Former Trump Adviser: It Was a ‘Big Mistake’ Officials Did Not Advocate for Mask Wearing Earlier

Former Deputy National Security Adviser Matt Pottinger says health experts made a “big mistake” in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic by not encouraging Americans to wear face coverings and claiming they were not effective.

In an interview with CBS’ Margaret Brennan that aired on Sunday, Pottinger said officials “misjudged the nature” of the coronavirus “to think that it was like flu.”

“One of the mistakes that followed on from that was the misjudgment by public health officials in this country to not advocate for the widespread generalized use of face coverings,” Pottinger said.

He explained that health experts were “rightly” concerned that there would be shortages of face coverings because the bulk of the mask-making supply chains were in China. He claimed that Chinese officials were “not making it easy for us to get access to additional supplies.”

He said that not advocating for the use of face coverings was “understandable” due to the fears of shortages. 

However, he took issue with “a set of advice” from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that claimed that face coverings were not effective at preventing the spread of the virus for the “general public.”

“That was a big mistake,” he added.

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He argued, “The mask misstep cost us dearly. It was the one tool that was widely available… it was the one effective, widely available tool that we had in the arsenal to deal with this. It was a grave misstep.”

Early in the pandemic, the nation’s top infectious disease expert Dr. 👤Anthony Fauci