ATLANTA (AP) – A top federal health official said Monday that he understood frustration with new mask requirements, but the country could overcome them if people accepted responsibility for combatting the coronavirus.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra was in Georgia as COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations in the state continued to rise amid a low vaccination rate.
“I can’t tell you the depth of frustration that Americans are feeling who’ve done everything they can, they’ve done it right, to know that now we’ve got to go back to wearing masks,” he said. “I don’t blame folks for asking why again on masks.”
But he added, “We have to hope that all Americans recognize it’s on us. We are responsible for not just our mothers and our families.”
He said the country could “beat” the mask requirement and spread of the delta variant of the virus, but it had to “do it together.”