{"id":49890,"date":"2021-02-22T19:13:40","date_gmt":"2021-02-22T19:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=165464"},"modified":"2021-02-22T19:13:40","modified_gmt":"2021-02-22T19:13:40","slug":"wear-your-damn-masks-please-says-rep-pocan-after-nih-director-ties-politicization-to-tens-of-thousands-of-us-deaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/02\/22\/wear-your-damn-masks-please-says-rep-pocan-after-nih-director-ties-politicization-to-tens-of-thousands-of-us-deaths\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Wear Your Damn Masks, Please,’ Says Rep. Pocan After NIH Director Ties Politicization to ‘Tens of Thousands’ of US Deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As the U.S. death toll from the coronavirus pandemic approached the half-million mark, one of the nation’s top doctors on Sunday tied the politicization of mask-wearing\u2014for which former President Donald Trump and various other Republicans have been widely criticized\u2014to “tens of thousands” of deaths nationwide.<\/p>\n

“The evidence was pretty compelling by last March or April that uniform wearing of masks would reduce transmission of this disease. And yet, with a variety of messages through a variety of sources, mask-wearing became a statement about your political party or an invasion of your personal freedom,” National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins told<\/a> “Axios on HBO.”<\/p>\n

“A mask is nothing more than a life-saving medical device, and yet it got categorized in all sorts of other ways that were not factual, not scientific, and, frankly, dangerous,” he said. “And I think you could make a case that tens of thousands of people died as a result.” <\/p>\n

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