Chris Wallace urges people ‘wear the damn mask,’ follow the science on coronavirus

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Chris Wallace: My doctor told me to not get tested today, takes 5 days for COVID-19 to ‘load up’

Following President Trump's and first lady Melania Trump's positive coronavirus test results, "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace urged viewers to follow the science as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to hit the U.S.

Wallace, Tuesday night's moderator of the first presidential debate, said the Trump and Biden campaigns have politicized what should be a public health issue: wearing masks.

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"If I could say one thing to all of the people out there watching, forget the politics. This is a public safety health issue. The president of the United States is in the most secure bubble in the world in the sense that everybody who comes in contact with him has to take a test, and he still got it," Wallace said on "Outnumbered" Friday.

President Trump and first lady Melania Trump tested positive for the coronavirus Thursday night and are quarantining at the White House. Fox News' Chris Wallace noticed Melania Trump didn't wear a mask on stage at the end of the first presidential debate Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2020, in Cleveland, Ohio. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

"So wear the damn mask and follow the science," he said.

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Wallace, 72, pointed out that he and the two candidates, Trump, 74, and Biden, 77, were the only ones Tuesday night who were not supposed to wear a mask even though they are all in the "high-risk factor" group for the pandemic. However, he said the first family, including Melania Trump, did not wear masks.

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The "Fox News Sunday" host said his doctor told him to get tested on Monday to avoid getting a false-positive result because it can take five days for the virus to load up.

"The significance is if the president had a test yesterday and it tested positive, then I think he had the coronavirus during the debate," Wallace said, based on what his doctor told him.

Wallace said he is most concerned about Trump's health and safety.

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"We are all praying he is going to have a mild case and won't have anything more than the mild symptoms he is reporting and that he’ll get negative tests and be back at full strength and back in business and on the campaign trail within 10 days, which would be if everything goes well and he gets two negative tests," he said.

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With Vice President Mike Pence testing negative and Trump reporting that he is able to continue his duties remotely, Wallace said the government seems to be continuing just fine, but it will have a significant impact on the campaign.

"I think it's going to make the COVID virus and how the virus is being handled and how the president has dealt with it and how Joe Biden handled it, that puts it right to the top of the political agenda again and makes it a very important issue in this campaign," he said.