With the cases of coronavirus rising to unacceptable levels and no vaccine readily available, there is a concern that a lot more people will become fatally infected by COVID-19. However, a health official says if former Vice President Joe Biden wins the presidential election, we would most likely see a face-covering mandate implemented, according to Yahoo Finance.
Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health, in an interview with Yahoo Finance Monday spoke about what a Biden presidency would mean for the current health crisis. He predicts Biden would bring about face mask mandates and have a greater investment in treatments and testing for the coronavirus.
“I think starting in January, you’re going to see a much bigger push towards testing, towards a national mask mandate,” Jha said.
The advancement to rely more on science leads Jha to believe that the Biden team would be more invested in vaccines and treatments than has been made to-date.
“What’s been interesting about the Trump response is for a few months at least…it was a lot of evidence-based approaches. In the last couple of months under Dr. [Scott] Atlas, it’s very much been a kind of ‘let it go and let people get infected and hope we get to immunity,’” Jha said.
The Baltimore Sun has reported that many health officials, notably, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease specialist, and Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration under President Donald Trump, have suggested that a national mandate on masks should be considered to stop the spread of the virus.
On Biden’s website, it states he would “implement mask mandates nationwide by working with governors and mayors and by asking the American people to do what they do best: step up in a time of crisis.
“Experts say that if 95% of Americans wear masks between now and December, we can save almost 70,000 lives.”