Utah Gov. Spencer Cox addressed the media for an update on COVID-19 on August 31, 2021. Photo: screenshot, Facebook
SALT LAKE CITY — Gov. Spencer Cox is walking back comments he made this week doubting the effectiveness of masks.
“Masks are not as effective as most of the pro-mask crowd is arguing, they’re just not,” he said during Tuesday’s COVID-19 briefing.
On Friday he tweeted that what meant was that masks may not be as effective as the vaccine.
Despite efforts to clarify his position on the effectiveness of masks, the Governor’s comments angered some local doctors like University of Utah’s Chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Dr. Andy Pavia.
The governor said he was trying to use Tuesday’s conference to encourage both sides of the mask debate to keep perspective. He retweeted a statement earlier this week that said “Partisanship as an identity is tearing this country apart.”
The Utah Health Department today reported just over sixteen hundred new cases of COVID-19. For the first time since January, there are more than 500 people in Utah who are hospitalized with COVID-19.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention encourages everyone over the age of two to wear a mask in indoor public places.
COVID-19 coronavirus spreads person to person, similar to the common cold and the flu. So, to prevent it from spreading:
Utah’s Coronavirus Information
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Utah Coronavirus Information Line – 1-800-456-7707
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Commonly asked questions, World Health Organization