How the coronavirus spread in Trump's White House - The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-virus-spread-white-house/2020/10/02/38c5b354-04cc-11eb-b7ed-141dd88560ea_story.html

The Trump admin created the exact conditions that made it possible for Trump to get the virus. It has ignored science and subjected Americans to suffering as a result. His contracting the virus is an exclamation point on the fact that we need both science and compassion

Attendees were so confident that the contagion would not invade their seemingly safe space at the White House that, according to Jenkins, after guests tested negative that day they were instructed they no longer needed to cover their faces.

On Friday, Lee and Jenkins announced that they, too, had tested positive, as did RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, who had recently spent time with Trump, including at an indoor fundraiser last week.

As Trump’s condition deteriorated Friday, he & his team ultimately made the decision to send him to Walter Reed preemptively — and, from a PR perspective, when he was still able to walk to Marine One on his own, according to one outside adviser in frequent contact w WH officials

...Trump’s health, at age of 74, as well as him having additional co-morbidities — obesity, high cholesterol and slightly elevated blood pressure — increase his risks of a negative outcome.

The White House’s handling of the period between the first known symptoms — those of Hicks on Wednesday — and Trump’s infection, which was confirmed about 1 a.m. Friday, is what experts considered a case study in irresponsibility and mismanagement.

Admin officials at first were not transparent with the public, and have not been forthcoming with detailed information about Trump’s condition since.

Meadows told reporters Friday am only that Trump was experiencing “mild symptoms” and would not elaborate

“I’m not going to get into any particular treatment that he may or may not have,” Meadows said.
On Friday afternoon, the White House distributed a memorandum by White House physician Sean P. Conley describing Trump as “fatigued but in good spirits.”

Though Conley listed the drugs he had administered, he provided to the public no measurements of the president’s condition, nor did he nor any other knowledgeable source submit to questions from journalists.

Inside the West Wing’s corridors, where staffers for months have worked in proximity largely without masks, what had long been an atmosphere of invincibility turned into one of apprehension and panic.

“People are losing their minds,”
said the outside adviser.

First, aides fretted about their own risks of exposure. If the president got infected, so might they.

Good morning!

Then they considered the political implications, coming so close to the Nov. 3 election. “We don’t want to be talking about coronavirus & now we’re talking about coronavirus...The hit writes itself: He can’t protect the country. He couldn’t even protect himself.”

Ivanka & Kushner have interacted with Trump and Hicks this week & tested negative on Friday, said White House spokeswoman Carolina Hurley. But she declined to answer questions about whether they planned to self-isolate, and Kushner was seen at work in the White House on Friday.

Meadows, who also has had regular interaction with Trump and Hicks, did not wear a mask when he briefed reporters outdoors on Friday morning. Asked why, the chief of staff responded defensively, “I’ve obviously been tested. We’re hopefully more than six feet away.”

The first sign of symptoms inside the presidential bubble came on Trump’s trip Wednesday to Minnesota, where he attended a campaign fundraiser in Shorewood and an evening rally in Duluth.

Hicks, who spends more time with him than most staffers, tested negative for the coronavirus on Wed morning, but started to feel ill during the MN trip. She self-isolated aboard AF1 for the flight home, although some on the trip were unaware she had done so.

Trump’s voice sounded raspy at times during his rally performance in Duluth

...and he delivered a shorter speech than is typical, clocking in at 46 minutes compared to other recent rally speeches that have stretched well past an hour.

On Thursday, Hicks’s diagnosis was kept secret from the public and even from some of her own colleagues.

Kayleigh McEnany did not know Hicks had the virus when she briefed reporters about 11 a.m., but learned midafternoon, as DTwas preparing to depart for a NJ fundraiser

By then, word about Hicks’s condition had begun spreading among Trump aides. Some staffers suddenly started wearing masks, a sign that something was amiss.

A few senior aides were pulled from the Bedminster trip, including McEnany, who had been around Hicks extensively that week and was replaced by one of her deputies, Judd Deere.

Other aides on the trip were Johnny McEntee, Tony Ornato and Brian Jack.

None wore a mask on Air Force One, but they did aboard Marine One, considering the helicopter has far tighter quarters than the airplane.

“Trump thought he could go to the fundraiser and keep it secret that Hicks  had it,”

Republican donor Dan Eberhart said.

Trump’s decision to proceed with the fundraiser after the known infection of Hicks, someone with whom he had extended recent close contact, went against the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other public health authorities.

“They knew she was positive and they still let Marine One take off with the president. Why didn’t they ground him? That was the break in protocol,” said Kavita Patel, a practicing physician and former health adviser in the Obama White House.

In Bedminster, Trump held a roundtable fundraiser indoors where donors were sitting around the table with him.

Masks were not worn in the room.

Trump then went outdoors to address a larger group, and some of those attendees wore masks, people present said.

News of Hicks’s infection came late in the evening — not in a public release by the White House, but rather from a Bloomberg News report, which White House officials quickly confirmed.

not everyone who had come into contact with Trump was immediately notified by the WH’s contact tracers.

Chris Christie, who had been helping Trump with debate preparation earlier this week, said Friday afternoon that he had not been contacted.

In addition, at least one journalist who tested positive after traveling with Trump this week also had not heard from the White House as of Friday afternoon.

As White House officials worked to trace the origin of the outbreak, they became concerned about a series of events Saturday:
Barrett’s Rose Garden announcement and the private indoor receptions surrounding it.

Guests had rapid coronavirus tests upon arrival and waited in a room wearing masks, according to Jenkins, the Notre Dame president.

Then, he wrote in a statement Friday, “we were notified that we had all tested negative and were told that it was safe to remove our masks.”

Once escorted outside, guests mingled in the Rose Garden shaking hands and hugging, then took seats positioned closely together.

Jenkins said he regretted “my mistake” of not wearing a mask and shaking hands at the event.

Mixing continued at indoor receptions which two WH officials said Friday have caused deep concern within DT’s circle.

Cabinet members, senators, Barrett’s family, family members of Justice Scalia and other guests, including Fox News host Laura Ingraham all exposed

“They were all mingling without masks and in close quarters,” one of the officials said. “No one was distanced.”

Rochelle Walensky, chief of the division of infectious disease at Massachusetts General Hospital and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, said a negative test is hardly a guarantee of immunity.

“People believe that if their test is negative, then they should be fine and the truth is that means you’re fine today,” Walensky said. “It doesn’t even mean you’re fine tonight, as the Thursday testing demonstrated.”

On the Friday night before the Barrett announcement, Trump attended an indoor fundraiser at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, along with McDaniel, Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia, lobbyist Brian Ballard and a coterie of Trump aides and allies.

McDaniel, who then spent two days with DT before beginning to show symptoms earlier this week, tested + Wednesday. She told him about her infection Friday morning, although she notified some White House officials before then, according to two people familiar with the situation.

Trump’s non-socially distanced interactions continued all week. After the Barrett announcement, Trump traveled to Middletown, Pa to hold a campaign rally. Sunday, he played golf at his private club in N Va, held a news conf at the WH and hosted a reception for Gold Star parents.

All the while, Trump held debate preparation meetings with Christie, Hicks, Kellyanne Conway, Giuliani and a handful of other advisers. Neither Trump nor Hicks showed symptoms or wore a mask, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions.

Debate, Cleveland
“The first family came in wearing masks, but they took them off,” Fahrenkopf said. “The rules said you had to wear a mask.”

When he spoke about the virus in the Rose Garden on Monday afternoon, he all but declared victory over the virus.