Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, on the debate over mask-wearing in this country:
Imagine you were an alien who landed on planet Earth, and you saw that our planet was afflicted by an infectious-disease and that masks were an effective way to prevent the spread. And yet, when you went around, you saw some people not wearing them and some people wearing them. And you tried to figure out why, and it turned out it was their political party. And you would scratch your head and think, “This is just not a planet that has much promise for the future” — if something that is so straightforward can somehow get twisted into decision-making that really makes no sense.