Coronavirus: It's inside the White House

[Addie]

There are a lot of news stories about this, so I thought a devoted thread would be good.

New York Times: ‘Scary to Go to Work’: White House Races to Contain Virus in Its Ranks

With two White House staff members testing positive, some officials fear the disease is already spreading rapidly through the West Wing.


WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is racing to contain an outbreak of Covid-19 inside the White House, as some senior officials believe that the disease is already spreading rapidly through the warren of cramped offices that make up the three floors of the West Wing.

Three top officials leading the government’s response effort began two weeks of self-quarantine after two members of the White House staff — Katie Miller, the spokeswoman for Vice President Mike Pence, and one of President Trump’s personal valets — tested positive. But others who came into contact with Ms. Miller and the valet are continuing to report to work at the White House.

“It is scary to go to work,” Kevin Hassett, a top economic adviser to the president, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” program on Sunday. Mr. Hassett said he wore a mask at times at the White House, but conceded that “I think that I’d be a lot safer if I was sitting at home than I would be going to the West Wing.”

He added: “It’s a small, crowded place. It’s, you know, it’s a little bit risky. But you have to do it because you have to serve your country.”

The discovery of the two infected employees has prompted the White House to ramp up its procedures to combat the coronavirus, including daily tests for some senior staff, increased usage of masks and more rigorous screening of people entering the complex.

Adding:

Vox: 3 coronavirus task force members will quarantine after being exposed to virus

The White House has seen at least two confirmed positive coronavirus tests in the past week.

CNN: Contagion within the White House would be catastrophic for our national security

[Sterngard Friegen]

Yabbut according to the Stable Genius those who have tested positive got bad tests. Because only a few days before they had tested negative.

Isn't that the way it works? Once you test negative, you can't get the disease.

[Kendra]

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/05/09/opin ... ssion=true

(CNN)President Trump's personal valet, the vice president's spokeswoman, Katie Miller, and Ivanka Trump's personal assistant (who has been teleworking for nearly two months) all tested positive for Covid-19, illustrating the manifold threats the pandemic poses to our government. The news raises questions about the legitimacy of the White House's own narrative about its ability to keep Americans safe, while highlighting the potential havoc the coronavirus could wreak on our government and national security.


News that the coronavirus has infiltrated the White House presents a direct threat to the administration's narrative that it is taking the necessary measures to keep the American people safe. Earlier this week, the White House rejected the very guidelines it asked for from the Centers for Disease Control and Protection on how to safely reopen the country because the CDC's 17-page draft was "overly prescriptive."

Instead of relying on experts, the White House is flying blind, putting itself in charge of determining how to keep Americans safe. To make matters worse, the failure to protect the President and Vice President Mike Pence doesn't inspire much confidence that the administration is doing everything possible to protect the rest of us. It also undercuts the President's assertions that it's time to reopen the country because it's clear that new infections are a reality — even in the White House.

[Sterngard Friegen]

If Trump and Pence are no longer capable of pretending to be POTUS and VPOTUS American national security will be enhanced upon the swearing in of President Nancy Pelosi. So the author of that CNN piece needs to calm fucking down.

[Kendra]

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-re ... ccounter=2

WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump hosted nearly 20 House Republicans at the White House on Friday to talk about rebuilding the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic ― and not one of them wore a mask or practiced social distancing.

Photos from the meeting show lawmakers casually mingling and talking in close range in the State Dining Room without masks on before the president arrives, also without a mask. Once he comes in, they sit at a large table with some space between them, but not the recommended 6 feet.


Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) defended the fact that none of them were wearing masks or social distancing. Per the pool report, he said everyone had been tested already and suggested nobody in the room had the virus “unless it’s someone in the media.”

House Republicans in the meeting included Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), Kelly Armstrong (N.D.), Andy Barr (Ky.), Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Ted Budd (N.C.), Dan Crenshaw (Texas), Warren Davidson (Ohio), Greg Murphy (N.C.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Mark Green (Tenn.), Mike Johnson (La.), Jim Jordan (Ohio), Debbie Lesko (Ariz.), Devin Nunes (Calif.), Scott Perry (Pa.), Guy Reschenthaler (Pa.), Elise Stefanik (N.Y.), Lee Zeldin (N.Y.) and Gohmert.

[Addie]

New York Times: There may be a hot spot at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. ...

The officials in quarantine are Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and Dr. Stephen Hahn, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.

Others who came into contact with Ms. Miller and the valet are continuing to report for duty at the White House. ...

Dr. Fauci was scheduled to testify at a Senate committee hearing on Tuesday; he and other witnesses will now appear by videoconference instead of in person, according to the office of the committee chairman, Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee.

The discovery of the two infected staff members has prompted the White House to step up its procedures to combat the coronavirus, including daily tests for some senior staff, increased use of masks and more rigorous screening of people entering the complex.

The concern about an outbreak at the White House — and the swift testing and contact tracing being done to contain it — underscores the broader challenge facing Americans as Mr. Trump urges them to begin returning to their own workplaces. Public health officials continue to warn that the virus is still ravaging communities across the country and that precautions are still needed.

Mr. Trump himself continues to reject guidance from the C.D.C. to wear a mask when meeting with groups of people. But a senior administration official said the president was spooked that his valet, who is among those who serve him food, had not been wearing a mask. Mr. Trump was annoyed to learn that Ms. Miller had tested positive, and has been growing irritated with people who get too close to him, the official said.

[Sterngard Friegen]

Maybe Trump should take some of that famous hand sanitizer he carries with him and spray it up his nostrils, into his mouth, and on his eyes when he has meetings from now on. Plus stick a UV light down his throat.

Or is he just taking the chloroquine?

I mean, what does he have to lose?

[Kendra]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... ssion=true

Vice President Mike Pence is self-isolating away from the White House following his press secretary’s diagnosis of Covid-19 on Friday, said three people familiar with the situation.

The vice president didn’t attend a meeting on Saturday with President Donald Trump and top military officials.

Pence tested negative for coronavirus infection on Sunday, one of the people said. He and Trump have been tested regularly. He’s staying at his home at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington out of an abundance of caution, said the people, who asked not to be identified because his isolation hasn’t been publicly announced.

[Addie]

Daily Beast: Pompeo's Unproven COVID-19 Claims Have Officials Freaked Out

As international pressure mounts for an investigation into the origins of the deadly coronavirus, officials in the State Department say they are increasingly wary about Secretary Mike Pompeo continuing to push a theory that scientists and foreign intelligence officials have already shot down, claiming it could have disastrous diplomatic consequences.

President Donald Trump and Pompeo have for weeks publicly pushed the story that the coronavirus originated in and escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China, where scientists were conducting experiments. In a press conference last week, Pompeo said there was “enormous evidence” that the virus originated in the lab. China has denied the claims. And foreign intelligence officials and even members of the White House’s own coronavirus task force have pushed back against that claim, saying the virus most likely originated in the wild and was naturally transmitted from animal to human, possibly in a public market.

Those contradictions have senior officials at the State Department, six of whom spoke to The Daily Beast, on edge, worrying that the secretary, in particular, is moving too quickly to publicly conclude what intelligence officials around the world are either still trying to understand or have said is inaccurate.

The public declarations by Pompeo have already begun to disrupt diplomatic relationships between the State Department and its allies, multiple officials said. One official told The Daily Beast that their counterparts in Europe and Australia have over the past week voiced frustration at Pompeo, saying his statements not only contradict parts of their intelligence assessments but that they would make it difficult for the countries to get China to allow an independent investigation. Another official said Europe’s skittishness was a result of “needing medical equipment from China.”

Adding:

CBS News: Trump administration cuts funding for coronavirus researcher, jeopardizing possible COVID-19 cure

An American scientist who collaborates with the Wuhan Institute of Virology had his grant terminated in the wake of unsubstantiated claims that COVID-19 is either manmade or leaked out of a Chinese government lab.

[Addie]

Slate: CEOs Were Asked to Remove Masks Before Meeting With Mike Pence in Iowa

Mere hours after Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary tested positive for COVID-19, he was set to meet with a group of food industry executives who had gathered for a roundtable discussion in West Des Moines. But before Pence joined them on the stage, someone came in and asked all five guests to remove their masks, which they all did dutifully, reports the Intercept, which posted a segment of the live video stream of the event that showed the sequence of events. “The strange request underscored just how committed the White House is to ignoring federal health advice intended to slow the spread of the pandemic coronavirus,” notes the Intercept’s Robert Mackey.

[TexasFilly]

Looks like Mary Barra, CEO of GM, was a bit smarter than those doofuses. When Pence toured the GM factory in Indiana, a few days after he endangered people at the Mayo Clinic, he was masked up. I suspected then that she or her folks told him what the what was.

[SLQ]

If Trump and Pence are no longer capable of pretending to be POTUS and VPOTUS American national security will be enhanced upon the swearing in of President Nancy Pelosi. So the author of that CNN piece needs to calm fucking down.

The author has apparently not binge-watched Designated Survivor.

[Sterngard Friegen]

Or read the Constitution. A somewhat easier task.

[Addie]

Politico: Fauci and Birx's public withdrawal worries health experts

Donald Trump’s oscillations over the fate of his coronavirus task force have tapped into a growing fear within the nation’s public health community: That at a critical juncture in the pandemic fight, the government’s top health experts might still be seen, but increasingly not heard. ...

Key health agencies remain relegated to the background. Some congressional requests for health officials’ testimony are being rejected. And though the task force is still intact, it has not held a press briefing for 13 days — the longest the public has gone without having Anthony Fauci or Deborah Birx at the White House podium since the briefings began in late February.

“It’s a blind spot that the federal government doesn’t see this first and foremost as a public health crisis,” said Joshua Sharfstein, a public health professor at Johns Hopkins University. “This is the public health crisis of the century, and we’re sometimes treating it as anything but.” ...

The broader turn away from the health issues at the core of such an all-encompassing national emergency is just the latest chapter in a communications strategy that’s long confounded and frustrated public health experts.

[TexasFilly]

1. NBC was reporting that Pence was going to "work remotely" for a few days and had taken the weekend off. There must've been a "lava level" mad at the WH because about an hour later Pence's office said he'd be back at the WH tomorrow.

2. Does anyone else find Dr. Birx to be a very odd person or is it just me?

[Addie]

CNN: US chief of naval operations to self-quarantine

(CNN) The chief of naval operations will self-quarantine after he came in contact with a family member who has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a US official.

Adm. Michael Gilday was tested for the virus on Friday and although he is negative at this time he will quarantine for several days, the official said.

This situation is why Gilday did not attend the White House meeting with President Donald Trump on Saturday, according to the official.

That meeting's attendees included all of the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff except for Gilday and the chief of the National Guard Bureau, Gen. Joseph Lengyel.

"Lengyel tested positive for COVID Saturday afternoon but a subsequent test Saturday was negative. He will undergo a third test Monday morning to confirm his negative status," a Defense Department spokesman said.

[jmj]

1. NBC was reporting that Pence was going to "work remotely" for a few days and had taken the weekend off. There must've been a "lava level" mad at the WH because about an hour later Pence's office said he'd be back at the WH tomorrow.

2. Does anyone else find Dr. Birx to be a very odd person or is it just me?

Not just you. She strikes me as very odd as well, but I can't put my finger on why exactly.

[Sterngard Friegen]

Birx is doing whatever she can to maintain her job, even when it means that she allows false and dangerous information to be spouted from the podium by the Orange Menace. She also praises him and lies about it.

I don't see the problem that Politico's author sees. Who cares what Fauci and Birx think? Trump won't listen to them.

Nature will take its course. Trump will have created an even greater disaster than the one we now have. We are all potential sacrificial lambs to his re-election efforts. And there's nothing we can do about it unless karma intervenes in the White House.

[Addie]

USA Today: White House enacts new safety precautions as coronavirus moves closer to Trump's inner circle

WASHINGTON – With coronavirus exposure arriving in the West Wing, the White House is taking extra precautions to ensure the safety of the president and his staff after two administration aides tested positive for the coronavirus.

President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence will be tested daily for the virus, as will every staff member in close proximity to them. White House guests will be tested, workspaces will undergo regular deep cleaning, and staff will follow social distancing guidelines, undergo daily temperature checks and have their symptom histories reviewed, White House spokesman Judd Deere said Sunday.

“The president’s physician and White House operations continue to work closely to ensure every precaution is taken to keep the president, first family and the entire White House complex safe and healthy at all times,” Deere said.

On Sunday, Pence's office denied media reports that he is in self-isolation as a top Navy admiral announced he would go under self-quarantine. ...

Back at the White House, the extra safety steps in placecome after a chaotic week in which aides to Trump and Pence tested positive for the coronavirus and three members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force entered quarantine after being close to someone diagnosed with the disease.

[Suranis]

1. NBC was reporting that Pence was going to "work remotely" for a few days and had taken the weekend off. There must've been a "lava level" mad at the WH because about an hour later Pence's office said he'd be back at the WH tomorrow.

Trumps a caged animal right now and is probably completely paranoid, looking for any hint or appearance of disloyalty. He would have seen this as a slight against him.

[MN-Skeptic]

AprilDRyan

I’m hearing on good authority that #coronavirus is more rampant in the #WhiteHouse than the public is being told. A very high-ranking individual may have also been impacted! The administration is currently mum on the matter, seeking prayers instead. #COVID19

7:05 PM - 10 May 2020

[sad-cafe]

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-re ... ccounter=2

WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump hosted nearly 20 House Republicans at the White House on Friday to talk about rebuilding the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic ― and not one of them wore a mask or practiced social distancing.

Photos from the meeting show lawmakers casually mingling and talking in close range in the State Dining Room without masks on before the president arrives, also without a mask. Once he comes in, they sit at a large table with some space between them, but not the recommended 6 feet.


Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) defended the fact that none of them were wearing masks or social distancing. Per the pool report, he said everyone had been tested already and suggested nobody in the room had the virus “unless it’s someone in the media.”

House Republicans in the meeting included Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), Kelly Armstrong (N.D.), Andy Barr (Ky.), Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Ted Budd (N.C.), Dan Crenshaw (Texas), Warren Davidson (Ohio), Greg Murphy (N.C.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Mark Green (Tenn.), Mike Johnson (La.), Jim Jordan (Ohio), Debbie Lesko (Ariz.), Devin Nunes (Calif.), Scott Perry (Pa.), Guy Reschenthaler (Pa.), Elise Stefanik (N.Y.), Lee Zeldin (N.Y.) and Gohmert.

Please God-let them all have the corona virus and only the biggest and best cases for them please

[sad-cafe]

God I hope it is #fatdonnie

but "he went to " Jared would be cool too also

[Sterngard Friegen]

Gohmert's genius was on full display.

[sad-cafe]

Gohmert's genius was on full display.

super genius right????? Bwahahaha