There is “no stigma” attached to wearing a mask in public, as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is declaring.

During an event in Kentucky on Wednesday, McConnell referred to social distancing guidelines when he said, “There’s no stigma attached to wearing a mask. There’s no stigma attached to staying six feet apart.”

The Kentucky lawmaker also declared that people have an “obligation” to others to wear a mask because they could be asymptomatic, meaning they have the coronavirus but are not showing any symptoms.

“That’s not too much to ask of a younger person,” McConnell later added about wearing a mask. “So to get through this next phase, as we ease back into normal, even if you’re in a low-risk category, do what we’re asking you to do for the good of others as we begin to move back to normal.”

“For anybody who cares what we think, to say what I said earlier which is: Just because you’re 21, it doesn’t mean you don’t have a responsibility to other people, even though your chances of having a problem are pretty slim. I think the more we can say that the better.”

Aside from the political world, actor Matthew McConaughey also touched on the topic of masks during a May 12 interview on Fox News.

“I think wearing a mask is not propaganda. I don’t think it’s partisanship or politics. I think a mask is all about our purpose right now,” McConaughey said, as IJR previously reported.

He also noted that the politics surrounding wearing a mask has “created a false divide, sort of two wars in America — an us versus them war and us versus the virus war.”

Advertisement

“If we try to fight both of those wars, we’re going to lose both of them, but if we try to fight the one against the virus, which is the one we should be fighting, then we’re going to beat it,” he added.

McConnell’s recent remarks come as the death toll due to the coronavirus passed the 100,000 mark in the U.S. There are more than 1,747,000 confirmed cases and over 490,000 known recoveries in the country, as of Thursday morning.