Trump Can’t Stop It by Injecting Disinfectant: White House COVID-19 Infestation. But It Ominously Shows That "Reopening" Nation Puts Us All at Grave Risk.
May 12, 2020
White House COVID-19 infestation shows US should not be “reopened” now (vpereman)
MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH
Yes, in three successive days three White House staffers were confirmed to be positive for the Coronavirus. The three individuals involved were a valet to Donald Trump, the Press Secretary to Mike Pence, Katie Miller (wife of racist Senior Trump Adviser Stephen Miller, who may or may not be infected), and Ivanka Trump’s personal assistant.
However, the outbreak of COVID-19 in the Executive Branch is a lot worse. I couldn’t find it from another source, so I am citing a May 9 FOX news article on the penetration of the Coronavirus into the Secret Service:
At least 11 members of the Secret Service -- charged with protecting President Trump and other officials -- had the virus as of Thursday evening, according to a Department of Homeland Security tally reviewed by Yahoo News….
According to the DHS, 23 other members of the Secret Service have recovered from COVID-19 and some 60 of the agency's employees are self-quarantining as a precaution, Yahoo News reported.
"In the span of hours, the coronavirus task force was likely exposed, the vice president was definitely exposed, and a top health official can't come into the office," [a] source told Politico. "It's a textbook case of why we can't rush to re-open."
Pence was in regular contact with Katie Miller, neither of them wearing face masks, at the White House. And although the White House says he has tested negative. Trump would insist that that would be the announcement for Pence or himself even if they tested positive, gambling that they would be asymptomatic for the 14 day-period for signs of the virus to occur.
If this sounds like outrageous speculation, note what the Trumpster Governor of Iowa, Kim Reynolds, had to say in regards to her meeting with Pence in the Hawkeye State, according to the Iowa Capital Dispatch:
Reynolds met with President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence while at the White House, and met again with Pence, in Iowa, on Friday. It was on Friday, she said, that she learned a member of the vice president’s staff had tested positive for COVID-19.
Reynolds said while she had no direct contact with the staffer, she is now following a “modified quarantine plan” that includes daily testing, social distancing and wearing a mask when interacting with others.
Reynolds said she is having her temperature checked throughout each day, and that she was tested Monday morning and had the results back in about 10 minutes, indicating she was negative for COVID-19.
Also, it should be noted that the Abbott rapid COVID-19 tests used by the White House have a 15% false negative record.
After a valet is usually in close contact with his employer, helping him to dress, bringing him food and fetching items for him. Trump’s valet would be well within the six feet infection zone of Trump. Also, it is still not clear when a test reveals a positive. It might not be until 1 or two days after the infection, which means Trump could also be infected, but that he is hoping he remains asymptomatic. Actually, considering Trump’s flouting of his own guidelines, it is amazing that Trump has not yet been infected.
Which leads to the primary reason why this hotspot outbreak at the White House makes it ominously clear why the nation should proceed to a full lock-down and not be relaxing shelter-in-place measures. As BuzzFlash has discussed many a time, perhaps as many as 50% of transmissions come from asymptomatic spreaders (which healthcare providers cannot detect due to Trump’s obstruction of building up massive testing, which he tried to dispel in a campaign-style PR stunt on Monday in the Rose Garden). Indeed, at least one study has shown that pre-symptomatic spreaders are most infectious 1-2 days before any symptoms appear.
As CNN headlined in an article, “One workplace where social distancing is impossible? The West Wing” The West Wing workplace for most staffers is so cramped that it creates the perfect petri dish for transmitting an infectious virus. Weeks ago Trump and Pence should have had White House personnel find social distancing workspaces in DC or allowed staffers to work from home if possible.
In addition, Trump, trying to show bravado against an implacable foe, wouldn’t wear a mask — even though they are mandated by CDC guidelines from his own administration — and White House staffers generally followed the lead of their “fearless leader” and didn’t wear masks either (although on Monday, May 11, Trump issued a workplace rule that all staffers would wear masks, with him being the exception.)
Now Fauci is “partially” self-quarantining and the heads of the FDA are in full quarantine. Now that is an ironic commentary on the false reassurances of Trump’s Coronavirus Task Force, with the science-based wing at least partially sidelined.
There is no truce granted by the Coronavirus to the man who thinks he is invincible and has said that wearing a mask is a sign of weakness. His supporters are following his lead and believe that “white supremacist Christian genes” will protect them from COVID-19.
But the Coronavirus has checkmated Trump, burned up the chess board, and it will not retreat or surrender. It will keep rolling across the US through primarily asymptomatic spreaders, who cannot be detected without massive testing. (Testing for a fever is not at all reliable for ferreting out asymptomatic carriers.)
It is our greatest and most portentous misfortune that we have a sociopathic willful manslaughterer and liar facilitating a virus spread that will mean the deaths of Americans who, alive, would populate a good-size city.
The mainstream media is treating the White House Coronavirus hotspot as if it were a fire that was put out. It’s not; it’s evidence that the US cannot yet reopen with even remotely more security than it had when Trump declared after a few deaths that COVID-19 would “disappear like a miracle.”
A tsunami of unnecessary death is headed our way, and it won’t be stopped by injecting disinfectant.
Also Read These Other Recent BuzzFlash Editor’s Commentaries:
Trump Intentionally Let the Coronavirus "Wash Over" America, a Failure by Design
BuzzFlash Update:
CNN disclosed Trump’s real concerns as excerpted from a Monday email newsletter:
“In conversations this weekend, Trump has expressed concern that aides contracting coronavirus would undercut his message that the outbreak is waning and states should begin reopening, according to a person who spoke with him."
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