MINNEAPOLIS _ Vice President Mike Pence returned to Minnesota Tuesday to highlight Mayo Clinic's coronavirus research and testing efforts, calling them a "whole of Minnesota approach."
But even as he praised Mayo's efforts to combat COVID-19, Pence ignored the clinic's request that all visitors don face masks to prevent transmission, including Gov. Tim Walz and others on the tour. In the face of growing commentary on television and social media, Mayo officials responded with a tweet as the tour was still underway:
"Mayo Clinic had informed @VP of the masking policy prior to his arrival today."
Pence's visit follows Walz's announced "moon shot" plan to partner with Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota to ramp up virus testing in the state. Mayo's national reference laboratory has already conducted 150,000 molecular diagnostic tests for COVID-19 nationwide.
Walz greeted Pence after Air Force Two landed at the Rochester airport shortly before noon. They were joined by the governor's daughter, Hope Linn, and U.S. Rep. Jim Hagedorn, a Republican who represents southern Minnesota.
At the first stop inside Mayo Clinic, Pence talked to Dr. Michael Joyner, who was with a Mayo Clinic employee who said he had recovered from a "mild" case of COVID-19 and decided to donate plasma for therapy treatment to help other patients with the virus. Pence thanked the employee and elbow bumped him on his way out to the next stop at the Mayo's lab.
Dr. Matthew J. Binnicker walked Pence through the Mayo Clinic lab and gave a brief overview of how the clinic developed its diagnostic testing and their partnership with the University of Minnesota to ramp up to testing "anyone who needs one" soon.
"The president and I often talk about a whole of America approach, this is a whole of Minnesota approach," Pence said after being briefed. Pence said they are "very excited" about the prospect of antibody testing, which tells doctors if a patient already had the virus and has since recovered.
Pence, leading the Trump administration's Coronavirus Task Force, cited Minnesota's "breakthrough" at a White House briefing last week as an example of state-level progress on testing.
The visit follows his trip in March to the 3M Innovation Center in Maplewood, where he described an "all hands on deck effort" to combat the spread of coronavirus.
Pence's two visits to Minnesota during the coronavirus pandemic have put a national focus on the state's leading-edge medical and biotechnology sectors even as the DFL governor navigates Trump's fraught relationship with other state governors.
Although President Donald Trump encouraged a recent anti-lockdown protest in Minnesota, he has refrained from attacking Walz directly and has praised the state's public health efforts. "We are working closely on getting him all he needs, and fast," Trump tweeted earlier this month. "Good things happening!"
While the visit was intended to reinforce the administration's commitment to fighting the coronavirus, Minnesota Democrats criticized Trump and Pence for what they said continues to be a broadly insufficient federal response to the pandemic, forcing Minnesota to compete against other states and countries for needed medical supplies.
State Rep. Tina Liebling, a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party whose district includes the Mayo Clinic campus, said Tuesday that the insufficient federal response is the chief reason for the need to move slowly in lifting stay-at-home orders in Minnesota and elsewhere.
"What we need is a massive, unified production of personal protective equipment," Liebling said. "That would go a long way to opening the economy. President Trump has said, 'Liberate Minnesota.' We say liberate testing, liberate planning and coordination, liberate personal protective equipment."
The campaign of former Vice President Joe Biden put out a statement characterizing the tour as an attempt to "paper over the Trump Administration's delayed, insufficient response to this pandemic by passing the buck to governors and posing for photos at the finish line."
