去年春天，美国邮政总局起草了一份计划，向美国人分发6.5亿个可重复使用的棉质口罩，每个家庭5个，以应对第一波的全球变暖冠状病毒根据一个监督小组获得的美国药典内部文件，这次爆发。
该草案是近10，000页美国药典文件之一交给美国监督以回应《信息自由法》的要求。公布的电子邮件、备忘录和法律信函说明了该机构在最初几周是如何努力应对这一流行病的，因为前线邮政工作人员担心他们的安全，高管们担心该机构的服务和资金受到干扰。
根据发布稿，该机构与卫生和公众服务部合作，将首先向新冠肺炎传播率高的地区发送口罩，包括路易斯安那州的奥尔良和杰弗逊教区;华盛顿金县;纽约;密歇根州韦恩县。
当时的邮政局长兼首席执行官梅根·布伦南(Megan J. Brennan)在准备好的新闻稿中说:“我们的组织特别适合承担这一历史性任务，为每个美国家庭提供面部覆盖物，以抗击新冠肺炎病毒。”。
白宫拒绝对该提议草案发表评论，将问题提交给卫生和公众服务部。
一名HHS发言人表示，在总共6.5亿个口罩中，约有6亿个是在“美国坚强计划”下交付的，这是“在限制新冠肺炎扩散的同时，重新开放美国经济的多管齐下方法的一部分。”
邮政服务的一名发言人没有回复寻求置评的消息。
安娜摇钱树/纽约时报，美联社泳池
2020年9月16日，在国会山，卫生与公众服务部部长助理布雷特·吉瑞尔、卫生与公众服务部部长助理罗伯特·卡德莱克以及疾病控制与预防中心主任罗伯特·雷德菲尔德博士在参议院拨款委员会关于劳动、卫生与公众服务部、教育部及相关机构的听证会上作证。
“白宫国内政策委员会和副总统办公室的一些人担心，接受口罩的家庭可能会引起担忧或恐慌，”一名政府官员对《华盛顿邮报》表示。
相反，特朗普政府在“项目:美国强大”下宣布的这项倡议是一项更有针对性的计划，向关键基础设施部门、公司和医疗保健、社区和宗教组织发送口罩。
根据其网站，该项目不再接受新的口罩申请，而是鼓励申请人在其他地方购买口罩或自己制作口罩。
唐纳德·特朗普总统8月12日表示，政府还将在秋季之前向学校发放1.2亿个口罩。
“邮政服务连接着美国的每一个人，总统本可以把它用于公共卫生，但他没有，”美国监督组织的执行董事奥斯汀·埃弗斯(Austin Evers)告诉美国广播公司新闻(ABC News)，他大声喊着特朗普。“向全国每个人提供基于科学的公共卫生工具的机会丧失了。”
乔治华盛顿大学公共卫生教授、巴尔的摩市前卫生专员莱娜·温博士告诉美国广播公司新闻，“向每个人分发口罩并不意味着人们一定会戴，但它确实传达了一个强烈的信息，即戴口罩是公共卫生的当务之急。”
公共卫生专家批评特朗普未能在全国范围内积极推广口罩的广泛使用，以帮助阻止新型冠状病毒的传播。
虽然白宫声称特朗普支持戴口罩，但他最初淡化了自己戴口罩的必要性，并表示他无法想象戴着口罩坐在“坚决桌”后面。
大卫·保罗·莫里斯/彭博通过盖蒂图像
2020年8月17日，加利福尼亚州旧金山，一名戴着防护面具和面罩的美国邮政工作人员从收发箱中取出邮件。
直到7月份，他在沃尔特·里德国家军事医疗中心看望受伤的军人，并在推特上说戴口罩是“爱国”的，人们才看到他在公共场合戴口罩。
但他本周继续就这个问题发出含混不清的信息。疾病控制和预防中心主任罗伯特·雷德菲尔德周三告诉国会，口罩可能比新冠肺炎的疫苗提供更好的保护——将口罩的有效性研究与仍在开发中的疫苗的未知功效进行比较——特朗普告诉记者，雷德菲尔德的评论“犯了一个错误”。
“很多人认为口罩不好，”特朗普周二在美国广播公司新闻市政厅对尚未决定的选民说。
当被美国广播公司新闻的首席主播乔治·斯特凡诺普洛斯追问他的评论时，特朗普只说他从“服务员”那里听说过。
温告诉美国广播公司新闻，“我们的整个反应受到混合信息的阻碍”。“在这一点上，它远远超出了混合信息，我们谈论的是一个绝对破坏性的信息，违背了公共健康。”
USPS本身也在努力保持员工健康。在周四发布的一段视频中，邮政局长路易斯·德霍伊透露，迄今为止，已有超过11000名美国邮政员工感染了新冠肺炎病毒，其中87人已经死亡。
德约伊在6月份接管了这家陷入困境的机构，最近几个月，他受到了巨大的审查，此前夏季几个月，一系列削减成本的举措放缓了邮件递送服务。
国会民主党人指责德约伊是共和党的长期捐助者和特朗普的盟友，他故意放缓邮件服务，作为破坏即将到来的选举中缺席投票的努力的一部分。周四，华盛顿州的一名联邦法官下令美国邮政总局停止这些措施，据报道称公司的行为“有政治动机对邮政服务效率的攻击”。
Postal Service's plan to send 650M face masks to Americans allegedly nixed by White House
The United States Postal Service drafted plans to distribute 650 million reusable cotton face masks to Americans last spring -- five to every household -- as the country grappled with the first wave of thecoronavirusoutbreak, according to USPS internal documents obtained by a watchdog group.
The draft was among nearly 10,000 pages of USPS documentsturned over to American Oversightin response to a Freedom of Information Act request. The emails, memos and legal correspondence released illustrate how the agency struggled to address the pandemic in its earliest weeks, as front-line postal workers feared for their safety and executives worried about disruptions to the agency's service and funding.
According to the draft release,the agency, working with the Department of Health and Human Services, would first send masks to areas with high COVID-19 transmission rates at the time -- including Louisiana's Orleans and Jefferson parishes; King County, Washington; New York; and Wayne County, Michigan.
"Our organization is uniquely suited to undertake this historic mission of delivering face coverings to every American household in the fight against the COVID-19 virus," the then-postmaster general and CEO, Megan J. Brennan, said in the prepared release.
The White House declined to comment on the draft proposal, referring questions to the Department of Health and Human Services.
An HHS spokesperson said roughly 600 million of the total 650 million masks have been delivered under Project America Strong as "part of a multi-prong approach to re-opening the American economy while limiting the spread of COVID-19."
A spokesman for the Postal Service did not respond to a message seeking comment.
Adm. Brett Giroir, assistant secretary of Health and Human Services,, Robert Kadlec, assistant secretary of Health and Human Services for Preparedness and Response, and Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention testify at a hearing with the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, on Capitol Hill, Sept. 16, 2020.
"There was concern from some in the White House Domestic Policy Council and the office of the vice president that households receiving masks might create concern or panic," one administration official told The Washington Post about the proposal.
Instead, the initiative, announced by the Trump administration under the "Project: America Strong," was a more targeted program to send face masks to critical infrastructure sectors, companies and health care, community and religious organizations.
The program is no longer accepting new requests for face masks, according to its website, and instead encourages applicants to purchase face masks elsewhere or make their own.
President Donald Trumpsaid on Aug. 12 that the government would also send 120 million face masks to schools ahead of the fall.
"The Postal Service connects every single person in American, and the president could have used it for public health, but he didn't," Austin Evers, the executive director of American Oversight, told ABC News, calling out Trump. "An opportunity to deliver science-based public health tools to every person in the country was lost."
"Giving out masks to everyone doesn't mean that people will necessarily wear them, but it does send a strong message that mask wearing is a public health imperative," Dr. Leana Wen, a public health professor at George Washington University and former health commissioner of Baltimore, told ABC News.
Trump has been criticized by public health experts for failing to aggressively promote the widespread use of masks across the country to help stop the spread of the novel coronavirus.
While the White House claims Trump supports mask wearing, he initially downplayed needing to wear one himself, and said he couldn't imagine sitting behind the Resolute Desk with a mask on.
A U.S. Postal Service worker wearing a protective mask and face shield removes mail from a dropbox in San Francisco, Calif., Aug. 17, 2020.
He wasn't seen wearing a mask in public until July, when he visited wounded service members at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, and tweeted that wearing a mask was "patriotic."
But he continued sending mixed messages on the subject this week. After the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director, Robert Redfield, told Congress on Wednesday that masks might offer better protection than a vaccine from COVID-19 -- comparing the research about the effectiveness of masks to the unknown efficacy of the vaccines still in development -- Trump told reporters Redfield "made a mistake" with his comments.
"A lot of people think that masks are not good," Trump said in an ABC News town hall with undecided voters on Tuesday.
When pressed on his comments by ABC News' chief anchor, George Stephanopoulos, Trump only said he had heard that from "waiters."
"Our entire response has been hampered by mixed messaging," Wen told ABC News. "At this point, it's way beyond mixed messaging, we're talking about an absolutely disruptive message that goes against public health."
USPS itself has also struggled to keep its workforce healthy. In a video released Thursday, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy revealed that more than 11,000 USPS employees have contracted COVID-19 to date -- and 87 of those infected have died.
DeJoy, who took control of the beleaguered agency in June, has come under immense scrutiny in recent months after a set of cost-cutting initiatives slowed mail delivery service during the summer months.
Congressional Democrats have accused DeJoy, who is a longtime Republican donor and Trump ally, of deliberately slowing mail service as part of an effort to undermine absentee voting in the upcoming election. On Thursday, a federal judge in Washington State ordered USPS to halt those measures, reportedly calling thecompany's actions "a politically motivatedattack on the efficiency of the Postal Service" ahead of the November election.
