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Thread: Trumps positive for COVID-19

  1. #51
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    Quote Originally Posted by Angiebla View Post
    I wonder if my nutzo uncle still thinks COVID is a hoax now. probably.
    I have been avoiding the news for the last few weeks, but I have looked at it in the last couple of days to see if he is still alive. I have seen articles where his supporters refuse to believe that he actually has the virus. They think it's still a hoax, or they think he's too tough to get it.

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    Quote Originally Posted by raisedbywolves View Post
    If he dies, I totally expect the RWNJ's to try to pull a Weekend at Bernies, that's how much they want to paint a false picture of what is going on. Virus? Oh not Trump, he's Superman, the virus can't hurt him!
    But wait also consider all the other people going with Trump due to their COVID-19 conditions his entire cabinet and congressional allies are trying to pull a Typhoid Mary and a Jim Jones move here. So far I seen this White House meeting over Supreme Court candidate is considered the epicenter of the start of the outbreak as in some of the reports.

  3. #53
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    Quote Originally Posted by kevansvault View Post
    Awwww!

    I lurk more often now, but it's been awhile since I went full on postal on anyone.

    For the record: Every one of these goddamn single brain cell fucks who doesn't want to wear a mask in the wake of this virus is a piece of shit. It didn't have to be this way, but you ignorant fuckers have spread this virus just like Typhoid Mary spread her ills. There are now superspreaders, who carry the virus, likely had a mild case, and continue to infect others on a daily basis.

    Oh, and all you inbred goat fuckers screaming about "freedoms" need to sit the fuck down, too. With freedom comes responsibility, but you seem to forget that shit, because you're fucking dog shit with a pulse. And it doesn't matter if we're talking about pandemics or guns, the same holds true, so fuck you and your mom.

    These are the people who should be locked up before they are taken out and shot.

    Let me make this perfectly clear for anyone in the audience who isn't able to comprehend things: There are people awake 24/7/365 right now, trying to get a handle on this fucking virus and learn as much as they can from the data they have and continue to receive. This virus is no joke, and if you're stupid enough to think that it's a hoax, as your dumbass president has mentioned, then I hope you catch it and it leaves you with serious side effects that last you the rest of your stupid ass life.

    Why? Because I, along with half the population of this fucking country, are tired of you ignorant motherfuckers thinking you know better than the scientific and healthcare communities who exist solely to prevent these kinds of things from happening. You have disgraced yourselves in ways you can't even begin to comprehend because you think that your high school diploma and a google search give you just as much credibility as a researcher who spends decades peering down the lens of a microscope in search of answers.


    I'm tired of the level of stupid that exists in this once great nation. Other countries did the right things, but you brain dead fucks just couldn't do the right thing for yourselves or your neighbors. You don't ever, EVER get to call yourselves "Christians" again. You've shown the world who you really are deep inside.

    I don't pull my punches. You may not agree with my statement, but I truly don't give a holy goat fuck. You are the reason this country is not well off, and you are the reason that 200,000 people in this country have died. I hope you die in your sleep after a nightmare where the ugly monster inside you takes your soul straight to hell.

    Your stupidity has cost lives, not to mention the well being of countless others who didn't die but suffer every day now. Fuck every single one of you heartless pieces of human shit.
    Sit back smoke some kush. It will take the edge off and you'll feel better.

  4. #54
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    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...e?srnd=premium


    White House aide Nick Luna, who serves as a personal attendant to President Donald Trump, has tested positive for coronavirus infection, according to people familiar with the matter.

    Luna?s diagnosis emerged a little more than 24 hours after Trump entered the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for treatment of Covid-19 following his own infection.

    Known as one of Trump?s so-called body men, Luna is the latest member of Trump?s inner circle of White House personnel to contract coronavirus. Hope Hicks, one of the president?s closest advisers, fell ill on Wednesday while traveling with Trump to Minnesota.

    Luna, who runs Oval Office operations for the White House, accompanied Trump on his trip to Cleveland for the presidential debate on Tuesday and was also aboard Air Force One on the Minnesota trip when Hicks first began experiencing symptoms.

    Luna was one of the aides who had planned to accompany Trump on Thursday to a fundraiser at the president?s golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, but stayed behind because of recent close contact with Hicks.

    The White House press office had no immediate comment.

    Earlier this year, Luna married Cassidy Dumbauld, an assistant to White House senior adviser and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner.

    In his job as a body man, Luna travels closely with the president, holding papers and helping keep Trump?s schedule.

    In addition to Luna and Hicks, the president?s re-election campaign manager Bill Stepien, 2016 campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, and a number of prominent Republican lawmakers and officials have tested positive since Thursday.

  5. #55
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    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...rapy-for-trump

    Medical specialists have elected to start Remdesivir therapy for President Donald Trump, according to a tweet from Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany that cites a statement from his physician.

    Trump has completed his first dose of the drug and is resting comfortably, according to his physician Sean Conley. He is not requiring any supplemental oxygen, the statement says.

    Trump tweeted shortly before the statement hit, saying he is going well and “thank you to all.”

  6. #56
    Senior Member curiouscat's Avatar
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    I wonder how many family members will blame Trump if one of his good ol' people die after getting infected?
    Quote Originally Posted by Boston Babe 73 View Post
    I don't have a thousand dollars hanging around to buy a fart in a jar lol.

  7. #57
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    Quote Originally Posted by curiouscat View Post
    I wonder how many family members will blame Trump if one of his good ol' people die after getting infected?
    He is already laying down groundwork to show how this is not his fault. He threw the military and police and Hope Hicks under the bus, and these are 'his people'. He said the military and police were 'infected' and basically implied that Hope was a whore and was out hugging and kissing on all the infected military and police and got the virus that way and gave it to everyone. Just wow!

  8. #58
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    Quote Originally Posted by raisedbywolves View Post

    White House acknowledges Trump's condition had been worse than revealed
    https://www.politico.com/news/magazi...p-covid-425912

    The only problem with this is the fact that the "source" of these reports is Mark Meadows, who is as big a liar as any member of this swamp.

    I wouldn't put it past him to lie to try to gin up sympathy for the devil. I don't know what the real story is, but I'm sure it won't come to us from the white house or any of it's benighted denizens.
    In January 2013, after an unsuccessful attempt by Tea Party conservatives to overthrow House Speaker John Boehner, a rookie congressman from North Carolina slinked into the speaker’s office complex inside the U.S. Capitol. Mark Meadows had not voted against Boehner on the House floor. But he had participated in the plotting—and word had since leaked out naming him as one of the conspirators. Frightened that he would be exiled to the hinterlands of the House, the freshman sought an audience with the speaker.

    “He’s on the couch, sitting across from me in my chair, and suddenly he slides off the couch, down onto his knees, and puts his hands together in front of his chest,” Boehner recalled to me. “He says, ‘Mr. Speaker, will you please forgive me?’” (This incident was witnessed by several people, including Boehner’s chief of staff, Mike Sommers, who described it as “the strangest behavior I had ever seen in Congress.”)

    The speaker took pity. He figured Meadows was just a “nervous new member who wanted to be liked” and told him there was no harm done. The two men carried on fine over the next couple of years—until Meadows surprised his colleagues by voting against Boehner’s reelection in 2015. “And then he sends me the most gracious note you’ll ever read, saying what an admirable job I’ve done as speaker,” Boehner recalled. “I just figured he’s a schizophrenic.”

    That’s one diagnosis of Meadows—and trust me, there are plenty to go around in Washington. Friends would describe him as a respectable player—calculating and slippery but decent to a fault. Enemies would liken him to a political sociopath, someone whose charm and affability conceal an unemotional capacity for deception. What both groups would agree upon is that Meadows, the 61-year-old White House chief of staff, is so consumed with his cloak-and-dagger, three-dimensional-chess approach to Washington that he can’t always be trusted.

    Which makes him precisely the wrong person to be at the center of an international crisis.

    It was unsettling enough on Saturday morning to hear President Donald Trump’s personal physician, Sean Conley, evading questions from the media during a news conference outside Walter Reed Medical Center. Tasked with giving an update on Trump’s bout with Covid-19, Conley wouldn’t say definitively whether the president had ever been given supplemental oxygen; what his temperature was; whether any lung damage had been detected. Making matters worse, the timeline he provided of Trump’s illness was wrong; he was forced to correct it after the briefing. Still, the big takeaway was that Trump was doing “very well,” that doctors were “extremely happy” with his condition, that the move to Walter Reed was nothing more than a “precautionary measure.”

    Incredibly, just minutes after that briefing, the traveling press pool blasted out a statement provided by “a source familiar with the president’s health.” The anonymous quote hinted at something far bleaker than what the 10-member team of medical professionals had just offered: “The president’s vitals over the last 24 hours were very concerning and the next 48 hours will be critical in terms of his care. We’re still not on a clear path to a full recovery.”

    It became immediately obvious that Meadows was the source; he was the only White House official at Walter Reed, the only person who could have so promptly briefed the pool on the president’s condition. (Sure enough, footage quickly surfaced showing Meadows pulling the reporters to the side, asking to speak “off the record with some of y’all” for a minute.)

    What wasn’t clear—and still isn’t clear—is why Meadows said what he said. (I tried to get him to explain but he did not respond to messages seeking comment.)

    Here again, there are competing theories among people who know him. One is that Meadows was concerned that Americans weren’t getting the full picture on the president’s health and wanted to offer a more realistic assessment. Another is that Meadows, a lover of political drama, wanted to seed a narrative of the president on the ropes and fighting for his life, setting up the storyline of a triumphant comeback. In reality, the likeliest explanation is that Meadows, having watched the doctors shed little light on Trump’s situation, tried to be helpful by providing some needed context to reporters, but overstepped with his melodramatic wording.

    Whatever the case, Meadows erred not only by stepping on the doctors’ statement with his own, but by doing so anonymously, piling enormous confusion on top of an already chaotic moment. That the reporters in the pool agreed to the chief’s ground rules at such a critical time, on such a sensitive subject matter, is bad enough; what’s unfathomable is the top staffer at a White House that regularly disparages anonymous sourcing as “Fake News“ requesting the cover of background to deliver news the entire world was waiting on.

    Meadows refused to confirm that he was, in fact, the anonymous source. That didn’t stop several outlets, including the Associated Press and the New York Times, from attributing the quote to him based on their reporters’ knowledge of events. What came next, however, was all the more bizarre: Meadows told Reuters, late on Saturday afternoon, “The president is doing very well. He is up and about and asking for documents to review. The doctors are very pleased with his vital signs. I have met with him on multiple occasions today on a variety of issues.”

    To recap: Meadows went on the record with Reuters to contradict what he told other reporters on the condition of anonymity earlier in the day—comments that contradicted what the president’s own doctor had broadcasted to the public after 18 hours without official word on the president’s medical condition.

    The most powerful nation on earth, with the eyes of the world fixed upon it, could not get her story straight.

    The Trump administration has faced a crisis of credibility since Day One. It has peddled lies and misinformation about everything from inauguration crowd sizes to Amy Coney Barrett being a Rhodes scholar. But nothing could be as consequentially incompetent as providing mixed messages regarding the president’s health while he is hospitalized with a potentially life-threatening illness. And the weight of responsibility does not fall on Trump. It’s not the fault of the White House communications shop or the White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany. The blame belongs to Meadows.

    Nobody could have predicted, when the chief of staff took over in March, that his own personal track record of unreliability would intersect so serendipitously with the Trump administration’s inability to shoot straight. But it’s not exactly surprising, either. The combination of Trump and Meadows—a pair of known embellishers, two men who fancy themselves expert negotiators but have never sealed a major deal in Washington—struck some people in the capital city as a disaster waiting to happen. When Meadows moved into his new role, one of his former allies in the House Freedom Caucus, a personal friend, told me his biggest concern wasn’t whether Meadows would hold Trump accountable; rather, it was whether anyone in the administration would hold Meadows accountable, reining in his constant freelancing and inflated sense of himself as an operator.

    There was ample justification for such concern. Many was the meeting of the House Freedom Caucus from which members walked away uncertain if what Meadows was telling them matched what he was telling reporters in background conversations, or what he was telling House GOP leadership in their private meetings. For his part, Paul Ryan, who clashed repeatedly with the Freedom Caucus during his time as speaker, developed a unified theory of how to deal with the group. Of its co-leaders, Meadows and Jim Jordan, Ryan believed he could deal with Jordan; strident and hard as the Ohio congressman was, Ryan always felt their communication was straightforward. Meadows, on the other hand, was always up to something, always playing the angles, always dealing in smoke and mirrors.

    Meadows earned every inch of this reputation over his seven years in Congress. Whether it was spearheading the doomed effort to defund Obamacare in the House, or forming the House Freedom Caucus, or breaking with his comrades to light the spark that led to Boehner’s eventual resignation, Meadows has a nose for opportunity and a bottomless appetite for fame.

    ... deleted for space but go read the rest!
    Last edited by puzzld; 10-04-2020 at 07:50 AM.
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    lol at Nestle being some vicious smiter, she's the nicest person on this site besides probably puzzld. Or at least the last person to resort to smiting.
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  9. #59
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    Quote Originally Posted by raisedbywolves View Post
    He is already laying down groundwork to show how this is not his fault. He threw the military and police and Hope Hicks under the bus, and these are 'his people'. He said the military and police were 'infected' and basically implied that Hope was a whore and was out hugging and kissing on all the infected military and police and got the virus that way and gave it to everyone. Just wow!
    At this point the Right Wing is a Death Cult worse than even Typhoid Mary and Jim Jones combined.

  10. #60
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    Quote Originally Posted by puzzld View Post
    A tan YES. But nothing darker than a light paper bag.

    Yeah. How can you tell they are lying... sound is being emitted even if their lips aren't moving.
    Omg! He needs to back to Florida and lay on the beach. Hopefully, no one will try to push him into the ocean thinking he's a beached whale.
    Quote Originally Posted by Boston Babe 73 View Post
    I don't have a thousand dollars hanging around to buy a fart in a jar lol.

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    . The White House physician said Sunday that President Donald Trump is now taking another drug for Covid-19, adding to his growing list of treatments for his illness.

    Dr. Sean Conley said the president was given a steroid called dexamethasone following "two episodes of transient drops in his oxygen saturation," meaning his oxygen levels dropped too low.

    Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

    "We debated the reasons for this and whether we even intervene," Conley said at a news conference at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. It "was a determination of the team, based predominantly on the timeline from the initial diagnosis, that we initiate dexamethasone."

    Trump received the first dose of the steroid Saturday and will be on it for "the time being," Conley said.

    Dexamethasone has been shown to be beneficial in those with severe Covid-19 because it can stop the immune system from going into overdrive. When that happens, the immune system can do more harm than good, attacking the body in what is called a cytokine storm.However, the drug is not recommended for more mild cases of the disease.

    "The fact that he got the steroid sets up a bit of a red flag that there's something going on here," NBC News senior medical correspondent Dr. John Torres told Kate Snow on Sunday. "I think they might be painting a little bit of a rosy picture for everyone."

    The treatment was first shown to be helpful in June in clinical trials in the U.K. Preliminary results of the trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that the steroid reduced the risk of death in patients with severe Covid-19 who need supplemental oxygen. But for mild cases, the treatment can be harmful.


    "However, there was no evidence that dexamethasone provided any benefit among patients who were not receiving respiratory support at randomization, and the results were consistent with possible harm in this subgroup," the researchers wrote.

    The National Institutes of Health guidelines for the drug reflect those findings, stating that dexamethasone should be given only to patients who are on ventilators or need supplemental oxygen. They do not recommend using it for those with less serious illness because of the potential for harm.

    "We do not recommend giving it to patients who are not on supplemental oxygen or ventilated, because, in that case, it's going to suppress the immune system and it won't be able to fight off the Covid in those early stages," Torres said.

    Dr. Michael Saag, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said the fact that doctors gave him the drug makes him suspect that the president might have taken a sudden turn Thursday night into Friday morning."The disease course of Covid-19 is very unpredictable and waxes and wanes throughout the course of illness," Saag said. "I would expect for the president, and every other symptomatic person with Covid, to have moments where he feels much worse. Perhaps it was during one of those moments they decided to treat him more aggressively."

    Conley said Sunday that Trump has normal oxygen levels and no fever. He is continuing to receive an antiviral treatment called remdesivir, and he received a single infusion of an experimental antibody treatment Friday.

    Trump's doctors said he could be released as early as Monday, but Torres said he is not in the clear yet.

    "We're not even in that seven- to 10-day period yet, when we get really worried about the lungs," he said.
    https://www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...id-19-n1242069

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    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...officials-list

    Here is a list of Covid-19 test results for U.S. government officials and others within the political circle as the country counts down to the Nov. 3 presidential election. President Donald Trump first announced his diagnosis early Friday.

    People who have tested positive for Covid-19, so far:

    President Donald Trump
    First Lady Melania Trump
    Hope Hicks, senior adviser to the president
    Bill Stepien, Trump campaign manager
    Chris Christie, former New Jersey governor who helped Trump prepare for debate
    Kellyanne Conway, former White House senior adviser
    Ronna McDaniel, Republican National Committee Chairwoman
    Mike Lee, Utah’s Republican Senator
    Thom Tillis, North Carolina’s Republican Senator
    Ron Johnson, Wisconsin’s Republican Senator
    Nick Luna, Trump’s personal attendant
    People who have tested negative for Covid-19, so far:

    Joe Biden, Democratic presidential nominee, and wife Jill Biden
    Kamala Harris, Democratic vice presidential candidate
    Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House
    Mike Pence, Vice President and wife Karen
    Mark Meadows, White House Chief of Staff
    Steve Mnuchin, Treasury Secretary
    Larry Kudlow, White House Economic Adviser
    Alex Azar, Secretary of Health and Human Services
    Amy Coney Barrett, Trump’s nominee for Supreme Court
    Jason Miller, Trump campaign aide
    Stephen Miller, White House senior adviser
    Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s lawyer
    Ted Cruz, Texas’s Republican Senator
    Ben Sasse, Nebraska’s Republican Senator
    Susan Collins, Maine’s Republican Senator
    Josh Hawley, Missouri’s Republican Senator
    Mike Crapo, Idaho’s Republican Senator
    Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, senior advisers
    Donald Trump Jr.
    Dan Scavino, White House’s director of social media

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    https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/abc...us-1234791626/

    Journalists often scramble to get as close to the news as they can. That dynamic is creating challenges for some of the nation’s best-known TV-news outlets.

    More TV-news operations are being affected by recent White House disclosures about President Donald Trump testing positive for coronavirus. ABC News staffers who came in contact with former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie when he served as an analyst for the first presidential debate earlier this week will have to quarantine for two weeks after Christie acknowledged Saturday that he had tested positive for coronavirus. The former Republican governor had helped President Trump prepare for the debate.

    Governor Christie “was last in our TV3 studio on Tuesday, and he won’t appear in our studio again until he’s cleared by a doctor, following guidance from the CDC and local health officials,” ABC News said in a statement. “Anyone on our staff in direct contact with the Governor as defined by the CDC will self-isolate for 14 days. We wish the Governor a speedy recovery.”

    ABC News did not immediately respond to a query about which staffers might be affected, but Christie appeared on an after-debate roundtable anchored by Linsey Davis and alongside three other analysts: former Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel; Democracy for America CEO Yvette Simpson; and former George W. Bush campaign executive Sara Fagen. ABC News’ debate coverage was anchored by George Stephanopoulos, ABC News’ chief anchor, who was joined by Davis and David Muir, who anchors the network’s evening newscast, “World News Tonight.” It was not immediately clear which anchors were present in what studio, but Davis was clearly shown on TV hosting the roundtable while sitting in socially-distanced fashion from panelists. Emanuel has tweeted that he has tested negative.

    ABC News is the latest of the nation’s TV journalism outlets forced to grapple with the outbreak of the contagion at the White House. Some of Fox News Channel’s best-known personnel are getting tested after they attended the first debate between President Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden in Cleveland earlier this week. Chris Wallace, host of “Fox News Sunday,” moderated the event, and some colleagues who were exposed to him or the debate environs – Sean Hannity, Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum are believed to be among them – are getting tests and taking precautions.

    NBC News and MSNBC has also acknowledged that staffers who may have covered the recent debate or President Trump’s recent unveiling of a new Supreme Court nominee at the White House “are following contact tracing guidelines as set forth by the CDC and the NBCUniversal Medical team and some employees will be self-quarantining out of an abundance of caution,” according to a statement from the NBCUniversal-owned media operations.

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    https://www.abc27.com/news/local/har...ow-get-tested/

    Update now another member of Congress has been tested positive for COVID-19 Paul Schemel (R-Pennsylvania) has been tested positive. This outbreak is going to get crazier until further notice.

    HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) — State Representative Paul Schemel (R-Franklin) announced Thursday that he tested positive for COVID-19.

    He released a statement following the positive test.

    “After experiencing mild symptoms of COVID-19 yesterday, I took a COVID-19 test today and was informed of a positive result this morning. Though I was in the Capitol on Tuesday, Sept. 29, I was experiencing no symptoms. I was not in the Capitol on Wednesday, Sept. 30, when I began experiencing symptoms. Upon experiencing symptoms on Wednesday, I began to self-quarantine. As soon as I received a positive test result on Thursday, I informed the appropriate House offices. I am following the advice of medical professionals and the protocols of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives to ensure the safety of my family, staff, and fellow members.”

    Representative Brian Sims (D-Philadelphia) posted on Facebook that all members of the House must now get tested due to being in the same building as Schemel on Wednesday.

    BREAKING: A Republican Member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives has tested positive for COVID-19 and now every single Member who’s been here in Session while Republicans have tried to steal the elections has to be tested! More than half of the Republicans on the Floor have refused to wear masks and now the entire House of Representatives has been exposed!

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    https://www.ydr.com/story/news/polit...ds/5892319002/

    President Donald J. Trump and first lady Melania Trump are in quarantine after testing positive for COVID-19.

    "Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!" the president said in a tweet at about 1 a.m. Friday.

    Trump and a mostly unmasked crowd of thousands gathered at Harrisburg International Airport Saturday evening against the request of Gov. Tom Wolf to honor outdoor gathering limits of 250 people.

    “It is gravely concerning that the president would insist on holding this event with blatant disregard for social distancing and masking requirements," Wolf said in a statement Friday. "His decision to bring thousands of people together in a tight space in the midst of a global pandemic caused by an airborne virus is flat-out wrong."

    Several Republican leaders were among Trump's crowd at the Harrisburg airport Saturday, including Congressmen Scott Perry, Dan Meuser, Lloyd Smucker, Fred Keller, John Joyce and Mike Kelly; congressional candidate Jim Bognet; former Congressman Lou Barletta, state GOP chairman Lawrence Tabas and Trump's Pennsylvania campaign chair Bernie Comfort.

    It was not immediately clear early Friday morning if they will also quarantine after potential risk of exposure.

    Trump's diagnosis comes 32 days before a contentious presidential election in which Pennsylvania is a key battleground and just hours after the president said Thursday the "end of the pandemic is in sight."
    His illness is the biggest health threat to a sitting president in decades, and it wasn't immediately clear early Friday morning how many people around him may have been exposed to the coronavirus.

    Trump during his speech Saturday night said he had about 17,000 people in his southcentral Pennsylvania crowd and said his crowd in Newport News, Virginia, the day before had reached 35,000.

    The president is known to exaggerate his crowd size at rallies far beyond capacity at the venues where they've been held. For example, he has said he's had crowds of more than 20,000 at Giant Center in Hershey, where the capacity is 10,500.

    The campaign said 2,000 chairs were placed at the Harrisburg International Airport hangar where the rally was held Saturday evening, and it appeared as though thousands more were there to support the president, including multiple elected officials.

    Whatever the final tally was, it was much larger than the state's limit of 250 outdoors, which on Sept. 14 was ruled unconstitutional by a Trump-appointed federal judge and upheld Wednesday by a federal appeals judge.

    Wolf on Friday said in a statement that a Trump rally in Latrobe on Sept. 3 violated the commonwealth's public health guidelines "by disregarding gathering limits, mask orders and social distancing guidelines."

    "My administration did not make an exception for that rally, and is still awaiting a response to a letter sent to the Trump campaign on September 10, 2020, asking them to abide by the commonwealth’s COVID-19 mitigation measures in order to keep our residents safe," Wolf said in the statement.
    The governor noted that Trump on Sept. 22 "held a large rally in close quarters" in Pittsburgh.

    More:Trump touts Pennsylvania energy production for a receptive Pittsburgh crowd

    Trump's crowd Saturday night at the airport was even larger, where he said his administration would "crush the virus."

    The president has repeatedly downplayed the coronavirus, saying in the spring he wanted the country reopened by Easter on April 12, which is about the time positive COVID-19 cases were peaking in Pennsylvania and other states.

    He said the virus would go away on its own in the summer, but that's when southern and western states saw a significant spike in cases and Pennsylvania reported a surge in July.

    Trump for months did not advocate for masks or publicly wear one, but under public pressure reversed course in the summer. He frequently makes fun of Democratic challenger Joe Biden for wearing masks.

    “Did you ever see a man who likes a mask as much as him?” Trump said during his Latrobe visit on Sept. 3. “It gives him a feeling of security. If I were a psychiatrist, right, you know I’d say, 'This guy’s got some big issues.'"

    State and federal health officials, as well as an overwhelming majority of medical providers in Pennsylvania and across the country, have advocated for masks, social distancing and frequent hand-washing to fight the spread of the virus.

    COVID-19 in the Capitol
    Trump's diagnosis comes hours after House Democrats yesterday blasted House Republicans for having two positive infections and continuing to not wear masks.

    Rep. Paul Schemel, a Republican from Franklin County, in a statement said he began to feel sick on Wednesday and received the positive test result Thursday.

    He was most recently in the Capitol on Tuesday and started to self-quarantine when he experienced symptoms Wednesday.

    As soon as I received a positive test result on Thursday, I informed the appropriate House offices," said Schemel, a Greencastle lawyer. "I am following the advice of medical professionals and the protocols of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives to ensure the safety of my family, staff, and fellow members.”

    The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is postponing all voting for nearly three weeks after a lawmaker tested positive for COVID-19.

    Work before the Legislature, including election reform and financial relief for renters and landlords, will not advance until at least Oct. 19, when the House reconvenes about two weeks before Election Day.

    Schemel is working with human resources to do contact tracing in line with recommendations from the state Department of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    "Those who may have been exposed are being contacted," said House Speaker Bryan Cutler, a Republican from Lancaster County.

    A significant number of House Republicans have continued to forgo masks inside the Capitol, and some have ridiculed wearing masks as an overreaction or ineffective.

    During a gun-rights rally on the Capitol steps on Tuesday, several House GOP members were not wearing masks amid the crowd of a few hundred at the outdoor event. Others weren't wearing masks in the Capitol Rotunda and hallways.

    Rep. Russ Diamond, a Republican from Lebanon County who takes credit for starting the mask debate in Pennsylvania, said Schemel's test result would not change his own behavior or belief that masks do not help spread infection.

    More:In Pennsylvania, fight against wearing masks involves some key Republicans, and liberty

    "I've seen him wearing a mask," Diamond said. "So you know, it is what it is."

    Diamond has previously said a better solution than masks is for symptomatic people to quarantine, and asymptomatic people "don't really need to."

    The House chamber, meeting rooms and staff work areas are being professionally sanitized as they have been during the pandemic.

    “First and foremost we are concerned about people’s safety," House Minority Leader Frank Dermody said. "This is yet another reminder that the virus is not going away and all of us need to keep following the simple steps such as washing hands, watching our distance from others, wearing masks and staying alert."

    There were recently multiple COVID-19 cases in Senate offices and other parts of the Capitol.

    Dermody, a Democrat from Allegheny County, said news of another case at the Capitol was "very disheartening, especially when some inside the Capitol still resist taking proper precautions.”

    The House minority leader said he hopes Schemel recovers quickly and criticized Republicans for not taking the virus seriously.

    “Sticking our heads in the sand and pretending the virus isn’t real will only lead to increased sickness and more deaths while hurting our economy," Dermody said Thursday afternoon. "We see it from President Trump at the national level and it’s unfortunate that his reckless approach has seeped into the House Republican Caucus."

    This morning, Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, who has not appeared at recent rallies with the president in Pennsylvania, issued this statement on news of Trump's infection with COVID-19: "Sending along best wishes to President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump on a full and speedy recovery.”

    U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Pa., said, "I wish the president and first lady well and pray they quickly recover. I trust the White House medical staff will work diligently to identify and contain any further spread within the highest levels of our government. Right now, let's remember that COVID-19 can affect anyone. It's up to all of us to wear masks, maintain a safe distance from others when in public, and promptly get tested if symptoms arise.”



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    https://fox40.com/news/political-con...rus-treatment/

    BETHESDA, Md. (AP) — President Donald Trump’s blood oxygen level dropped suddenly twice in recent days, but he “has continued to improve” since then, the White House physician said Sunday, adding a new layer of confusion to the president’s fight with COVID-19 even while suggesting he could be discharged from the hospital as early as Monday.

    Trump’s doctors, speaking on the steps of the military hospital where he was being treated for a third consecutive day, again refused to answer key questions about his condition, including the timing of the president’s second dip in oxygen, which they neglected to mention in multiple statements the day before, or whether lung scans showed any damage.

    Pressed about the conflicting information he and the White House released the previous day, Navy Cmdr. Dr. Sean Conley acknowledged that he had tried to present a rosy description of of the president’s condition.

    “I was trying to reflect the upbeat attitude of the team, that the president, that his course of illness has had. Didn’t want to give any information that might steer the course of illness in another direction,” Conley said. “And in doing so, came off like we’re trying to hide something, which wasn’t necessarily true. The fact of the matter is that he’s doing really well.”

    The briefing lasted just 10 minutes.

    Before walking away, Conley said the president had a “high fever” and a blood oxygen level below 94% on Friday and during “another episode” on Saturday. He was evasive when asked whether Trump’s level had dropped below 90%: “We don’t have any recordings here on that.”

    The level currently stands at 98%, Trump’s medical team said.

    Blood oxygen saturation is a key health marker for COVID-19 patients. A normal reading is between 95 and 100. A drop below 90 is concerning. People with the virus sometimes do not realize their oxygen levels are low.

    Trump offered his own assessment of his status the night before in a video from his hospital suite, saying he was beginning to feel better and hoped to “be back soon.” And he was back on social media early Sunday morning, sharing a video of flag-waving supporters, most not wearing masks, gathered outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

    The changing, and at times contradictory, accounts from the Trump administration highlighted a credibility crisis for the White House at a crucial moment, with the president’s health and the nation’s leadership on the line. Moreover, the president’s health represents a national security issue of paramount importance not only to the functions of the U.S. government but also to countries around the world, friendly and otherwise.

    Trump’s Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, pulled his attack ads off the air during Trump’s hospitalization, and on Sunday, he dispatched senior aides to deliver a largely friendly message.

    “We are sincerely hoping that the president makes a very quick recovery, and we can see him back out on the campaign trail very soon,” Biden adviser Symone Sanders said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

    She added: “This is a glaring reminder that the virus is real.”

    Biden was at home in Wilmington, Delaware, on Sunday with no plans for in-person campaigning or other public appearances. Having already tested negative, he is expected to release the results of a new coronavirus test later in the day, and the campaign has pledged to disclose those results and all other future test results for the 77-year-old candidate.

    On Saturday, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told reporters outside the hospital, “We’re still not on a clear path yet to a full recovery.” In an update Saturday night, Trump’s chief doctor expressed cautious optimism but added that the president was “not yet out of the woods.”

    On Sunday, Conley’s assessment was more positive, even while he acknowledged for the first time a second sudden drop in Trump’s blood oxygen level on Saturday.

    Another member of the president’s medical team, Dr. Brian Garibaldi, said Trump on Sunday “has been up and around” and “feels well.”

    “Our plan for today is to have him eat and drink, to be up out of bed as much as possible, to be mobile,” Garibaldi said. “And if he continues to look and feel as well as he does today, our hope is that we can plan for a discharge as early as tomorrow to the White House where he can continue his treatment course.”

    Meanwhile, Trump’s handling of the pandemic and his own health faced new scrutiny.

    More than 209,000 Americans have been killed by the virus, by far the highest number of confirmed fatalities in the word. In all, nearly 7.4 million people have been infected in the United States, and few have access to the kind of around-the-clock attention and experimental treatments as Trump.

    The doctors revealed that Trump was given a dose of the steroid dexamethasone after the drop in oxygen levels on Saturday.

    That was in addition to the single dose he was given Friday of an experimental drug from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. that supplies antibodies to help the immune system fight the virus. Trump on Friday also began a five-day course of remdesivir, a Gilead Sciences drug currently used for moderately and severely ill patients. The drugs work in different ways — the antibodies help the immune system rid the body of virus, and remdesivir curbs the virus’ ability to multiply.

    Trump is 74 years old and clinically obese, putting him at higher risk of serious complications.

    First lady Melania Trump remained at the White House to recover from her own bout with the virus.

    Trump’s administration has been less than transparent with the public throughout the pandemic, both about the president’s health and the virus’s spread inside the White House. The first word that a close aide to Trump had been infected came from the media, not the White House. And aides have repeatedly declined to share basic health information, including a full accounting of the president’s symptoms, what tests he’s undertaken and the results.

    Several White House officials have expressed frustration with the tenor of the White House’s discussion of the president’s health.

    They were particularly upset by the whiplash between Conley’s rosy assessment Saturday and Meadows’ more concerned outlook. They privately acknowledge that the administration has little credibility on COVID-19, but believe they have unnecessarily squandered what remains of it with the lack of clear, accurate updates on Trump’s condition.

    Most of that frustration appears to be directed at Trump himself, with aides believing that he has restricted what Conley can say or that Conley has tried to appease the president by presenting an optimistic outlook. They also blame Meadows for not establishing clear lines of communication and for making the situation worse Saturday.

    At the same time, the White House has been working to trace a flurry of new infections of close Trump aides and allies. Attention is focused in particular on the Sept. 26 White House event introducing Trump’s Supreme Court nominee.

    That day, Trump gathered more than 150 people in the Rose Garden, where they mingled, hugged and shook hands — overwhelmingly without masks. There were also several indoor receptions, where Trump’s Supreme Court pick, Amy Coney Barrett, her family, senators and others spent time in the close quarters of the White House, photographs show.

    Among those who attended and have now tested positive: former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, the president of the University of Notre Dame and at least two Republican lawmakers — Utah Sen. Mike Lee and North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis. The president’s campaign manager, Bill Stepien, and the head of the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDaniel, have also tested positive, though they were not at the event. Another prominent Republican who has tested positive: Sen. Ron Johnson. R-Wis.

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    https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/05/trum...ronavirus.html


    Update Kayleigh McEnany has been tested Positive for COVID-19.

    After testing negative consistently, including every day since Thursday, I tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday morning while experiencing no symptoms,” McEnany said in a statement that she posted on Twitter.

    “No reporters, producers, or members of the press are listed as close contacts by the White House Medical Unit.”

    McEnany gave a briefing to reporters at the White House last Thursday, hours before Trump’s advisor Hope Hicks was revealed to have tested positive for Covid-19. Trump’s diagnosis, and that of his wife, first lady Melania Trump, was revealed shortly thereafter.

    “I definitively had no knowledge of Hope Hicks’ diagnosis prior to holding a White House press briefing on Thursday,” McEnany wrote in her Twitter post.

    “As an essential worker, I have worked diligently to provide needed information to the American People at this time,” she wrote.

    “With my recent positive test, I will begin the quarantine process and will continue working on behalf of the American People remotely.”

    In White House circles, McEnany has become a symbol of how closely held the early diagnoses of Covid-19 were among high-ranking officials.

    While Hicks tested positive for the coronavirus early Thursday, McEnany was not immediately informed of the diagnosis, nor that she herself had been exposed to the virus, until Thursday evening, when press reports began to emerge about Hicks.

    In the hours between Hicks’ positive test and when McEnany learned of it, she briefed the press in the White House briefing room, while not wearing a mask.

    Melania Trump’s spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham, who preceded McEnany as White House press secretary, declined to comment on McEnany’s disclosure Monday.

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    Plague Inc the White House edition

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    MSNBC's Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski were appalled that White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany interacted with reporters despite knowing she'd been exposed to the coronavirus.

    President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump and White House adviser Hope Hicks have all tested positive for the highly contagious virus, and Associated Press reporter Jonathan Lemire said some senior officials knew they had been exposed before holding public events.

    "That's an important moment because it raised eyebrows at the time that he travelled with, this is before we knew anything about Hope Hicks, he travelled with a smaller party than usual yesterday to New Jersey," Lemire said, "and Kayleigh McEnany, who we were told was slated to travel with him did not. Instead, one of the deputy press secretaries did. Kayleigh McEnany was, we have now learned, notified of Hope Hicks' positive diagnoses yesterday and later in the day still held a briefing with White House reporters, and, of course, she was not wearing a mask."

    Good lord," Scarborough said. "Are you kidding me?"

    "Oh my god," Brzezinski added. "Stop right there."

    "Wait," Scarborough said. "She knew before that press conference where she didn't wear a mask, in front of all of those reporters and had heated exchanges with Fox News reporters?"

    "Screaming about the river," Brzezinski added.

    "She knew that she had been exposed to this disease, and went out and still had a press conference in front of members of the press?" Scarborough said.

    Lemire agreed that may have happened, although subsequent reporting showed McEnany did not know about Hicks' positive test until shortly before the news broke Thursday evening.

    "That's correct, Joe," he said. "She still took the podium in the White House briefing room. Yes, she took to the podium in the White House briefing room and spoke to reporters after learning that Hope Hicks had not been feeling well, after learning that Hope Hicks tested positive. The president himself did not interact with reporters, which was noteworthy — that's rare these days. No reporters had contact with him, other than waving at a distance headed to the helicopter headed to his New Jersey fundraiser."

    "Another key person in this, if the person were to be sick, is Vice President [Mike] Pence," Lemire added. "He did not travel with the president the last two days. He's had his own travel schedule, he was not in Washington [on] Wednesday or Thursday, he was on the campaign trail but he was seen Tuesday ahead of the debate heading into the White House residence, presumably to wish the president luck. So on Tuesday, we believe, there was contact between the president and vice president."

    https://news.yahoo.com/oh-god-joe-sc...080124536.html

  21. #71
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    Someone I have known since I was 3 just unfriended me on FB, then proceeded to make a public post saying she was deleting a bunch of people who were saying they were glad Trump got the Rona and hoped he would die....that it was disgusting and hateful and those people are sick in the head. Um, okay. Except I never posted anything like that. The only thing I have posted was that I wasn't voting for Trump (just posted one time). Most of the shit I post is funny things (not political) so I can only assume I got deleted because I wasn't a Trump supporter.

    I can't believe she had the nerve to lump me in with "sick and hateful people" just because I am not voting for him. Then try to make it seem like that's not why I was deleted. Whatever. Sad how people can be.


    Quote Originally Posted by marakisses View Post
    yes i said i will leave it under you storage he said cuddle with me i said shut up it over??? what am i doing wrong??
    Quote Originally Posted by curiouscat View Post
    Happy Birthday! I hid a dead body in your backyard to celebrate. Good luck finding it under the cement. You can only use a stick to look for it.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Nic B View Post
    Someone I have known since I was 3 just unfriended me on FB, then proceeded to make a public post saying she was deleting a bunch of people who were saying they were glad Trump got the Rona and hoped he would die....that it was disgusting and hateful and those people are sick in the head. Um, okay. Except I never posted anything like that. The only thing I have posted was that I wasn't voting for Trump (just posted one time). Most of the shit I post is funny things (not political) so I can only assume I got deleted because I wasn't a Trump supporter.

    I can't believe she had the nerve to lump me in with "sick and hateful people" just because I am not voting for him. Then try to make it seem like that's not why I was deleted. Whatever. Sad how people can be.
    Its ok, people do strange things on facebook. Being unfriended on an entertainment app is nothing to be mad or upset over. But if she calls you and tells you she'll never ever see you or speak to you ever again now that would be fucked up.

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    Update New name has popped here Michigan Rep. Beau LaFave (R-Michigan) tests positive for COVID-19.
    https://www.freep.com/story/news/pol...19/3579620001/


    An Upper Peninsula Republican lawmaker tested positive Tuesday for COVID-19, becoming at least the fifth elected official in the state believed to have contracted the disease caused by the coronavirus.

    Rep. Beau LaFave, R-Iron Mountain, posted Tuesday afternoon on his Facebook page about the positive test result.

    "Thankfully, the worst of my symptoms came and went this weekend, and I'm feeling much better. I am following the doctor’s orders and working from home through at least the middle of next week," LaFave posted.

    It was not immediately clear when or where LaFave may have contracted the disease, information that can be difficult to determine.

    LaFave was at the Statehouse last week, when lawmakers adopted the budget and passed other key pieces of legislation. He said he is working with staff to inform anyone who had contact with him during the week. LaFave said he followed safety guidelines, including social distancing, washing his hands frequently and wearing a mask.

    LaFave, who is chairman of the House committee on Military, Veterans and Homeland Security, is a supporter of efforts to repeal the state laws Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is using to extend a state of emergency and related coronavirus measures.

    As of late Tuesday, the state legislative website still listed Senate committee meetings scheduled for this week. But a spokesman for House Speaker Lee Chatfield, R-Levering, said a hearing of the Joint Select Committee on the COVID-19 pandemic, slated for Wednesday morning, would be rescheduled out of an abundance of caution.

    More:Michigan coronavirus cases: Tracking the pandemic

    More:COVID-19 closes some schools while others look to open

    At least four other Michigan lawmakers have contracted COVID-19 or were believed to have the disease, including one who died earlier this year.

    In March, Detroit Democrats Rep. Tyrone Carter and Karen Whitsett tested positive for the disease. While they would recover, state Rep. Isaac Robinson, D-Detroit, died later that month because of suspected coronavirus complications. The Legislature honored Robinson, who was 44, with a resolution last week.

    State Sen. Tom Barrett — a Charlotte Republican who sponsored a bill to limit the emergency powers Whitmer has used to address the pandemic — tested positive for COVID-19 in August. Barrett has recovered and returned to his legislative work.

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    https://www.statnews.com/2020/10/05/...oes-not-apply/

    If President Trump’s Covid-19 infection was a wake-up call in Washington, not everyone appears to have heard it.

    Vice President Mike Pence is continuing public activities, even though he was at the Sept. 26 White House ceremony where Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court was announced and where multiple members of the president’s inner circle — and perhaps even the president himself — appear to have been infected. Pence sat directly in front of Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and within a few feet of Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), both of whom announced on Friday that they had tested positive for the virus.

    Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) was tested for Covid-19 but still decided to attend a Republican event in his home state Friday night. By the following day, he announced he had contracted the virus, suggesting he may have spread it further at the Friday gathering. Despite having tested positive, Johnson continues to oppose Wisconsin’s mandatory mask mandate, telling the Wisconsin State Journal that masks are “certainly not a cure-all.”
    Three Republican congressmen who traveled with the president on Air Force One last week — on the flight during which Trump senior adviser Hope Hicks was ill — flew back to Minnesota on a commercial flight on Friday, despite having been in contact with the president.

    Related: ‘There’s a disconnect’: Outside medical experts question the upbeat portrayal of president’s condition
    And Sunday afternoon, Trump himself left Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for a brief drive-by to wave to supporters outside the facility. The president and Secret Service agents in his vehicle were all wearing masks — but that may not be enough protection, according to James Phillips, chief of disaster medicine at George Washington University School of medicine and an attending physician at Walter Reed.



    “That Presidential SUV is not only bulletproof, but hermetically sealed against chemical attack. The risk of COVID19 transmission inside is as high as it gets outside of medical procedures,” Phillips tweeted. “Every single person in the vehicle during that completely unnecessary presidential ‘drive-by’ just now has to be quarantined for 14 days. They might get sick. They may die. For political theater. Commanded by Trump to put their lives at risk for theater. This is insanity.”

    Public health experts are aghast at the way the administration is approaching the spread of Covid-19 within the highest echelons of the government and the Republican Party.

    “Public officials who know they have been exposed to the virus and should be in quarantine are either displaying blatant arrogance or numbing ignorance,” Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy, told STAT.

    “The laws of virus transmission aren’t different for public officials than they are for everyone else,” he said.

    A state public health official who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals, said in an email: “It is SO frustrating to have well-known elected officials disregarding public health guidance. It does not model the behavior we want to see in the public or that we expect of them.”

    The official added: “Kids have to miss the sports they love to be in quarantine and our elected officials just ignore the guidance. It suggests that some people feel they are above looking out for the people around them.”

    Though there seem to be many more Republican instances of flouting the guidance, public health experts have also raised concern about Democrats. Some question whether Democratic Party presidential nominee Joe Biden ought to be taking part in in-person campaigning, given he shared a debate stage last Tuesday with Trump, who was certainly already infected by that time and may have been emitting virus. The Biden campaign said Sunday night that Biden tested negative for the coronavirus for the third time since the debate.

    Others question whether Biden’s running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), should take part in a live debate this week with Pence. Physician Nancy Snyderman, NBC’s former chief medical editor, lost her job for breaking quarantine after returning from an assignment in an Ebola outbreak.

    On Sunday, Snyderman called for the debate to be moved to a virtual format. “Will one of these doctors stand up to this crew and set them straight?” she tweeted.

    The Centers for Disease Prevention and Control says people should wear masks when they are in public settings with others with whom they do not share a household. But President Trump has rarely been seen wearing a mask and has mocked people who do. He criticized Biden during last Tuesday’s debate for wearing a mask and accused a masked reporter at one of his press conferences of trying to be “politically correct.”

    Olivia Troye, Pence’s former homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, has told reporters that the president would sometimes denigrate White House staffers if they wore masks at meetings, instructing them to take them off. (Troye recently left that role and declared she is voting for Biden for president.)

    The CDC also recommends that people who test positive for the virus isolate themselves for 10 days from the point of their positive test if they don’t develop symptoms, and at least 10 days from the start of symptoms if they do become ill. People who have symptoms should remain in isolation for longer if they are continuing to run a fever, the guidance says.

    Related: Hugs, handshakes, and few masks: A Rose Garden Supreme Court announcement packed with Covid-19 red flags
    People who have had close contact with someone who tested positive for Covid-19 should quarantine for 14 days after the exposure, the CDC says; quarantining is a way to try to halt onward transmission of the virus. The CDC defines close contact as being within 6 feet of someone for 15 minutes or longer or having been hugged or kissed by a person who later was diagnosed with Covid-19. Both Lee and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — who has also contracted the virus — were photographed embracing a number of other guests at the White House event for Coney Barrett.

    Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health, said there appears to be a belief among prominent politicians that these public health rules do not apply to them.

    “There’s almost this sense — and I see this with both quarantining and isolation — that, ‘Yeah, it would be nice to have. In the ideal world, sure, if we didn’t have a campaign going on. Sure, if there weren’t more urgent issues,’” he said.

    But everyone who is asked to isolate or quarantine themselves by public health officials is inconvenienced — and yet the expectation is that they will do so for the greater public good.

    “And the truth is in many ways it’s much, much easier for Vice President Pence to quarantine,’’ Jha said. “He’d do it in a nice home. He’d be able to do 90% of his work still. If you ask a person who’s basically an hourly wage worker to quarantine for two weeks because they’ve had a direct exposure, they lose their wages.”

    Osterholm said the number of infections that have emerged within the president’s inner circle ought to serve as “an absolute wake-up call” that mask wearing, social distancing, isolating of the infected, and quarantining of their contacts must be taken seriously by the political class.

    “This goes to both parties and all events over the next month,” he said, warning that failing to do so “is playing with both political and public health fire.”

    Jha said politicians who think that testing negative after an exposure somehow gives them a get-out-of-quarantine card are wrong. Covid-19 tests aren’t 100% accurate and can produce both false positive and false negative results.

    “Clearly somebody was infectious last Saturday at the White House. And they tested negative. So, what more proof do you need that testing isn’t going to get you where you need to be?” he asked.

    The lack of support for containment measures among political leaders has eroded public support for things like wearing masks and quarantining, Jha said.

    “The bottom line is that when our leaders undermine public health messaging by not doing it themselves, they send a very clear signal to the American people that this stuff is actually not that important,” he said.

    “I think that’s the single biggest reason we are at 7.5 million [Americans] infected and 210,000 deaths.”

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