Dr. Birx said masks can help stop coronavirus spread in the home. A Fox host says he won't do it.

Dr. Deborah Birx recommended masks in the house if you may have been exposed outside the home. Will Cain said that he's “not ready to start wearing a mask around my family” before saying that he was being “somewhat light-hearted.”

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

From the November 30, 2020, edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends

STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): Dr. Birx said one thing over the weekend that I thought was kind of troubling but probably realistic, and she said if you traveled, or if you were with family outside of your normal bubble, just assume that you've got the coronavirus. And she suggested that people get a test within a week, if they were out and about and traveled this week. And if you're in your house around your family members, you should probably wear a mask so you don't infect your family. 

AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): Yeah, if you traveled, then you have to play by the rules. And we hope that everyone does, just to stay safe so that we don't infect other people.

...

WILL CAIN (GUEST CO-HOST): I will say this, Steve, I'm not ready to start wearing a mask around my family. I might be like a lot of Americans. I'm going to hold onto a little bit of this, I don't know what we'll call it, individual spirit. But I'm not going to be putting on a mask around my family on anyone's advice. 

DOOCY: I'm just reporting what the experts are saying.

CAIN: No, no, no.

DOOCY: If you -- because, Will, think about this. You go out and you're at grandma's house and you come home and Dr. Birx said if you have in your unit people who are over 65, you got to protect them. So you would hate to have somebody my age give it to somebody a little older or vice versa whereas they are just saying just be safe. 

...

CAIN: My point about the masks -- and this is going to tie into what's happening with businesses as well -- is somewhat light-hearted. Everyone is trying to be safe, to your point Steve.

DOOCY: Right.

CAIN: Absolutely. But what's going to happen for policymakers, at some point they're going to have to realize, Americans just are not going to follow guidance no matter how sensible it might be. There's just an individual spirit. There is just a willingness to take risks.

DOOCY: We don't like to be told what to do --

CAIN: Absolutely.

DOOCY -- But at the same time it's just one of those things. This is a crazy time in American history where we don't quite understand how easy it is to get.

White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Deborah Birx talked with Face The Nation yesterday:

MARGARET BRENNAN: What capacity is there to backstop overwhelmed hospitals?

DEBORAH BIRX: Well, so that is, obviously, all of our concerns and that's why we're really asking states and mayors to really test for impact and consider vaccinating for impact. We know who's at highest risk, making sure that all of those individuals are tested. We know people may have made mistakes over the hospi-- over the Thanksgiving time period. So if you're young and you gathered, you need to be tested about five to ten days later. But you need to assume that you're infected and not go near your grandparents and aunts and others without a mask. We're really asking families to even mask indoors if they chose to gather during Thanksgiving and others went across the country or even into the next state. And if you're over sixty-five or you have comorbidities and you gathered at Thanksgiving, if you develop any symptoms, you need to be tested immediately because we know that our therapeutics work best, both our antivirals and our monoclonal antibodies, work best very early in disease.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-Hm.

DEBORAH BIRX: So we're really asking governors and mayors to make testing more available so we can prevent people having to be hospitalized. But, obviously, we're deeply worried. We're over ninety thousand inpatients right now. If we have a surge two weeks on top of that, even when we are starting to see some improvement, I appreciate that you have mayor--

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah.

DEBORAH BIRX: --from Detroit on. They're really-- all these mayors are working to decrease their number of cases and getting to a plateau and now we could have a-- a fourth surge.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Are you asking-- I know you've been traveling the country. Are you asking governors to close the bars to keep schools open? Is that your advice?

DEBORAH BIRX: First, what we do know works is mask mandates, mask requirements. In states that did those or mayors or counties that did that, we can see a dir-- a really significant difference in not only cases, but hospitalizations and fatalities. And so starting with mask mandates and masking requirements absolutely key, followed by if you have high case numbers and you're seeing increased hospitalizations, the first thing you should do is close spaces where people cannot wear a mask.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-Hm.

DEBORAH BIRX: And we know where that is. That's bars and indoor restaurants. Reduce capacity if needed. You may have to even close them. We have seen that that works. That's what Arizona did. And that's where Arizona got control. Arizona is in the position that they need to be really considering this again because their case numbers are up where they were in the summer.