Over the past few weeks, there have been countless examples of people getting their elastic in a twist over simple orders to wear a face mask during a raging pandemic. Usually, those people aren’t qualified doctors. But Ronny Jackson, the former physician to President Trump who is now a Republican congressional candidate in Texas, said Wednesday that Americans shouldn’t be forced to wear a mask if they don’t want to. Politico reports that, during a Fox & Friends appearance, Jackson said: “I think that wearing a mask is a personal choice, and I don’t particularly want my government telling me that I have to wear a mask. And so I think that’s a choice that I can make.” Almost all public-health experts have urged Americans to wear masks as the nation breaks records for new coronavirus cases. Even Greg Abbott, the Republican governor of Jackson’s home state of Texas, has mandated that most residents wear a mask there, where daily new case reports have topped 10,000.
