Photo: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images
It appears another coronavirus outbreak is ballooning within the White House: First came Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, whose COVID diagnosis was announced on Friday. Ben Carson, secretary for Housing and Urban Development, was next up on Monday, followed by Trump campaign advisor David Bossie. According to the Associated Press, these cases trace back to Donald Trump’s election night viewing party, an indoor event featuring “few masks and no social distancing.” Meaning: It looks like the administration maybe just held its second superspreader event in as many months.
More than 100 people attended the party on November 3 in the White House East Room, where Meadows reportedly circulated, maskless of course. According to Intelligencer’s Olivia Nuzzi, his contacts that night found out about their exposure not from the White House, but from a late-night Bloomberg report that broke the news on November 6. Apparently Meadows took pains to keep his test results secret, a move one of Nuzzi’s sources correctly labeled “fucked up.”
In fact, Meadows received his diagnosis on Wednesday; the day before, he reportedly visited campaign headquarters, and spent time in the White House residence with Trump’s adult children and their spouses. Now, infections are fanning out across his circle: According to Bloomberg, at least five other people have tested positive, including top Meadows aide, Cassidy Hutchinson; Charlton Boyd, one of Jared Kushner’s aides; and campaign aide Nick Trainer.
Bloomberg could not confirm whether or not Meadows has shown symptoms, but Carson apparently has. HUD Chief of Staff Coalter Baker told Politico that Carson visited Walter Reed Army Medical Center — where Trump was recently hospitalized during his own bout of COVID — and enjoyed “access to effective therapeutics which aid and markedly speed his recovery.” Bossie, who actually tested positive on Sunday, did not return Politico’s request for comment.
While the viewing party has not officially clinched superspreader status at this time, it bears a striking resemblance to the Rose Garden event that kicked off the last White House outbreak. A string of prominent Republicans, including the president and the First Lady, tested positive for the virus after attending a nomination ceremony for Amy Coney Barrett in late September. Despite taking place outside, that event saw many members of the sizable crowd congratulate one another at close range and with gusto. Naturally, most opted not to cover their faces — not even those who went to the indoor reception. Dozens of people connected to the ceremony eventually tested positive, according to NPR; Trump developed a serious-seeming infection that required an aggressive experimental drug cocktail. As soon as he recovered, though, Trump got right back to his rallies, repeating his claim that the coronavirus is “disappearing.”
In reality, the country is and has been experiencing record spikes in its case count. Over the weekend, we surpassed 10 million infections, with more than 100,000 new cases reported on Sunday alone. Fortunately, President-elect Joe Biden has already announced his coronavirus task force — to be led by an actual doctor, rather than a Vice-President. Ah, to have a president who actually respects science.
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