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WASHINGTON – The Biden White House plans to send masks directly to U.S. households, according to three people familiar with the talks, a move the Trump administration has explored but abandoned.
The Covid-19 response team is assessing the logistics of sending millions of face masks, but no decision has been made and the proposal has yet to reach President Joe Biden for final approval, said a White House official.
The idea has been raised in several meetings among top Biden health experts in recent days, especially as Biden continues to urge Americans to use masks as a primary defense against the spread of the coronavirus.
Biden called on all Americans to wear masks for the first 100 days of his tenure, and he signed several executive actions that require face masks to be worn on federal property and aboard public transit, measures the President Donald Trump has never passed.
It’s unclear when the masks would be released to the public, how many would be included per residence, and whether they would be disposable or cloth. It is not yet clear what the cost could be.
“There are a range of options on the table to help protect more Americans from coronavirus and encourage people to mask themselves, but no decision has been made,” White House press secretary said , Jen Psaki.
A decision memo has yet to follow the political process, a White House official said.
NBC News reported that Trump’s White House last year abandoned a plan to provide sheet masks to all American homes, choosing instead to send them to nonprofits and state agencies, instead. according to an internal email from a senior administration official at the time.
The Department of Health and Human Services signed $ 640 million contracts in May with a group of textile manufacturers to make masks as part of Project America Strong, according to federal purchasing records. The biggest contract went to Hanes, which manufactured 450 million masks in May and July.
Since April, public health experts have encouraged elected leaders to promote the wearing of masks. Trump was reluctant to do so, hardly ever sporting one in public. He defiantly removed a surgical mask when he returned to the White House from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he was hospitalized in October after his own diagnosis of Covid-19.
In contrast, Biden has always worn masks, sometimes doubling them even in the countryside. He has also decided to wear them inside the Oval Office and other spaces in the White House when it is not possible to socially distance yourself.
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Masks are a common and mandatory spectacle in the West Wing, another departure from the Trump administration. Psaki usually wears an N-95 mask on her way to the lectern for the daily briefing and quickly puts it back on once she’s finished the press conferences.
As vaccine distribution continues to expand, facial covers will likely be here to stay. The best doctors predict that Americans will have to wear them until the United States achieves herd immunity and maybe longer.
Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on Wednesday that the Biden administration was even wondering if people should mask themselves. He has indicated that he will wait for science to guide his recommendations, but said the key is to carry at least one.
“If you’re talking about a physical barrier and the CDC recommends it, you want at least two layers in the mask as a physical barrier, and you think maybe more of a physical barrier would be better, there’s nothing it’s wrong for people to wear two masks, ”Fauci said. “I often wear two masks myself.”
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