A Republican senator from Oklahoma said he plans to wear a mask “most of the time” while attending President Trump’s rally in Tulsa.
“I’ll be wearing a mask most of the time. I’ll have it off some of the time,” Sen. James Lankford said in an interview with CBS News on Friday. “I assume that I’m going to have it on a lot of the time.”
Lankford said that he may have to take the mask off when he’s talking to others because the venue will be loud and because people may not be able to hear him.
There’s a growing consensus that crowded events, poorly ventilated areas, and places where people are loudly talking create an environment where the disease is more easily spread. Public health officials have urged mask-wearing and social distancing.
Tens of thousands of people are expected to attend the rally, the first Trump has held since the pandemic forced shutdowns in March. The venue, the BOK Center, can hold up to 20,000 people.
Rally attendees will be given a face mask and hand sanitizer, the campaign said on Monday, amid growing criticism that the event could cause a coronavirus outbreak. The Trump campaign also had those requesting tickets sign a waiver saying they wouldn’t sue if they get sick.
“This is a gathering, like protests, like other events, like shopping, like malls that are open, like a lot of other things. Obviously, there’s a lot of people that are there,” Lankford said. “We’ve seen numbers, as you just reported, coming up in Oklahoma, coming up in California, coming up in different places around the country. So, this is a situation where people that are high-risk have got to make sure they are taking care of themselves.”
