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A growing chorus of Republicans are pushing back against President Trump’s suggestion that wearing cloth masks to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus is a sign of personal weakness or political correctness. They include governors seeking to prevent a rebound in coronavirus cases and federal lawmakers who face tough reelection fights this fall, as national polling shows lopsided support for wearing masks in public. (Scherer, 5/27)

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday made an extensive pitch for Americans to don face masks as a means to begin returning the country to normalcy while the coronavirus remains a threat. “There’s no stigma attached to wearing a mask. There’s no stigma attached to staying six feet apart,” the Kentucky Republican said at an event back in his home state, referencing social distancing guidelines recommended to stem the transmission of the coronavirus. (Oprysko, 5/27)

Masks and other face coverings have become as necessary as your smartphone or wallet when leaving the house amid the coronavirus pandemic. But as people begin to ease back into public life, experts are warning that certain types of masks could actually be putting others at risk — and users should think twice before slipping them on. (Annear, 5/27)

Guidance on masks has shifted during the COVID-19 pandemic, with experts initially saying they were largely unnecessary before reversing course and advising people to don face coverings whenever they can’t practice social distancing. So what changed? An entry on the CDC website suggests the recommendation on masks evolved as researchers learned more about the potential for asymptomatic coronavirus carriers to unknowingly spread the disease to others. (Andersen, 5/27)

The Trump administration’s mishandling of key moments in the novel coronavirus outbreak has been well documented. Early travel restrictions from China and Europe were meant to buy time, but inaction or poor planning squandered much of the benefit. Delays in testing allowed the virus to spread across the country largely undetected. A shortage of personal protective equipment while cases surged overwhelmed hospitals and health-care workers. (Kelly and Samuels, 5/28)

Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious-disease expert, said hydroxychloroquine isn’t an effective treatment for Covid-19 and urged caution as Republicans and Democrats plan their conventions for later this summer. Dr. Fauci’s comments Wednesday about hydroxychloroquine echo the findings of recent studies and countered President Trump’s frequent efforts to tout the antimalarial drug as a promising treatment for Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. (Restuccia, 5/27)

He stopped short of calling for an outright ban of the drug, which President Trump said he was taking last week as a preventative measure after a top White House aide was diagnosed with the coronavirus. Fauci's comments come days after the Lancet published a 96,000-patient observational study that concluded that hydroxychloroquine had no effect on Covid-19 and may have even caused some harm. (Brennan, 5/27)