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The ceremony was held last Saturday at the White House to formally announce the candidacy of Amy Coney Barrett, a judge proposed by President Donald Trump for the Supreme Court. About 150 people attended the event, including several Republican and parliamentary officials, mostly without complying with basic rules to prevent the spread of the coronavirus epidemic, such as wearing a mask and maintaining a minimum distance between people. “Morale was high,” said the Washington Post in a detailed reconstruction of Trump’s movements last week, and guests who tested negative for the coronavirus rapid test were told they did not need to cover their mouths and noses.
Today that event is seen as a possible moment of greater spread of the coronavirus among officials and politicians close to Trump, who was hospitalized on Friday, as a precautionary measure, the White House said, for developing symptoms of COVID-19. . According to the doctors treating him, Trump would be fine: he would have no fever in 24 hours and today they would not have given him oxygen. However, his doctor, Sean Conley, did not mean that Trump has received supplemental oxygen since he fell ill.
In the last hours, several American newspapers, including Political, Buzzfeed, New York Times me Washington Post, have reconstructed Trump’s moves over the past week: rallies, events and even the televised debate with Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential candidate, which took place on Italian night between Tuesday and Wednesday in Cleveland, Ohio. Above all, the management of anti-COVID measures by the president’s staff was analyzed, as well as the general level of compliance with the regulations, defined by many as insufficient.
It is not clear where Trump contracted the coronavirus, especially since in the last week alone the president visited seven different states and met with hundreds of people. But on Saturday, Trump’s doctor, Sean Conley, said Trump’s positivity was 72 hours earlier – on Wednesday, two days before it was publicly announced. It would mean that Trump continued to attend events and meet people, without a mask, for two days, despite knowing that he contracted the coronavirus.
A moment of the event at the White House organized to officially present the candidacy of Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, on Saturday, September 26, 2020 (AP Photo / Alex Brandon)
After Saturday’s event, announcing the candidacy of Judge Amy Coney Barrett, Trump began to prepare for the first televised debate with Biden: on Sunday he met, among others, Rudy Guliani, former mayor of New York, negative result. to hyssop, and Chris Christie, former governor of the state of New Jersey, tested positive. Christie said that several people were in the same room during his meeting with Trump and that none were wearing masks.
Trump held a small ceremony at the White House that night honoring military families. The event was also attended by the vice president, Mike Pence, and his wife, Karen Pence, who tested negative for the coronavirus. Again, the people present were not wearing masks and were sitting together, with no safety distance.
– Read also: How did Giuliani end up like this?
Trump spoke from the White House’s Rose Garden on Monday about the progress his administration had made on swabs. He then met with Vice President Pence, Health Secretary Alex Azar II, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Abbott Laboratories chief Robert Ford, who all tested negative for the coronavirus.
He went to Cleveland on Tuesday to speak with Biden, accompanied by several advisers and family members, including Melania Trump. None of the people on board Air Force One, bound for Cleveland, wore the mask either during boarding or upon arrival.
Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump in the debate room between Trump and Biden without a mask, in violation of the current rules. Cleveland, Ohio, Tuesday, Sept. 29 (Olivier Douliery / Group VI AP)
Chris Wallace, commentator for Fox News Often critical of Trump and moderator of the event, he gave several details about what happened before the debate. He said, for example, that after entering the room where the event was to begin, members of the Trump family removed their masks, in violation of the rules established by the Cleveland Clinic, a facility that had been contracted to guarantee measures health security. during the event. Wallace said: A Cleveland Clinic health worker went to see members of the presidential family after they sat down and offered them masks in case they didn’t have them; he was fired.
During the debate, Trump also mocked Biden for always wearing the mask, which was later heavily criticized.
The first person to show COVID-19 symptoms in Trump’s inner circle was Hope Hicks, the president’s adviser, who was on the Air Force One flight to Cleveland (as was Bill Stepien, Trump’s campaign leader. he also tested positive later).
On Wednesday, September 30, Hicks flew to Minnesota with Trump: That morning she tested negative for hyssop, but then began to feel ill aboard Air Force One, the presidential plane, and isolated herself during the flight. back. In a subsequent swab done Thursday morning, Hicks tested positive. During the rally in Duluth, Minnesota on Wednesday, Trump’s voice sounded particularly hoarse and her speech was shorter than usual, the. Washington Post. It is not clear if Trump was infected on Wednesday or days before.
Initially, however, Hicks’ positivity had been kept a secret: it had not been revealed to the newspapers and had not even been announced to his colleagues.
On Thursday, rumors of Hicks’s positivity began circulating among Trump advisers. Some staff members told the Washington Post, began to wear the mask for fear of infection. Despite Hicks’ infection, Trump has not changed his plans – to go to his private golf club in Bedminster, NJ, for an election campaign fundraising event. Trump’s decision to attend the event anyway, despite Hicks’s positivity, was a violation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) protocols, which say that when a person tests positive, Everyone who has been in contact with you in the previous 48 hours must at least remain in solitary confinement.
Hope Hicks and Jared Kushner, Trump advisers, Sept.30 at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland (AP Photo / Alex Brandon)
In Bedminster, Trump was seen sitting at a table with several moneylenders, many of them quite older: none were wearing masks. On the return trip, Trump told those with him that Hicks had tested positive and communicated his intention to be tested. The news of Hicks’ positivity was made public that same night, but not after a statement from the White House – he reported it. Bloomberg, and then it was confirmed by official sources.
Violations of the rules also occurred on Friday, following the tweet in which Trump announced that he had tested positive and that he had isolated himself in the White House. Chris Christie, a former New Jersey state governor who helped Trump prepare for the debate with Biden, had not received immediate communication about the president’s positivity; as well as at least one reporter who tested positive, who had traveled with Trump in the previous week.
Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We’ll get through it TOGETHER!
– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 2, 2020
Since Friday night, Trump has been hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, a military hospital in the US state of Maryland, where he will remain for several days. The White House said the president suffers from mild symptoms and added that there will be no temporary transfer of powers to Vice President Mike Pence, a scenario envisaged by a clause of the United States Constitution in case the president cannot exercise them.
– Read also: Some answers about Trump and the coronavirus
There are nine people who have tested positive for coronavirus and belong to the president’s inner circle so far (including Melania Trump and excluding Trump), while those who have tested negative are eight, including Pence and Joe Biden: not said, no However, someone currently negative cannot. develop COVID-19 symptoms in the next few days. At least three journalists who usually work in the White House have also tested positive, while others are awaiting the results or have not yet been cleared.
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