A nurse pushed back when a reporter asked President Donald Trump Wednesday why she and several other nurses gathered in the Oval Office during a press conference were not wearing masks or social distancing.
“We’re all COVID-19-free. We were all tested,” said the nurse, identified by ABC News as American Association of Nurse Practitioners President Sophia Turner.
The reporter had asked the president why the nurses who flanked him during the meeting were not keeping their distance.
“We are not socially distancing because we are all negative … and we wouldn’t do anything to harm our president, obviously,” the nurse said before adding that she works at a center in Louisiana and frequently gets tested.
The nurses were at the briefing to talk about the country’s supply of personal protective equipment, like masks.
The nurses said they have ample access to personal protective equipment, even after the Department of Homeland Security stated May 3 that the Chinese government lied to the World Health Organization about the significance of the pandemic to hoard personal protective equipment, among other medical supplies.
Some officials have been critical of people who do not wear face masks. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at a May 4 press conference that local officials should impose a “penalty” for “disrespectful” people not wearing masks.
“And by the way, you don’t wear a mask for yourself,” an unmasked Cuomo said during the conference. “You wear a mask to protect me. I wear a mask to protect you. We owe each other a certain amount of reasonableness and respect in society, and I owe you that level of respect, that if I’m sick, I should wear a mask.”
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