VICE President Mike Pence blatantly violated the Mayo Clinic’s requirement of visitors wearing a face covering while visiting one of its testing center on Tuesday.
The leader of the White House coronavirus task force visited a Mayo Clinic lab in Minnesota as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to quickly ramp up testing for the virus.
The Mayo Clinic is partnering with the University of Minnesota to boost the state’s testing capacity,
Video footage of Pence noticeably not wearing a mask in compliance with the clinic’s rules quickly circulated around social media.
Since April 13, Mayo clinic has required all patients and visitors to wear a mask or other face covering as suggested in guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Mayo Clinic tweeted, but then deleted a message saying they “informed” the vice president on their mask policy prior to his visit.
Social media users slammed the vice president for not wearing a mask and criticized Mayo Clinic for not enforcing their face covering policy.
“Mayo clinic told Pence to wear mask during visit. He ignored the request. Do as I say, not as I do?” said Jim Truswell.
“Mayo Clinic. You should have refused him entry. He may be the VP…but he’s not above God or above hospital rules,” said Steve Adams.
“Who in the world do you think you ARE @Mike_Pence? I’m a doctor and I find it disrespectful to the staff and patients you just exposed,” wrote Merry De Leon.
Former presidential candidate and Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard also slammed Pence, saying he “thumbed his nose” at the clinic’s mask policy.
“They should have denied him entrance, and not kowtowed to his arrogance,” she tweeted Tuesday.
Following the wave of backlash, Pence avoided directly answering the question of why he didn’t wear a mask and instead cited regular testing of himself and those around him to defend his actions.
The vice president has frequently ignored his own task force’s guidelines on wearing a facial covering in public.
Pence notably wasn’t wearing a mask when greeting Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on his way to the Air Force Academy graduation ceremony on April 18.
As Pence flouts his task force and the CDC’s guidelines on rules, the US hit the grim milestone of one million coronavirus cases nationwide.
More than 56,000 Americans have died from the virus nationwide.
