López Obrador said that the effect of the use of the mask “is not scientifically proven”; he defended his decision not to use it in spaces where he can maintain “healthy distance.”
MEXICO CITY (Times Media Mexico) – Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, said yesterday, July 25, 2020, that the effect of the use of the facemask “is not scientifically proven” and defended his decision not to use it in spaces where he can maintain “healthy distance.”
“I don’t want to get into a controversy about this issue, but if you consider that this helps, I would certainly do it. But it is not a matter that is scientifically proven,” he said at a press conference from Oaxaca, in the south of the country.
López Obrador only wears a mask on plane trips, where its use is mandatory, but he never wears a mask at public events or meetings in the National Palace, although many of his cabinet members wear them.
“Both Dr. Jorge Alcocer (Secretary of Health) and Dr. Hugo López-Gatell (Deputy Secretary of Health) have told me that I don’t need the mask if I keep my distance,” said AMLO.
“In places where it is necessary, where it is a norm, not to say obligatory, I put it on. On the plane, they ask for it, and I wear it,” he said.
The president recalled that since the beginning of the pandemic, which has caused 41,900 deaths and 370,700 patients in the country, he left the management in the hands of “specialists” since politicians are not “all-knowing” or “know-it-all.”
He said that the campaign designed against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in the country has been based on “healthy distance” and defended that he has always tried to maintain it, both in public events and in the meetings he holds at the National Palace with political leaders.
He also claimed that “the pandemic is losing strength little by little,” even though on Thursday, Mexico registered a new record in the daily registry of infections by confirming 8,438 new cases.
This same Thursday, during an inauguration at the Mexico City airport, he highlighted the image of López Obrador without a mask surrounded by politicians who did carry this element, among them the capital’s mayor, Claudia Sheinbaum.
Last Wednesday, the president publicly discredited his Treasury Secretary, Arturo Herrera, who had argued that the mask would serve for economic recovery since it allows the reopening of businesses and factories.
