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Denial, reluctance to wear masks: What led to spread of Covid-19 in White House
It is not just the President, the White House officials too have flouted Covid-19 regulations leading to a rise in cases inside the White House.
The coronavirus pandemic finally caught up with the first family of the United States on October 2 when US President Donald Trump found out that he and First Lady Melania Trump had been infected. Trump had returned from a campaign rally in Bedminster and found out that he has contracted Covid-19.
There are several reasons behind Trump getting infected. Firstly, it is a pandemic and in all likelihood Covid-19 will infect many more across the world if all of us fail to adhere to Covid-19 preventative measures. US President Donald Trump who had downplayed the effect of the pandemic several times since it began was not a very huge proponent of spreading the word regarding how citizens should bring changes in the way they live so as to avoid getting infected. As a matter of fact, it was not until a few months ago that the President himself had begun to wear masks.
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Denial from President as well as his aides
US President Donald Trump at the onset of the pandemic said that Covid-19 would not affect Americans as much and the situation was under control early in February. New York was among the first cities to close down as it had become a Covid-19 hotspot in the months of March and April. Trump had begun a bitter war of words with Cuomo over New York administration’s handling of Covid-19 but around the same time on March 8 Brazilian president Bolsonaro met Donald Trump. One day after the meet, Bolsonaro’s aide Fabio Wajngarten tested positive for Covid-19.
On March 13, when a Brazilian reporter asked Trump if he was taking precautions after the Brazilian aide tested positive, he answered, “We do not have any symptoms. We are not (concerned). I had a great meeting with Brazil’s president. Great guy.”
Before Trump’s diagnosis, it was his adviser Hope Hicks who contracted Covid-19. Hicks has travelled extensively with Trump during his campaign trail and accompanied him to Ohio for the presidential debate with Joe Biden on September 29. It was after that debate that Hicks along with White House senior adviser Stephen Miller have tested positive for Covid-19.
Other people who have tested positive after Trump’s diagnosis are White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany, Trump’s campaign manager Bill Stepien and Republican Senators Mike Lee, Thom Tillis and Ron Johnson.
Twenty six staffers of the White House have tested positive for coronavirus so far.
Masks and social distancing
Donald Trump’s reluctance to use masks during the pandemic caused widespread concern among his own staff and his own coronavirus task force. It was only until mid-August that Trump was seen wearing a mask but before that there was reluctance on the part of the US president towards wearing masks.
Even during the presidential debate with Biden he took a jibe at him and said, “Every time you see him, he’s got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet ways from them, and he shows up with the biggest mask I’ve ever seen.”
During his trip to a mask factory in Arizona, Trump said he had a mask but he did not feel the need to wear it. Trump also said the CEO of the mask factory had told him that it was not necessary to wear a mask while every other employee and the president’s staff who travelled with him were seen wearing a mask.
Initially when the coronavirus pandemic had begun, Donald Trump was not in favour of social distancing. During the months of March, when he hosted the Brazilian president in Mar-a-Lago in Florida, Trump was seen shaking hands with the dignitaries and had said that being a politician it is a habit he cannot let go off.
The Trump rallies were events where social distancing norms were not followed whether it was in Tulsa, Henderson or Bedminster. The Bedminster rally after which he had tested positive for Covid-19, the US president was seen throwing MAGA hats at Trump supporters in the rally. In Tulsa, before the rally began, people were asked to sign documents which said that the Trump Campaign team has no liability if they get infected.
The ceremony to celebrate the selection of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the US Supreme Court and the funeral of Robert Trump were events where people came together in White House and flouted Covid-19 prevention measures by not maintaining social distancing and by not wearing masks.
People who were in the Trump administration were seen flouting coronavirus guidelines as they were not adequately following social distancing rules during the Rose Garden event. United States National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases chief Anthony Fauci, according to Reuters, in an interview with American University’s Kennedy Political Union, “Take a look at what happened this week at the White House. That is a reality, right there. And every day that goes by more people are popping up that are infected. It’s not a hoax. It’s an unfortunate situation when you see something like that because that could have been prevented.”
Reliance on rapid testing
Despite White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany calling Trump, ‘the most tested man in America’, Trump failed to understand that testing cannot prevent the spread of Covid-19.
Trump failed to isolate himself when his campaign adviser Hope Hicks and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie had tested positive for coronavirus. The White House relied on testing like it is the only solution to ward off the virus that has infected 7 million people in the US and killed more than 200,000.
“None of us believed that testing alone was going to be a solution,” said Ashish Jha, the dean of Brown University School of Public Health and a physician himself while speaking to Bloomberg. “Testing isn’t a silver bullet that solves all of this. It’s a really powerful tool, but it must be coupled with mask wearing and making sure people limit their contacts,” he further added.
The White House’s reliance on Abbott Laboratories ID NOW was particularly surprising as Abbott spokesman John Kovall told the Associated Press test do not detect virus immediately after infection. He said, ““It’s helpful to keep in mind that tests discover the presence of coronavirus once there’s enough viral material in a person to be able to detect it.”
It shows that the Trump administration relied on testing and gained a false sense of security. Tests can have false negative results and the coronavirus also takes time to copy the mechanism of cells of the person it has infected.
The reluctance towards social distancing, washing hands and wearing masks led to the US president getting infected by Covid-19 along with first lady Melania Trump. Tests simply failed to prevent the coronavirus from entering the White House.
Trump has said that he intends to hold a rally in Florida on Monday. It remains to be seen that after getting infected with Covid-19 if the US president and his team will adhere to the Covid-19 prevention norms during the rally.
