"Good luck. I hope you don't test positive." pic.twitter.com/JgMgLVH97b
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 28, 2020
Vox notes that in the week before Donald Trump tested positive (September 25 to October 2), he came into contact with a lot of people. There is no way of knowing now how many of them he recklessly infected and endangered.
The virus tends to spread through clusters of people, through close personal contact, and, in some poorly ventilated indoor environments, through the air. The president could be part of a large chain of transmission both in and outside the White House. Knowing who he and his close contacts — as well as other White House staff who have tested positive for the virus, like aide Hope Hicks — have been in proximity to could help stop a Covid-19 cluster from growing even larger.
It's not just a question of whom the president might have given the virus to, it's also a question of who he, the first lady, and Hicks may have gotten it from.
In the wake of President Superspreader:
Utah Senator Mike Lee has tested positive. Here he is less than one week ago hugging and kissing and greeting people while holding his mask in his hand.
Ronna McDaniel, the Republican National Committee chairwoman, tested positive on Wednesday.
From CNN's Sarah Mucha:
Hearing there was no contact from the Trump campaign or the White House to alert the Biden campaign of possible exposure to COVID-19.
Biden and his wife have tested negative, according to reports today.
The New York Times states Trump has experienced mild symptoms:
The president has had what one person described as cold-like symptoms. At a fund-raiser he attended at his golf club at Bedminster, N.J., on Thursday, where one attendee said the president came in contact with about 100 people, he seemed lethargic. . . . Trump fell asleep at one point on Air Force One on the way back from a rally in Minnesota on Wednesday night.
Trump's monologue at his Wednesday rally in Duluth, Minnesota, was much shorter than usual (46 minutes versus 105 minutes on September 19 and 92 minutes on September 12). Bloomberg News reports:
Some of Trump's closest aides said they sensed on Wednesday that Trump was feeling poorly but they chalked it up to fatigue from an intense campaign schedule. The president seemed exhausted, one person familiar with the situation said. . . .
His aides had worried that Trump's lack of sleep during the final stretch of the presidential campaign could leave him especially vulnerable to infection. . . . His age also puts him at greater risk for serious illness from the virus.
ABC's Veronica Miracle:
The amount of people who've been exposed to the virus by Hope Hicks and the people around her... is countless. A colleague who frequently covers events involving Mr. Trump & VP Pence tells me, "Every time I cover those events, they take zero precautions."
NBC's Marianna Sotomayor:
I witnessed a Cleveland Clinic doctor remind Trump's guests [at Tuesday's debate] to wear a mask, even offering them surgical ones on the off chance they didn't have one. None of them put on a mask. The doctor looked frustrated as she stepped away, prompting a staffer to say, "That’s all you can do."
Annie Karni and Maggie Haberman, New York Times, October 2, 2020:
White House officials had hoped to keep the news about Ms. Hicks from becoming public, to no avail. . . .
Mr. Trump, for his part, has been fatalistic when talking with associates about whether he or others would get sick, describing the possibility as a roll of the dice. His week included a series of events in which he played down the virus in front of crowds large and small, all without wearing a mask. . . .
On Tuesday Mr. Trump was accompanied by all of his adult children and senior members of his White House and campaign staff on Air Force One en route to Cleveland for the first presidential debate. None of them wore masks . . . Few in the president's circle appeared to be taking any precautions on the Cleveland trip. . . .
By Thursday, it was clear that something unusual was happening at the White House, aides said. Several staff members who have avoided masks were suddenly wearing them.
There is always a fucking tweet:
Previously, on infected people flying to Cleveland: https://t.co/kRSvkJSohD
— Helen Kennedy (@HelenKennedy) October 2, 2020
They were entrusted with keeping the country safe and healthy. All of their actions — every single one — have demonstrated they don't give a shit about a deadly disease spreading across the country until it shows up on their door step. (Indeed, it has been accurately reported in several venues that their "plan" was to continue pillaging the country and allow the virus to rampage through "blue" states and deliberately not take any action as thousands of Americans died.)
Nothing, absolutely nothing, you read dissuades you from the clear impression that these are the worst fucking people you could imagine. It is impossible to muster an iota of sympathy for any of them.
* * *It's a cult https://t.co/vlhNc3suLs
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 2, 2020
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