Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), pushed back against President Donald Trump contradicting his remarks about the effectiveness of masks.
Shortly after the president’s press briefing on Wednesday, Redfield took to Twitter with remarks doubling down on his previous assertion despite the president insisting he was “confused” by the line of questioning during the Senate hearing.
“I 100% believe in the importance of vaccines and the importance in particular of a #COVID19 vaccine. A COVID-19 vaccine is the thing that will get Americans back to normal everyday life,” Redfield tweeted.
He continued, “The best defense we currently have against this virus are the important mitigation efforts of wearing a mask, washing your hands, social distancing and being careful about crowds. #COVID19“
The back and forth between Redfield and Trump centers on the statement the top infectious disease expert made under oath during the Senate Committee on Appropriations, as previously reported on IJR.
Redfield grabbed headlines when he said a face mask “is more guaranteed to protect me against COVID than when I take a COVID vaccine.”
When Trump was asked about Redfield’s remarks on the effectiveness of masks, he said, “It’s not more effective by any means than a vaccine.”
He continued, “And I called him about that. I believe that if you ask him, he would probably say that he didn’t understand the question.”
Despite Trump’s claims, Redfield has repeatedly appealed to the American public to embrace mask-wearing to decrease the spread of the coronavirus.
As of Thursday morning, there are more than 6.8 million coronavirus cases in the United States and a death toll over 201,000.