FDA former commissioner says it is time for a national mask mandate as the US reports its second-highest day of new COVID-19 cases. The coronavirus pandemic shows no signs of slowing down in the county as massive gatherings continue to happen.
FDA wants mask mandate
According to The Wall Street Journal, Dr. Scott Gottlieb wrote that the mask mandate could be limited and temporary. Gottlieb wrote in an op-ed for the media outlet that a mandate can be expressly limited to the next two months. He added that it is easier to wear a mask in the winter than in the summer.
Gottlieb said that the inconvenience would allow the US to preserve health-care capacity and it can keep more businesses and schools open.
Gottlieb also wrote that the death rates in the country is expected to rise this winter and the government will have to make moves to help slow the spread of the virus. The stay-at-home orders from March and April did little to stop the spread as the public had started to gather in May.
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According to the data released on October 23, if 95% of Americans wore face masks in public, more than 100,000 lives could be saved in the country through February 2021.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN that if people are not wearing face masks, then the government should mandate it.
Gottlieb addressed the concern of the public about being fined if they fail to wear a face mask, and enforcing the mandate may lead to confrontations with the police, but she said it is not true.
Gottlieb wrote that states should not choose how to enforce the face mask mandate. The goal should be to make face masks a social and cultural norm and it should not be a political statement. He said that the only reason why wearing a face mask has become divisive is because it was politicized.
President Trump appointed Gottlieb as the FDA commissioner from May 2017 to May 2019. He is now at the American Enterprise Institute.
Rise in cases
On October 24, around 83,718 new COVID-19 cases were reported. It was just 39 cases short from topping the all-time record that was reported on October 23. National cases total more than 8.6 million and 225,212 people have now died due to COVID-19, according to the data from John Hopkins.
Gottlieb told Margaret Brennan on CBS's "Face the Nation" that America is at a dangerous tipping point. He said that the country is now entering the steep slope of the epidemic curve.
Family events and social gatherings that are done indoors is one of the reasons why the rates of the spread is so high. In Maryland, the governor stated that family gatherings were the main source of COVID-19 transmission in the state, it is followed by house parties.
In North Carolina, health officials had reported its highest daily case count on October 23 and said that the state continues to hold social and religious gatherings.
On October 25, the Florida Department of Health reported 2,385 additional coronavirus cases and 12 new resident deaths. The state has a total of 778, 636 COVID-19 cases statewide and 16,429 Floridian deaths, according to the data of the DOH.
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