A presidential order would almost certainly face a legal challenge. But if elected, Joseph R. Biden Jr. would have other levers at his disposal to make mask wearing a cultural norm.
By: Sheryl Gay Stolberg | October 29, 2020 | New York Times
WASHINGTON — As the nation heads into what public health experts are calling a “dark winter” of coronavirus illness and death, public health experts are coalescing around Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s call for a “national mask mandate,” even as they concede such an effort would require much more than the stroke of a presidential pen…Read more here >>
Even so, any hint of a sweeping federal requirement would “go over like a lead balloon” and “divide and harden areas of the country in opposition,” said Joel White, a Republican strategist with expertise in health policy. Mr. White said the Trump administration’s policy of letting state and local leaders decide about masks was “a far better way to go.”