinating more and more people.
A reporter asked following his remarks why, given the new guidance, he wore his face covering on the walk out, and the president indicated he did so as stagecraft to mark a milestone in the pandemic.
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“By watching me take it off and not put it back on until I get inside,” he replied, grinning behind his signature aviator sunglasses before leaving his mask tucked inside a blue folder and returning to the executive mansion sans mask.
Yet, when he and first lady Jill Biden walked across the South Lawn to board Marine One a day later for a trip to Georgia, both were masked. Later in the day, when they hit the stage at a drive-in rally in Duluth, Georgia, both wore masks. Jill Biden also has been fully vaccinated.
The Bidens were more than 6 feet from any rally attendee. On Wednesday, Biden said fully vaccinated people only need to cover their faces when in large crowds.
“Because of the extraordinary progress we’ve made in fighting this virus and the progress our scientists have made in learning about how it gets transmitted, earlier today, the CDC made an important announcement: Starting today, if you’re fully vaccinated and you’re outdoors, you need — and not in a big crowd — you no longer need to wear a mask,” he said.
“I want to be absolutely clear: If you’re in a crowd, like a stadium or at a conference or a concert, you still need to wear a mask, even if you’re outside,” the president added. “But beginning today, gathering with a group of friends in a park, going for a picnic, as long as you are vaccinated and outdoors, you can do it without a mask.”
During an interview taped on Thursday with NBC News, reporter Craig Melvin asked why he still wears the mask outdoors.
“The likelihood of my being outside and people not coming up to me is not very, very high,” Biden said in the interview, which aired Friday morning. “It’s a small precaution to take that has a profound impact. It’s a patriotic responsibility, for God’s sake.”
But not all people feel that way, with face coverings becoming ammunition for both the red and blue sides in the country’s culture wars.
Fox host Tucker Carlson used his highly rated program this week to urge his viewers to contact police and their local child protective services office if they see children wearing masks outdoors.
Why?
“As for forcing children to wear masks outside, that should be illegal,” Carlson said Monday night, his face expressing exasperation and anger. “Your response when you see children wearing masks as they play should be no different from your response to seeing someone beat a kid in Walmart. Call the police immediately. Contact child protective services. Keep calling until someone arrives.”
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That prompted Anthony Fauci, the chief medical adviser to Biden and darling of the Left, to say: “I think that’s self-evident that that’s bizarre. I don’t want to get into a back and forth with Tucker Carlson, but it’s almost self-evident.”
“You’re talking about child abuse, really?” Fauci said on CNN. “Come on.”
