バイデン氏、マスク着用ガイドラインを一笑に付す　夫人がコロナ感染

【ワシントンＡＦＰ＝時事】ジョー・バイデン米大統領（８０）は今週、妻のジル夫人の新型コロナウイルス感染が発覚したにもかかわらずマスク着用を怠り、批判を浴びている。（写真は米ホワイトハウスで行った港湾労働者の労働協約に関する演説中、マスクを手に取るジョー・バイデン大統領）
　２０２４年大統領選で再選を目指すバイデン氏は、マスク着用ガイドラインを一笑に付すことで、パンデミック疲れを起こしている国民との距離を縮めようとしているかのようだ。
　バイデン氏は５日、ホワイトハウスで行われた８０代のベトナム戦争帰還兵の叙勲式で、受賞者の首に勲章をかける際にマスクを外した。
　４日にはジル夫人が新型コロナ検査で陽性と判明。叙勲式の数時間前には側近らが、大統領は人前での着用など、米国のマスク着用ガイドラインに従うと述べていた。
　バイデン氏は６日にも、港湾労働者の労働協約に関する演説の場に黒いマスクを振りかざして登場。
　冒頭のあいさつで「きょうも検査を受けたが、すべて異常なしだ。しかし、１０日ほどマスクを着けなければならないと言われ続けている」と述べた。さらに、にやりと笑いながら「でも、マスクを着けずにここに登場したことは彼らには言わないでほしい」と付け加えた。
　バイデン氏は米国のパンデミックからの回復をアピールしているが、ここ数週間の感染者数と入院患者数は増加している。
　カリーヌ・ジャンピエール大統領報道官は、バイデン氏の２０か国・地域（Ｇ２０）首脳会議（サミット）に出席する計画に変更はないと説明したが、他の首脳と対面する際にマスクを着用するかどうかは明らかにしなかった。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/09/07-16:42）

When Joe Biden was criticized this week for failing to mask up after his wife caught Covid, he didn't just put a brave face on it.
Rather, the 80-year-old US president did it again -- and then flaunted the fact that he was breaking the guidance.
And by laughing it off the Democrat, who is running for re-election in 2024, showed he was in touch with Americans who are fed up with the pandemic.
Biden first raised eyebrows on Tuesday by removing his mask while draping the Medal of Honor around the neck of an octogenarian Vietnam War veteran at the White House.
Just hours earlier aides had said he would obey US masking guidelines following his wife Jill's positive diagnosis on Monday, including wearing one around others.
But Biden went further on Wednesday, waving a black mask in the air as he sauntered in to deliver a speech on a dockworkers deal.
I've been tested again today, I?m clear across the board. But they keep telling me, because this has to be 10 days or something, I got to keep wearing it, Biden said in his opening remarks to a small audience.
Then he added with a grin: But don?t tell them I didn?t have it on when I walked in, alright?
The Democrat has hailed the country's recovery from the pandemic but the United States has been experiencing a rise in Covid cases and hospitalizations in recent weeks.
Biden -- who had Covid in 2022 -- is also due to fly to India this week for the G20 summit in New Delhi where he will come face to face with other world leaders.
- 'Hypocrisy' -
Criticism first came -- albeit largely from right-wing media -- after Biden took off his mask to give 81-year-old former army pilot Larry Taylor the Medal of Honor for saving four soldiers with a daring helicopter mission in 1968 in Vietnam.
The ceremony on Tuesday took place in a packed East Room of the White House, attended by dozens of people including Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Fox News accused Biden of hypocrisy for breaching the guidelines his own spokeswoman had said he would follow.
In the New York Post, TV host Piers Morgan said he had showed maskless disrespect, and branded him incomprehensibly insensitive for apparently leaving the medal ceremony early.
The White House faced a barrage of questions on Biden's mask at a daily briefing on Wednesday -- with the Ukraine war and US budget shutdown negotiations barely getting a mention.
Spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre defended the president, noting that Biden had again on Wednesday tested negative for Covid.
The president is doing all that he can of course, in consultation with his physician, and so he's keeping with the CDC (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidelines, she said.
The president removed his mask for the medal presentation to deliver incredibly powerful remarks about this captain, while his early departure was planned to minimize his close contact with attendees, she said.
Biden's G20 travel plans remained unchanged, she said, without revealing whether he would don his mask to meet other leaders.
But could Biden's bare-faced behavior also have been sending a message to Americans that the darkest days of the pandemic are over?
That's an important message for Biden too, whose approval ratings remain stubbornly low despite the US economy's strong recovery from Covid.
We are in a different phase, Jean-Pierre said. This is not new, people.