Surgeon General begs Fox News viewers to wear a face mask and insists 'we are not trying to take away your freedoms'

• Surgeon General Jerome Adams begged Fox News' audience on Monday to wear face masks to help contain the spread of the coronavirus.
• "I'm pleading with your viewers, I'm begging you, please understand that we are not trying to take away your freedoms when we say wear a face covering," Adams said during a "Fox and Friends" interview.
• Adams stood by the president's opposition to a nationwide mask-wearing mandate, arguing that educating Americans about mask-wearing is more effective than enforcing an order.
• Trump insisted that he supports mask-wearing during a Sunday interview, but vaguely suggested that "masks cause problems too" and argued that health experts had sent mixed messages.

Surgeon General Jerome Adams begged Fox News' audience on Monday to wear face masks to help contain the spread of the coronavirus and to avoid thinking of the health measure as a violation of their rights.

Adams stressed that President Donald Trump has recently said he supports mask-wearing, despite his refusal to implement a federal mask mandate.

"I'm pleading with your viewers, I'm begging you, please understand that we are not trying to take away your freedoms when we say wear a face covering," Adams said during a "Fox and Friends" interview.

He went on, "We are not trying to take away your ability to go out when we say keep restaurant capacity under 50%. We are saying if we do these things, we can actually open and stay open. We can get back to school, to worship, to jobs. We can do this."

During a Fox News interview that aired on Sunday, the president insisted that he supports mask-wearing, but vaguely suggested that "masks cause problems too" and noted that federal health officials had sent the country mixed messages on mask-wearing.

Adams, infectious-disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, and other officials advising the federal government initially told Americans not to wear masks because they either weren't effective or were in short supply for medical professionals.

In early April, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began recommending that all Americans wear cloth face coverings in public places where they can't social distance. Adams said on Monday that the government changed its recommendations concerning masks when it discovered more about how the virus spreads.

Fauci recently said he doesn't regret advising Americans not to wear masks early in the pandemic because there was a severe shortage of personal protective equipment for health providers at the time.

Adams stood by the president's opposition to a nationwide mask-wearing mandate, arguing that educating Americans about mask-wearing is more effective than enforcing an order.

"I would rather help people understand why they should cooperate with wearing a mask and how they benefit from it versus simply saying we are going to force you to do it particularly sending in federal troops and using federal mechanism," he said.

During Sunday's interview, the president also disputed CDC director Robert Redfield's recent assertion that if all Americans consistently wore masks, "we could drive this epidemic to the ground" in four to six weeks.

"I don't agree with the statement that if everybody wear a mask everything disappears," Trump said.