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Did Hope Hicks give Trump the coronavirus? Maybe, but something's a bit off with the timing.
Hicks reportedly tested negative for Covid-19 on Wednesday morning. She developed symptoms during the day and then tested again in the evening, getting a positive.
Hicks travelled with Trump on Wednesday while she had symptoms. The White House was told but decided to cover it up and Trump kept his campaign schedule on Thurs.
After news of Hicks' positive test leaked on Thursday evening, the White House said that both Trumps took a reportedly tested positive.
The coronavirus has an incubation period. People don't usually test positive within 24 hours of being exposed to a sick person. 5 days is typical. 3 isn't unusual. One day, though?
Maybe the Trumps caught it earlier? But Hicks had a negative test on Wednesday morning. That *should* mean that she wasn't expressing virus and therefore wasn't infectious yet.
So something's off with the official timeline. A few possibilities:
1. The Trumps didn't catch it from Hicks. They caught it from someone else. Maybe they gave it to her, even. Maybe someone else is patient zero.
I assume that the Trumps were routinely tested. So let's assume they and Hicks all got it from the same person a few days ago. Quite plausible.
2. Perhaps Hicks's Wednesday morning test was wrong. The White House reportedly uses Abbott's rapid testing machine, which has been accused of high inaccuracy https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/03/politics/coronavirus-white-house-test-abbott/index.html
If so, perhaps Hicks had been infectious for days. But then the White House's entire testing regime, built around the Abbott machines, is deeply flawed.
The third possibility is that the White House is lying about the timeline. I don't think they'd lie about Trump being infected, but they could be deliberately covering up inconvenient details.
Anyway, I suppose it isn't *that* important, but something here doesn't quite fit, whether the testing, the timeline or the actual index patient.
