As early as October 3 the media was beginning to report positive COVID-cases in the president’s circle in the White House. Some of the first people to test positive were all in contact with the president on September 25. This included Ronna McDaniel, RNC chairwoman, Hope Hicks, advisor to the president, Crede Bailey, head of White House security, as well as President Trump, First Lady Melania Trump and their son Barron Trump. McDaniel began experiencing symptoms when she returned to her home in Michigan where she was tested for COVID19 on October 1. By the time someone felt sick and tested positive an entire week later, the president had already been in contact with hundreds of people in several different locations, including the president’s Rose Garden announcement of his nomination of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett on September 26.
It has since become clear that between the president’s general disdain for mask wearing and the administration’s rush to nominate and confirm another conservative justice to the Supreme Court that more than 30 people directly got sick from the virus. There has since been reports of legal aides and lawmakers who have tested positive for the virus who were not in direct contact with the president. Though Mike Pence tested negative and never experienced symptoms for the virus, several legal aides and one advisor tested positive in his office later in the month. Because of this, he did not preside over the Senate confirmation hearing of Justice Barrett. A few senators who appeared in person for confirmation hearings had tested positive, including Sen Mike Lee (R-UT) and Sen Thom Tillis (R-NC) who both recovered from mild symptoms after exposure at the Rose Garden event, Sen Ron Johnson (R-WI) who had been asymptomatic, and Sen Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) who tested negative but a number of legal aides in her office had tested positive.
Contacts were first exposed through a campaign event, fund raiser and travel on September 25 and then more widely at a White House meeting and Rose Garden nomination ceremony for Amy Coney Barrett on September 26. However, 8 out of 23 people in attendance at the White House meeting and 13 more out of 27 people from the Rose Garden event tested positive. This includes former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Notre Dame President Rev. John Jenkins, political advisor Kellyanne Conway, Trish Scalia (daughter in law of the late Justice Antonin Scalia), another pastor and individuals on the job with the press. A US Coast Guard admiral also tested positive from a gold star family reception that same evening. More people tested positive who were in contact through housekeeping, reporting, traveling or working with the president.It is worth noting that Justice Barrett was sick earlier this summer from COVID. The New York Times reported extensively on efforts to trace the president’s contacts, however even this is an undercount because medical records are subject to privacy laws even for public figures and their family members. For example, we only know that Conway’s daughter was also sick when the daughter blasted her own social media accounts and the family released a statement asking for privacy.
The first of three presidential debates was held on September 29, and even though the moderator requested everyone wear masks and a local doctor offered PPE to Trump’s guests, they did not wear masks. Melania Trump entered the room wearing a mask but removed it when she sat down with the family. Though President Trump criticized Joe Biden in that debate for consistently wearing a mask, Biden and his guests in attendance tested negative for the virus after that event. The President on the other hand had to receive vigorous treatment after testing positive for the virus. Just three days after being admitted to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, President Trump made an appearance for a photo op in front of the White House on October 6. He appeared short of breath, and his low blood oxygen levels indicate that he had a much more severe case of COVID19 than they were presenting to the public. He was treated with Remdesivir, an antiviral drug developed to treat Ebola. It tricks the virus which thinks it is the raw material needed for reproduction but then it cannot make copies of itself. After receiving oxygen, the president also was treated with dexamethasone, a drug that calms the immune system so that the body does not go into overdrive and attack itself. He then was treated with antibodies, developed by the Regeneron company, which stick to the coronavirus so that the virus cannot get into new cells and becomes visible to the immune system. All of these treatments are still in clinical trials and not available to the public. The difference between the health outcomes for the president and other people was this aggressive and early treatment.
Former Governor Chris Christie spent 7 days in the ICU. Christie had been consistently wearing a mask, considering that he also has asthma. He said, “It’s like getting beaten up from the inside out.” Christie has been friends with President Trump for many years; he has spoken in the past about helping Trump prepare for presidential debates as far back as 2016. Being in the president’s inner circle, interacting with the same people within that circle in White House meetings, Christie and others felt almost uncomfortable wearing masks around the president. Chris Christie and Notre Dame president John Jenkins also mentioned that everyone in the first three rows of the Rose Garden event took rapid nasal swab tests and tested negative for COVID. He regrets letting his guard down because testing alone was not enough to prevent the outbreak. Three days after the presidential debate, Chris Christie was admitted to the ICU with fever, headache, body aches, chills and sweat. Whether Christie was exposed to the virus at the Rose Garden event on September 26 or in preparing the president for the debate on September 29, he was severely ill nonetheless. He was isolated in the ICU from October 1 to October 9 and he also received the Regeneron antibody treatment. During Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s regular coronavirus briefing on October 22, Christie encouraged everyone to continue to take public health precautions and wear masks, reporting that he still felt fatigued.It is clear now that the outbreak in the White House was completely preventable by any of the suggested safety precautions that millions of Americans have been taking in restaurants, stores and schools across the country. Even the more casual social gatherings take more precautions than they did. There were 200 people in attendance, seated in close proximity without masks, shaking hands and hugging with a military band playing. The White House and Senate were able to push through one more conservative justice before the election, but at what cost? Those fortunate to have mild or no symptoms have told the public not to be afraid but what of the countless others who got sick? This is what physicians call a “never event” – a serious, preventable occurrence that should never be allowed to happen again.