The administration of President Joe Biden is considering giving a face mask to everyone in America to help curb the spread of coronavirus, NBC News said Thursday to three sources familiar with the matter.
The White House’s COVID-19 Response Team is mulling methods of getting millions of masks directly to US households, a White House official said. They continued that there was no decision taken and no plan was put through the policy process that gives official approval to Biden.
The Trump administration had earlier rejected a similar proposal to offer 650 million face masks to Americans.
At several meetings in recent days, Biden’s top health experts have addressed the proposal, sources said. To help prevent the spread of COVID-19, Biden has repeatedly asked Americans to wear masks.
“There is a range of options on the table to help protect more Americans from the coronavirus and encourage people to mask up, but no decision has been made,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told NBC News.
It’s unclear what masks would really be made of, how much or when they will be sent to each household.
In December, Biden said he would ask Americans to wear masks for the first 100 days of his presidency to help reduce coronavirus cases.
On January 21, Biden signed an executive order requiring air travellers to wear masks while flying and on most types of mass transit.
He also signed an executive order the day before directing that mask-wearing guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) should be followed in and around the White House and on federal lands.
A very different approach to former President Donald Trump has been taken by Biden.
A plan by the US Postal Service to send millions of face masks to every household in the US in April was dumped by the Trump White House. “receiving masks might create concern or panic,” receiving masks might create concern or panic.
