Coronavirus

White House Adopts Strict Safety Measures While Economy Blindly Reopens

Written by SK Ashby

The White House Press Secretary and Trump himself have both gone as far as to say that widescale testing and contract tracing is a waste of time and effort, but that's exactly what they're going to do at the White House.

Several top aids, staffers, and officials tested positive for the coronavirus over the weekend and that has prompted the White House to impose daily testing and contact tracing.

President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence will be tested daily for the virus, as will every staff member in close proximity to them. White House guests will be tested, workspaces will undergo regular deep cleaning, and staff will follow social distancing guidelines, undergo daily temperature checks and have their symptom histories reviewed, White House spokesman Judd Deere said Sunday.

“The president’s physician and White House operations continue to work closely to ensure every precaution is taken to keep the president, first family and the entire White House complex safe and healthy at all times,” Deere said. [...]

The virus’ spread closer to Trump’s inner circle comes at a particularly inconvenient time for the White House, which has been urging states to reopen their economies and has been trying to show that life is returning to normal across much of the country.

We can plainly see that the White House evidently understands the value of testing and tracing for their own personal safety, but there has been no effort to scale those measures up for the general public.

Trump wants everyone to go back to work and resume shopping in close proximity to each other without the benefit of knowing if they or someone close to them has been exposed, but the White House is taking every effort to prevent that from happening (again) among themselves.

It's actually becoming difficult to believe that neither Pence or Trump are carrying the virus at this point. But even if they tested positive, I also don't necessarily believe they would tell us. Trump would probably view a confirmation that he's infected as worse than the Access Hollywood tape.

Trump recently met with the Joints Chiefs of Staff and none of them wore gloves or masks even though the head of the National Guard, General Joseph Lengyel, may be carrying the virus.

The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, is now in self-quarantine.