President-Elect Biden Asks All Americans To Wear Masks To Fight National “Threat” Of COVID-19

From the Florida Phoenix:

By Laura Cassels

November 9, 2020

In a brief televised statement Monday, President-elect Joe Biden urged people across the country to wear face masks to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

As to Florida, that will be a tough sell. The state has never had a statewide mask mandate.

In fact, as of late September, there are no statewide coronavirus restrictions because Gov. Ron DeSantis lifted them and declared the state “reopened” for schools and business.

As a result, some municipalities in Florida repealed their local mask mandates because DeSantis blocked collection of fines to enforce them.

Biden, in one of his first top priorities, said in his address Monday that “a mask remains the most potent weapon against the virus.”

He asked “everyone,” no matter who they voted for, to wear a mask to save thousands of lives: “We are Americans and our country is under threat,” he said.

However, Biden also said, “It won’t be forever.”

He said “wearing a mask may seem like a small act” but such a simple act can yield enormous results. Infectious disease experts say that wearing a mask keeps the wearer, who may be infected and not even know it, from shedding the virus to others. It is only minimally effective at protecting the wearer from others.

Democrats have been calling for mask mandates and wider restrictions for months. But DeSantis has been resistant and now has rolled back the restrictions that temporarily were in place.

more to come…

This story was originally published by the Florida Phoenix. For more stories from the Florida Phoenix, visit FloridaPhoenix.com.