Presidential candidate hasn’t laid out strategy to reduce avoidable virus-related deaths Los Angeles, CA – Joe Biden addressed voters in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, on Friday, devoting his remarks to the COVID-19 pandemic. He said, “Dr. Fauci called last week for a mask mandate. This isn’t a political statement. It’s a patriotic duty, for God’s sake.” Biden threw his support behind a national mask mandate in the second presidential debate. In August he publicly supported a second round of lockdowns for millions of fed-up Americans. Dr. Simone Gold, MD, JD, a board-certified emergency physician and founder of America’s Frontline Doctors who has successfully treated COVID-infected patients, today released the following statement in response: “Joe Biden’s unenforceable mask mandate is a distraction from proven treatments which could start curbing avoidable COVID-related infections and deaths immediately while helping those already infected recover more quickly. Biden’s mask rhetoric is political theater masquerading as a medical strategy. It is not a plan to stop the virus. “If Joe Biden wants the American people to trust him with a national response to the coronavirus he must do much more than mask-scolding. He needs to expand early treatment options and follow the advice of doctors on the front lines of this crisis instead of the public-health bureaucrats who continue to politicize medical science while millions of ordinary Americans suffer.”