Live updates: CDC offers stronger endorsement of mask wearing as U.S. sets another record for infections

5 min readNov 11, 2020

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention took a stronger stance in favor of face masks on Tuesday, emphasizing that masks protect the people wearing them, rather than just those around them. The agency’s new guidance also notes that numerous studies have demonstrated the benefits of “universal masking policies.”

The nation’s top infectious-disease expert predicted Tuesday that the average American could have access to a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the first quarter of 2021.

“We’re talking probably by April, end of April, I would think,” Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN, adding that “these are just guesstimates.”

Fauci had previously told Congress that he believes that the United States could have enough doses of a vaccine to distribute to every American by April, but his comments this week came on the heels of the news that Pfizer’s experimental coronavirus vaccine is more than 90 percent effective and could receive emergency authorization by December.

Speaking to CNN’s Jake Tapper, Fauci urged Americans to “hang in there a bit longer” and not get complacent about social distancing and mask-wearing during the winter months. When a vaccine is rolled out, health-care workers will likely be first in line, with elderly people and those with underlying health conditions next to follow, he said. Other front line workers, like teachers and nursing home employees, may also be prioritized.

Though people who don’t meet any of those categories could have the option to walk into a pharmacy and get the vaccine as soon as April, Fauci also noted that “we have a lot of people in this country who may not want to get vaccinated right away.” Overcoming that skepticism and achieving widespread immunity could take months.

“It may take well into the second or third quarters to finally get people to be convinced to get vaccinated,” Fauci said.

For the past month or so, the number of people dying each day of the coronavirus pandemic has been creeping higher. This isn’t surprising, given that the number of new coronavirus cases has also been surging. But despite rhetoric offered by President Trump about a plunge in the deadliness of the virus, the link between new cases, hospitalizations and deaths has been consistent for months.

On Tuesday, the country recorded more than 135,000 new infections, according to data compiled by The Washington Post, reaching a seven-day average of nearly 121,000 new cases. In other words, since Election Day, about 850,000 new coronavirus cases have been detected, or 1 in 390 Americans.

The number of deaths had averaged more than 1,000 each day for the past week, with 1,400 dying Tuesday. According to data from the COVID Tracking Project, the country also hit a high, 62,000, in the number of people hospitalized with covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Seventeen states, mostly in the Midwest and the Plains, hit hospitalization highs.

President-elect Joe Biden intends to make the case that the coronavirus pandemic and the Affordable Care Act’s uncertain future drive home the importance of helping more Americans gain health insurance and the care they need.

The likelihood that the incoming president can persuade Congress to build upon the ACA — a core pledge during his campaign — depends in large part on whether Republicans or Democrats end up controlling a narrowly divided Senate.

Biden spoke Tuesday afternoon about his aspirations to “work quickly with the Congress to dramatically ramp up health care protections, get Americans universal coverage, lower health care costs as soon as humanly possible.

This is the dismal reality America faces as the coronavirus continues its unchecked surge around the country: In North Dakota, health-care workers with asymptomatic cases of the coronavirus will be allowed to keep working as the number of infected patients outstrips the staff members needed to care for them, the governor said this week.

In multiple states, hospital leaders warned that the current spike is straining resources and sidelining the very staffers needed to face growing numbers of sick people. From Maryland to Iowa, local officials have pleaded for tighter restrictions that might help slow the virus’s accelerating spread.

As a worrisome summer gives way to a harrowing fall, the nation’s surge of coronavirus cases shows no signs of easing. With little help and scant guidance from a Washington stuck in political limbo, some states and localities rushed to put in place new restrictions aimed at slowing the virus’s spread. Still, almost every metric appeared headed in an ominous direction.

Larry Hogan, the Republican governor of Maryland, on Tuesday said that the country needs to “move on” from the 2020 presidential election.

“I think most people realize that this election is over,” Hogan said during a press conference. “It’s really dangerous, I think, in the middle of this pandemic, this economic collapse, people dying across the country, to not know if we’re going to have a transition.”

When asked about President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede and begin the transfer of power to Democratic President-elect Joe Biden, Hogan said, “I think most people realize that this election is over.

“Is the old coronavirus taskforce going to be making decisions? Is the new one?” he asked rhetorically. “There’s no transition. How long is this going to go on with no seamless package getting done, with no additional virus relief… you know, It’s crazy. We’ve got to move on.”

Hogan also commented on Trump’s re-election campaign filing lawsuits in several states, alleging that thousands of votes were fraudulent. The Trump campaign has argued that illegal votes should be thrown out before the states certify their election results in December, potentially changing the election’s outcome in Trump’s favor.

“I think if the President and his team have real evidence of widespread voter fraud they should come forward with it,” Hogan said. “We have legal processes for a reason. They can be challenged, they have every right to do that.”

“This is the way it works in America,” Hogan said. “We cast the votes, we count the votes and we live with the results.”

Hogan claims to have been the first statewide Republican leader to congratulate President-elect Biden on his victory. He mentioned that other former Republican elected officials such as former President George W. Bush, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former congressman Rick Santorum had all congratulated the president-elect as well.

The Maryland governor said he considers Republican efforts to cast doubt on the election or delay the transfer of power to Biden as “a mistake.”

“I think it’s a mistake for the country, it’s a mistake for the Republican Party and, especially as we have the senate hanging in the balance in two runoff elections in Georgia, doing anything to tarnish the brand and … cost us votes is a pretty, pretty significant thing,” Hogan concluded.

Live updates: CDC offers stronger endorsement of mask wearing as U.S. sets another record for infections

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