People in the White House are tested often. Up until yesterday, Trump and Pence were tested once per week. They are now changing to every day.
Peter Baker and Michael Crowley of the “Failing” New York Times ask a great question:
Two White House Coronavirus Cases Raise Question of if Anyone Is Really Safe
If it is so hard to maintain a healthy environment at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, then how can businesses across the country establish a safe space for their workers?
Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary tested positive for the virus on Friday, forcing a delay in the departure of Air Force Two while a half-dozen other members of his staff were taken off the plane for further testing. That came only a day after word that one of the president’s own military valets had been infected.
All of which raised an obvious question: If it is so hard to maintain a healthy environment at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the most famous office address in the world, where staff members are tested regularly, some as often as every day, then...
...how can businesses across the country without anywhere near as much access to the same resources establish a safe space for their workers?
“The virus is in the White House, any way you look at it,” said Juliette Kayyem, a former assistant secretary of homeland security under President Barack Obama. “Whether it’s contained or not, we will know soon enough. But the fact that a place — secured, with access to the best means to mitigate harm — is not able to stop the virus has the potential of undermining confidence in any capacity to defeat it.”
But is that even the right question?
Is the White House, which has “access to the best means to mitigate harm” actually USING those means? Besides testing, and some evidence now of tracing beginning, they are still not wearing masks, or practicing social distancing.
Testing negative is not 100% accurate. Some are carrying COVID-19 and don’t test positive until they start presenting with symptoms. That’s in addition to false-negatives.
Using the CDC-developed diagnostic test, a negative result means that the virus that causes COVID-19 was not found in the person’s sample.
In the early stages of infection, it is possible the virus will not be detected.
"A lot of my patients who have symptoms, who I clinically think have COVID-19, are testing negative,"
Dr. Alain Chaoui, head of Congenial Healthcare, a practice with 50,000 patients across five locations in Massachusetts, told The Boston Globe.
Senior White House officials are debating whether to implement a mandatory mask policy for officials working in the West Wing...
...after two close aides to President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence tested positive for the coronavirus.
The two aides – Trump’s valet and Pence’s spokeswoman, Katie Miller – both were “in the West Wing quite a bit,” and have forced senior staff reluctant to wear masks in the workplace to reconsider, one senior administration official told McClatchy.
“People who are closer to the president obviously need to be more closely observed,” the official said.
They are debating.
Over three months after the first confirmed case.
Their own CDC. TRUMP’S OWN GUIDELINES recommend social distancing and mask-wearing.
Or DO they?
And about that CDC………...Trump is keeping vital CDC safety information from businesses which are starting back up.
But the federal government has not detailed the best way to minimize risk, much less avoid more deaths. Even as it has experienced positive tests of its own,
the White House has so far blocked the release of a set of recommendations developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, deeming them overly prescriptive. As a result, businesses have been left to make their best guesses with lives on the line.
It’s easy to see why the White House is in the state that it is:
If there were pictures of White House staff and personnel walking around 6 feet apart, wearing masks, citizens might become alarmed.
Heaven forbid.
And Trump continues to “question” the accuracy of the death totals.
As well as this:
Trump says Covid-19 will 'go away without vaccine', expects US death toll to top 95,000
We’ll start “topping” 95,000 in about two weeks.
The last three days were:
The president, who is being tested daily, doesn’t think testing is all that important (this is from the Washington Post).
Neither Trump nor first lady Melania Trump wore face coverings to a wreath-laying ceremony at the World War II Memorial in Washington on Friday morning. Multiple World War II veterans also attended, all of whom are older and particularly vulnerable if infected.
When asked if Trump considered wearing a mask around the veterans to protect them, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said “they made the choice to come here” to be with the commander-in-chief on this “momentous day.”
Were they previously informed that their own President would be dangerously dismissive of such a simple precaution?
Trump’s Support Among Seniors Slides as Pandemic Grows More Political
The coronavirus and the Trump administration’s response to it have cost President Trump support from one of his most crucial constituencies: America’s seniors.
For years, Republicans and Mr. Trump have relied on older Americans, the United States’ largest voting bloc, to offset Democrats’ advantage with younger voters. But seniors are also the most vulnerable to the coronavirus, and the Trump campaign’s internal polls show his support among voters over age 65 softening to a concerning degree, people familiar with the numbers said.
A recent Morning Consult poll found that Mr. Trump’s approval rating on the handling of the coronavirus was lower with seniors than with any other group other than young voters. And
Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the presumptive Democratic nominee, in recent polls held a 10-point advantage among voters who are 65 and older.
A poll commissioned by the campaign showed a similar double-digit gap.
And I’ll leave you with this: