In an interview that aired Friday on NBC’s “Today,” President Joe Biden discussed his reasoning for wearing a mask despite being fully vaccinated.

Biden told NBC’s Craig Melvin that still wearing a mask is “a small precaution to take that has a profound impact.” He advised taking that precaution is “patriotic responsibility, for God’s sake.”

“A lot of folks excited that they can now shed these masks if they’ve been double vaccinated. Are you going to be one of these folks now? Are we no longer going to see the President of the United States outside with the mask on?” Melvin asked.

“Sure, sure,” Biden said. “I mean, but what I’m going to do, though, because the likelihood of my being able to do outside and people not come up to me is not … very high. So it’s like, look, you and I took our masks off when I came in because look at the distance we are. But if we were, in fact, sitting there talking to one another close, I’d have my mask on, and I bet you’d have a mask on, even though we’ve both been vaccinated.”

“And so, it’s a small precaution to take that has a profound impact. It’s a patriotic responsibility, for God’s sake. It’s making sure that your wife, your children, if, in fact, they haven’t been vaccinated, making sure that they’re not going to get sick,” he concluded.

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