Americans are ditching masks and trying to move on from COVID-19, but the virus is piercing the inner circle of the White House and its line of succession with alarming frequency.
Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin tested positive for the virus late Wednesday and had to leave an event at the National Building Museum attended by President Biden, 79, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who, at 81, is second in line to the presidency. Vaccines and boosters should provide high protection against severe disease or death but seniors are still at a far higher risk of bad outcomes from the virus than young people.
The White House said Mr. Biden wasn’t a “close contact” of the Irish leader under formal guidelines, and Mrs. Pelosi said she wasn’t worried about her health, either.
But it was the second time this week the virus prompted a scare in the corridors of the West Wing. Second gentleman Doug Emhoff tested positive for the virus Tuesday, raising concerns about a potential chain of exposure through his wife, Vice President Kamala Harris, who is first in line to become the leader of the free world.
“He’s doing well, thank you for asking,” Ms. Harris told reporters who asked about Mr. Emhoff at a swearing-in Thursday for Shalanda D. Young as White House budget director.
Ms. Harris, 57, is also feeling fine and she attended a bill signing Tuesday with Mr. Biden, Mrs. Pelosi and Sen. Patrick Leahy, the 81-year-old Vermont Democrat who is the Senate pro tempore and third in line to the presidency. Ms. Harris did skip another public event marking Equal Pay Day later that day.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki took the close calls in stride Thursday, saying persons are tested before they see Mr. Biden and officials see no reason to test Mr. Biden more frequently.
“He was not tested today, he was tested last Sunday,” Ms. Psaki said of the president. “His weekly testing cadence remains as it has been.”
She said Mr. Biden was not a “close contact” of Mr. Martin or Mr. Emhoff under a definition from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which describes a contact as someone who is less than 6 feet away from an infected person for a total of 15 minutes in a 24-hour period.
Still, the confirmed infections come at an awkward time for the White House, which followed new CDC guidance in deciding to drop mandatory mask-wearing on the White House grounds.
Mr. Biden and the nation he leads are trying to pivot from the pandemic phase of the COVID-19 crisis to a period in which the virus is managed like other public health threats. Daily U.S. case counts of around 30,000 are the lowest since the pre-delta variant period last summer, though the latest round of positive cases shows the virus hasn’t disappeared and will spur hand-wringing in Washington.
Lawmakers in Congress have shed masks, too, and gathered en masse for a midweek address from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who pleaded for help in repelling Russian invaders.
“We rarely consult the dim corners of Article I of the Constitution or the Presidential Succession Act, but perhaps we should dust them off. Mass gatherings such as the Zelenskyy speech to Congress could be mass-spreader events,” said Ross Baker, a politics professor at Rutgers University. “We have dropped our guard and the older individuals, including the president and those in the line of succession, need to be cautious. A line of succession populated by so many octogenarians is problematic.”
The positive side is that the higher-risk dignitaries have been vaccinated and boosted and likely have ready access to anti-COVID treatments, such as monoclonal antibodies and antiviral drugs, according to Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
“COVID-19 is not going to be eradicated or eliminated, there are always going to be exposures,” Dr. Adalja said. “Because we have tools now that we did not have such exposures have less significance and impact.”
He added, “People need to see how the country — now replete with several medical tools — can live amidst this virus without it causing the massive disruptions it once did.”
Mrs. Pelosi was photographed sitting and speaking to Mr. Martin without a mask, although the White House said Mr. Biden would not be deemed a “close contact” of the prime minister, also known as the Taoiseach, based on Wednesday’s events.
The speaker, at a regular press conference Thursday, said the prime minister was masked for a while at the gala but took it off to eat, before being taken away during the appetizer course. She said she isn’t worried.
“I get tested almost everyday … because many times I see the president and you have to be tested to do that and really, it’s for the safety of my colleagues whom I come in contact with,” she said.
Mr. Biden has avoided catching the virus so far and shared some laughs with Mr. Martin, who called from Blair House noted the pair met virtually across the ocean last year but met virtually “across the road” on Thursday.
“So we’re getting closer,” Mr. Martin said.
Mr. Biden apologized for the inconvenience of a video meeting after Mr. Martin flew all the way from Ireland but said it was nice to catch up Wednesday evening.
“I did at a little distance for seven-and-a-half minutes get to see you yesterday,” Mr. Biden said, seemingly cognizant of the CDC’s definition of a close contact.
Former President Donald Trump battled COVID-19 in October 2020. Aged 74 at the time, Mr. Trump’s illness forced him to spend time at Walter Reed Military Medical Center so he could receive groundbreaking treatments and recover.
The Trump White House was often criticized as too lax with its COVID-19 protocols and vulnerable to the spread of the virus. A September 2020 event hailing Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court was panned as a superspreader event.
For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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