'I Was Wrong': Former NJ Gov. Chris Christie On Wearing A Mask

ACROSS AMERICA — Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor and a longtime Donald Trump supporter, is airing a new public service announcement in which he urges Americans to wear masks. The Republican has expressed regret in not wearing one while at the White House prepping Trump for a debate earlier in the year.

"Lying in isolation in ICU for seven days, I thought of how wrong it was to not wear a mask at the White House," Christie said in the 30-second ad he first shared Thursday on Twitter.

Christie, who has asthma, is part of a group of people Trump interacts with regularly who came down with the virus after the president tested positive in October. He was also an attendee at a White House Rose Garden ceremony announcing Amy Coney Barrett's nomination to the Supreme Court, an event that has been dubbed a "superspreader" of the coronavirus.

The former governor was hospitalized just four days after prepping Trump for a debate, according to CNN. He told television news outlets Thursday he is lucky to be in good health now.

"I was wrong," he said back in October, and has taken it a step further with the PSA that's expected to air on Fox News Channel, Newsmax and SiriusXM Radio.

"If you don't do the right thing, we could all end up on the wrong side of history," Christie said.

The Latest

As the nation recorded yet another record number of COVID-19 deaths on Thursday, a second coronavirus vaccine is expected to receive emergency use authorization as early as Friday.

The approval of the vaccine by Moderna would come just a week after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave the green light to a similar vaccine by drugmaker Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.

Anticipating the authorization decision, Gen. Gustave Perna, who oversees Operation Warp Speed and the federal effort to distribute vaccines, said the government was preparing to ship almost 6 million doses of the Moderna vaccine to 3,285 locations in the first week after approval.

To show trust in the safety of the vaccine, Vice President Mike Pence on Friday received the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine on live television. In doing so, Pence became the highest-ranking U.S. official to receive the vaccine, during in a live-television event aimed at reassuring Americans the shot is safe.

During the broadcast, Pence celebrated the milestone as "a medical miracle" that could eventually contain the raging pandemic.

Second lady Karen Pence and Surgeon General Jerome Adams also received shots during the White House event in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

READ MORE: Pence, Wife Karen, Surgeon General All Get COVID-19 Vaccines

It was unclear Friday which would get the green light first — Moderna's vaccine or a new $900 billion COVID-19 relief package, over which congressional leaders are still struggling to agree.

The proposed aid would deliver additional "paycheck protection" subsidies to businesses, an additional $300 per week to the unemployed, and stimulus payments to most Americans, likely in the amount of $600.

Discussions on the long-delayed measure continued Friday as leaders from both parties made difficult compromises, mostly at the expense of Democrats.

Leaders also have said they will not adjourn for the year until an agreement is in.

Some states aren't waiting for the federal government to deliver relief.

In New Mexico, leaders stepped in to begin distributing one-time payments of $1,200 to each of the state's 130,000 unemployed residents. The payments are intended to help ease persistent economic hardship in the state, according to a New York Times report.

After reporting more than 50,000 new cases on two separate days this week, California has turned into the new epicenter of the crisis in the United States. The surge there is already overwhelming hospitals — statewide, California reported 3 percent availability of ICU beds on Thursday.

“I’ve seen more deaths in the last nine months in my ICU than I have in my entire 20-year career,” Amy Arlund, a nurse at Kaiser Permanente Fresno Medical Center, told the AP.

In many California counties, intensive care unit capacity is at less than 1 percent, and morgue space is also running out.

All but two states, Vermont and Hawaii, remain below the positivity rate deemed safe to reopen by the World Health Organization.

The total number of coronavirus cases in the United States topped 17 million on Thursday, just five days after the country surpassed 16 million. India is the only country that has more than half the number of cases reported in the U.S.

Newest Numbers

At least 3,406 new coronavirus deaths and 252,431 new daily cases were reported in the United States on Thursday, according to a Washington Post database. Over the past seven days, the United States has averaged more than 213,000 cases each day.

As of Friday, 48 states and Puerto Rico remained above the positive testing rate recommended by the World Health Organization to safely reopen. To safely reopen, the WHO recommends states remain at 5 percent or lower for at least 14 days.

More than 17.29 million people in the United States had tested positive for the coronavirus as of midday Friday, and more than 311,900 have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Stay up to date on the latest coronavirus news via The New York Times or Washington Post.

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