Dr. Vin Gupta argued face coverings should be mandatory during the coronavirus pandemic.
The NBC News and MSNBC contributor and affiliate assistant professor with the University of Washington made his case on Monday while comparing breathing in the air of someone not wearing a mask to breathing in secondhand smoke and demanded that the government step in to enforce a mask policy.
“We should make masks mandatory in public. Just like we ban indoor smoking because, you know what? You shouldn’t have to breathe somebody else’s secondhand smoke. I shouldn’t have to breathe exhaled COVID-19 in somebody’s breath. Nobody should,” Gupta said on MSNBC.
“So, we should institute mandatory masks in public when you can’t guarantee social distancing. That means retail stores. That means public transportation, workplaces. That’s absolutely where we should be headed,” he added. “It makes no sense why we are not already there.”
Gupta highlighted the story of a father of eight in Michigan who was shot and killed after telling a woman she must wear a mask while he was working as a security guard at a Dollar General.
“A security guard at a retail outlet in Michigan died trying to encourage a customer to wear a mask. They shot him because they didn’t like the way in which it was trying to be enforced, that policy,” Gupta said.
“We need to not put the onus on security guards at local outlets to enforce this policy or to encourage Americans to abide by it. It’s in all in our best interests to wear masks. The evidence is overwhelming,” he said. “We just need governors to do their job.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued guidance advising people to wear face coverings in public. Some states and local governments have made masks mandatory while others, such as Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, have said such a law was “a bridge too far.”
