Mike Pence visited Mayo Clinic patients without a mask even after the clinic told him he had to wear one

• Vice President Mike Pence violated the Mayo Clinic's policy on wearing face masks when he visited one of the clinic's facilities on Tuesday.
• Photo and video footage from his visit to one of the clinic's labs in Minneapolis showed Pence as one of the few people without a mask.
• The Mayo Clinic tweeted, and then deleted, a message saying that they had "informed" Pence of their policy requiring all visitors to wear face coverings beforehand.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Vice President Mike Pence expressly violated the Mayo Clinic's requirement that visitors wear face coverings while visiting a Mayo testing center in Minnesota on Tuesday.

Pence, the leader of the White House coronavirus task force, paid a visit to one of the clinic's labs in Minnesota. As the task force zeroes in on ramping up testing as quickly as possible, the Mayo Clinic is partnering with the University of Minnesota to increase the state's testing capacity.

But very quickly, video and photo footage of Pence noticeably not wearing a mask in accordance with the clinic's rules surfaced on social media. Since April 13, Mayo has required all patients and visitors to wear a mask or other face covering in accordance with guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

—Erick Fernandez (@ErickFernandez) April 28, 2020

The Mayo Clinic tweeted, but then deleted, a message stating that they "informed" Pence on their the masking policy prior to his visit. They also issued a virtually identical statement to Politico's Dan Diamond, explaining they had communicated the policy to Pence and his staff.

Throughout the coronavirus crisis, Pence has frequently disregarded his own task force and administration's guidance that all Americans wear face coverings in public.

Last week, The New York Times reported that Pence doesn't feel he needs to wear a mask because he has been tested and currently shows no symptoms. But as the outlet noted, Pence could still contract the highly contagious novel coronavirus even though he's previously tested negative.

"When the face-covering guidelines were developed, it was with the intention to not only protect yourself, but primarily to protect others from asymptomatic spread," Pence's spokeswoman Katie Miller told The Times. "Vice President Pence is negative for Covid-19 and is therefore not asymptomatic."

He notably did not wear a mask while greeting Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on his way to the Air Force Academy graduation ceremony on April 18. Polis sported a mask designed like the flag of Colorado.

—Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) April 28, 2020

Pence also didn't wear a mask during his April 22 visit to a General Electric factory producing ventilators in Wisconsin, despite being in close proximity to other people.

—Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) April 22, 2020

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