White House coronavirus leader ‘lamented’ seeing people in NC without masks, Cohen says

Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, supports North Carolina’s new campaign on mask wearing, but “lamented” seeing people not wearing masks during her Wednesday visit, the state’s top health leader said Thursday.

Birx met with Dr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, and Gov. Roy Cooper in Raleigh. Cohen said Birx is visiting 30 states, with the meetings focused on cases at colleges and universities.

Cooper’s office provided a written summary after the meeting, which included a list of requests for federal funding and support as well as a timeline on vaccine plans. Birx supports North Carolina’s request for surge coronavirus testing on college campuses, Cohen said at a Thursday news conference.

But the state’s top priority remains prevention, Cohen said.

“We are simmering,” Cohen said. “We have a high level of viral spread, and we need to get that down, so we can make progress in opening other businesses. We can make progress on further easing of restrictions. We need leadership, and I think that this is an important moment for our leaders to recognize the importance of their own personal actions in this time.”

A White House coronavirus task force report dated Sunday and sent to the nation’s governors said North Carolina was in the “red zone” for new cases last week, with more than 100 new cases for every 100,000 people.

Cohen and Cooper considered state trends stable enough to enter Phase 2.5 Friday to allow gyms, museums, playgrounds and other attractions to open at limited capacity and with health safety measures.

Although North Carolina is in the red zone, Cohen said case rates are among the lowest in the region.

DHHS reported 1,222 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, for a total since March of 180,754.

Leaders asked to wear masks

Cohen said the state has plateaued at a “stubbornly high rate” but can make progress by loosening restrictions slowly, requiring masks and asking people to social distance.

The meeting summary said Cooper requested national leaders wear masks and social distance when visiting the state. Cohen said Thursday that the request is for candidates, surrogates and for people who attend events.

At a Trump campaign rally in Winston-Salem this week, people in the crowd were packed together. The GOP chairman in Forsyth County asked before the rally for Trump to wear a mask. Trump did not wear a mask, The Washington Post reported, and he mocked the state limit on crowd sizes.

“We know we’re in the middle of a pandemic,” Cohen said Thursday. “We know that COVID-19 is here in our communities. I would hope that our leaders would demonstrate and role model the kind of activities that we know slow the spread of the virus, whether there’s a mandate or not.”

Cohen was asked to respond Thursday to comments Trump made to The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward earlier this year about his knowledge of the gravity of the pandemic, and whether having that information would have affected North Carolina’s response to the pandemic.

In recordings of interviews, Trump is heard saying on Feb. 7 that the virus is “deadly stuff.” In a March 19 interview, Trump said he wanted to “play it down,” referring to the pandemic, because he didn’t want to cause a panic, The Washington Post reported.

Cohen said the state started preparing before the virus “even had a name.” She stressed that North Carolina took precautions early in the pandemic, allowing the state to fare better than the rest of the Southeast.

Birx wore a mask and socially distanced while in Raleigh, Cohen said.

“We talked about the need that when visitors come to our state, on either side of the aisle, whether it’s the candidates, their surrogates, and they’re bringing people together, we need to make sure that we continue to do our prevention efforts,” Cohen said.

This story was originally published September 10, 2020 at 2:35 PM.