To the Editor:

Re “Pence Flouts Face Mask Rule in Mayo Clinic Visit” (news article, April 29):

As both the well and the most vulnerable among us contract and succumb to Covid-19, we have to get ahead of this disease and not keep playing catch-up. It would be nice to have the White House lead by example. Instead, Mike Pence had the audacity to walk into the Mayo Clinic without a mask.

He gets tested regularly, he said. How fortunate for him. The rest of us don’t know if we could kill our family and friends and the cashier at the grocery store. Responsible Americans don’t go into grocery stores without face covering, and he goes into a hospital with sick people.

Denise Yaney

New York

To the Editor:

Vice President Mike Pence was wrong to flout the Mayo Clinic’s rule requiring face masks, regardless of his having tested negative. By doing so, he only encourages others to flout such rules. Of course, the question remains: Why did the Mayo Clinic allow him to enter without a face mask? Do you think you or I would have been allowed inside without one? Not on your life.