{"id":44233,"date":"2020-11-09T20:23:38","date_gmt":"2020-11-09T20:23:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=44233"},"modified":"2020-11-09T20:23:38","modified_gmt":"2020-11-09T20:23:38","slug":"donald-trumps-election-night-party-adds-to-coronavirus-scrutiny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=44233","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump\u2019s election night party adds to coronavirus scrutiny"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

It was supposed to be a scene of celebration.<\/p>\n

Instead, the Trump campaign\u2019s election<\/a> night watch party in the White House East Room \u2013 with few masks and no social distancing \u2013 is being eyed as a potential coronavirus<\/a> super-spreading event and yet another symbol of President Donald Trump\u2019s cavalier attitude towards a virus that is ripping across the nation and infecting more than 100,000 people a day.<\/p>\n

Ben Carson, the secretary for Housing and Urban Development, is the latest attendee to test positive, a department spokesman confirmed. The event has been under scrutiny since another attendee, the president\u2019s chief of staff, Mark Meadows<\/a>, contracted the virus, which has now killed more than 237,000 people in the US alone.<\/p>\n

Ben Carson, the Secretary for Housing and Urban Development, is the latest attendee to test positive [File: Kevin Lamarque\/Reuters]<\/figure>\n

Carson\u2019s deputy chief of staff Coalter Baker said the secretary \u201cis in good spirits\u201d and \u201cfeels fortunate to have access to effective therapeutics which aid and markedly speed his recovery\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lax approach<\/h2>\n

The White House has repeatedly refused to say who else has tested positive, even as the virus continued to spread. The latest White House cluster, coming just a month after Trump\u2019s own diagnosis<\/a> and hospitalisation, includes a top Trump campaign official, as well as a handful of undisclosed White House staff, officials said.<\/p>\n

The White House has been increasingly secretive about outbreaks. Many White House and campaign officials, as well as those who attended the election watch party, were kept in the dark about the diagnoses, unaware until they were disclosed by the press.<\/p>\n

That the virus would continue to spread in the White House \u2013 even though senior staff and those who come into close contact with the president and vice president are frequently tested \u2013 has come as no surprise to public health officials who have baulked at the White House\u2019s lax approach.<\/p>\n

And polls suggest that attitude was a serious drag on the president\u2019s re-election bid as voters chose to deny Trump a second term in favour of his Democratic rival, now President-elect Joe Biden.<\/p>\n

US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell leaving the Senate floor [File: Ken Cedeno\/Reuters]<\/figure>\n

\u201cThe administration was cavalier about the risks of the virus for themselves and for the country. And that\u2019s one reason why we have so many cases,\u201d said Dr Joshua Sharfstein, a public health professor at Johns Hopkins University\u2019s school of public health.<\/p>\n

Even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he has been avoiding the White House since August \u201cbecause my impression was their approach to how to handle this was different from mine and what I insisted that we do in the Senate, which is to wear a mask and practise social distancing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump had long claimed, without basis, that the virus was being hyped by Democrats to hurt his re-election chances and would miraculously \u201cdisappear\u201d after November 3.<\/p>\n

Meadows, in particular, has long tried to play down the severity of the virus. He rarely wore a mask in public, except during the period immediately following Trump\u2019s infection. At one point, he refused to speak to reporters on Capitol Hill after they requested he wear a mask.<\/p>\n

Festive atmosphere<\/h2>\n

He was again without one during Tuesday evening\u2019s East Room event, where more than 100 of Trump\u2019s most loyal supporters, family members and Cabinet secretaries gathered to watch the election results come in and see him deliver what they had hoped would be a victory speech.<\/p>\n

Birds flying over the White House at dusk, the day after a presidential election victory was called for former Vice President Joe Biden [Erin Scott\/Reuters]<\/figure>\n

It was a festive atmosphere, with half-empty glasses of wine and other beverages strewn across cocktail tables in front of news cameras. Meadows, who spent time with Trump\u2019s family beforehand, was seen working the room, including giving several fist-bumps to those in attendance, before Trump took the stage early on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

Carson was there, along with Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar \u2013 who did wear a mask.<\/p>\n

While everyone who attended the East Room event had been tested in advance for the virus, there was no social distancing and minimal mask-wearing.<\/p>\n

Earlier that day, Meadows had also accompanied the president to his campaign\u2019s headquarters in Virginia, where Trump received rousing cheers from several dozen staff and volunteers. Meadows did not wear a mask, nor did other White House staffers. Campaign aides largely did.<\/p>\n

If Meadows tested positive Wednesday \u2013 as Bloomberg News reported \u2013 he would likely have been infectious during both events, said Saskia Popescu, an epidemiologist who teaches at George Mason University.<\/p>\n

Meadows had also travelled with Trump in the run-up to Election Day, attending dozens of rallies where he was frequently seen interacting with supporters without masks.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s refusal to abide by his own government\u2019s public health guidelines throughout the campaign was a major source of frustration for local governments as he scheduled rally after rally in defiance of local caps on crowd sizes, even in pandemic hot zones.<\/p>\n

While Trump had hoped his efforts to downplay the virus in a bid to revive a limping economy would help him with voters, many Republicans now believe that Trump might have won re-election had he handled things differently.<\/p>\n

Still, Trump\u2019s approach reflected the priorities of his supporters. AP VoteCast, a national survey of the electorate, found that about half of Trump voters called the economy and jobs the top issue facing the nation, versus just one in 10 Biden voters. A majority of Biden voters, meanwhile \u2013 about six in 10 \u2013 said the pandemic was the most important issue facing the country.<\/p>\n

\u2018A ripe environment for transmission\u2019<\/h2>\n

The White House did not respond to specific questions about the current outbreak, but said that contact tracing had been conducted by the White House Medical Unit, consistent with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.<\/p>\n

\u201cAppropriate notifications and recommendations have been made,\u201d the White House said.<\/p>\n

The CDC defines \u201cclose contact\u201d as spending at least 15 minutes within six feet of an infected person beginning two days before they test positive or exhibit symptoms.<\/p>\n

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows speaking to the media after US President Donald Trump announced that he and US First Lady Melania Trump have both tested positive for the coronavirus disease\u00a0 in Washington, DC, US [File: Joshua Roberts\/Reuters]<\/figure>\n

But Popescu called the party, in particular, \u201ca ripe environment for transmission to occur,\u201d and said anyone in attendance should have been informed and asked to take precautions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile they might not meet CDC guidelines for exposure, I think when we\u2019re looking at an indoor event with a lot of people for a prolonged period who are unmasked, out of an abundance of caution, everyone should be notified and encouraged to stay home,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow is not the time to be cavalier about the risks,\u201d Sharfstein said.<\/p>\n

Ohio pastor Darrell Scott, a close ally of the president who attended the party, said he was unaware any White House officials beyond Meadows had tested positive until informed by a reporter and had not been contacted by any tracer.<\/p>\n

While Scott, like many in Trump\u2019s orbit, continued to insist fraud was to blame for the president\u2019s loss \u2013 despite no credible evidence supporting those claims \u2013 he also blamed Trump for several \u201cunforced errors\u201d during the campaign, including the way he talked about the virus.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t be upset if we shoot ourselves in the foot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The latest outbreak came less than two weeks after several aides to Vice President Mike Pence, including his chief of staff, tested positive for the virus. And it came a month after Trump, First Lady Melania Trump and at least two dozen others tested positive after Trump held large gatherings of people not wearing facemasks, including the ceremony announcing the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was supposed to be a scene of celebration. Instead, the Trump campaign\u2019s election night watch party in the White House East Room \u2013 with few masks and no social distancing \u2013 is being eyed as a potential coronavirus super-spreading event and yet another symbol of President Donald Trump\u2019s cavalier attitude towards a virus that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44233\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}