Race to White House: Trump aide says ‘we’re not going to control the pandemic’

The coronavirus has reached the heart of the White House once again, less than a week before Election Day, as it burns the nation and the president’s top adviser says “we are not going to control the pandemic.” Officials scoffed Sunday at the idea of ​​rebinding the campaign in person despite positive testing from several aides to Vice President Mike Pence, who leads the White House coronavirus task force.

Pressured to explain why the pandemic cannot be controlled, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said: “Because it is a contagious virus like the flu.” He told CNN’s “State of the Union” that the government was focused on bringing effective therapies and vaccines to market.

Pence, who tested negative Sunday according to his office, planned an afternoon rally in North Carolina, while the president held an afternoon rally in New Hampshire and was scheduled to visit Maine later. Democrat Joe Biden attended church and planned to participate in a virtual voting concert in the evening. He said in a statement that Meadows was effectively waving “the white flag of defeat” and “a heartfelt recognition of what President Trump’s strategy has clearly been since the beginning of this crisis.”

The White House said none of the staff members traveling with Trump Sunday had been in close contact with anyone in the vice president’s office who had tested positive. But public health experts said Pence’s decision to continue campaigning in person was a show of common sense.

“If Pence did not self-quarantine, he would violate all the basic public health principles that his own task force recommends,” said Lawrence Gostin, a public health expert at Georgetown University School of Law. “It’s a standard for the vice president and another for the rest of us.”

The United States set a daily record on Friday for new confirmed coronavirus infections and almost equaled it on Saturday with 83,178, data released by Johns Hopkins University shows. About 8.6 million Americans have contracted the coronavirus since the pandemic began and about 225,000 have died; both totals are the highest in the world. About half of the states have recorded their highest number of daily infections so far sometime in October.

Trump, campaigning in Londonderry, New Hampshire, said the rising rate of infections was not a cause for concern. “Do you know why we have so many cases?” Trump asked a crowd shoulder to shoulder. “Because all we do is test.”

Going into the last full week before the Nov. 3 election, it’s clear that Trump’s team remains committed to a full-fledged campaign. Trump himself has resumed a hectic schedule since he recovered from his own recent coronavirus case and was planning to appear with Pence at a rally Monday in Pennsylvania. Pence was returning to North Carolina on Tuesday.

Despite rising virus numbers, the White House says the US economy should fully reopen and has tried to counter Biden’s criticism that Trump is not doing enough to contain the worst health crisis. US public in more than a century.

Trump and his aides again attacked Biden on Sunday, falsely claiming that Biden was determined to block the economy, while the president focuses his attention on bringing therapies and vaccines to market.

“We want normal life to resume,” Trump said. “We just want a normal life.”

Biden, in fact, has said he would only shut down the country if that’s what government scientists advise. He has said that if elected, he would explain why a national mask mandate might be necessary and would go to governors to help increase the use of masks by Americans.

Pence’s office says there are no plans to scale back the campaign. In addition to Chief of Staff Marc Short, who tested positive Saturday, a “couple” of aides also contracted the disease, Meadows said.

Meadows said Pence will wear a mask, “because doctors have advised him to do so,” but will remove it when he gives a speech.

Even with the latest negative Pence test, symptoms, including fever, cough and fatigue, can appear two to 14 days after exposure to the virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some asymptomatic individuals test positive two to three days before developing symptoms.

The White House says Pence was deemed to be in “close contact” with Short under CDC guidelines. The guidelines require essential workers exposed to someone with the coronavirus to monitor closely for Covid-19 symptoms and wear a mask when around other people.

After consulting with the White House Medical Unit, Pence intended to keep his schedule “in accordance with the CDC guidelines for essential personnel,” said Devin O’Malley, a Pence spokesman.

Meadows sidestepped questions about whether Pence’s campaign fit in with the spirit of the CDC guidelines for essential work. “He’s not just campaigning, he’s working,” Meadows said.

Candidates have displayed strikingly different attitudes about what they see as safe behavior in the final stretch of a campaign that, as with all aspects of American life, has been disrupted by the pandemic.

Trump came out of his own illness with even greater certainty that the nation has gone too far with efforts to stop the virus, repeatedly speaking that children should go to school and healthy Americans should get back to normal life. with limited restrictions. Biden has relied on virtual events and small socially distanced gatherings to present his case to voters.

“We are not going to control the pandemic. We are going to control the fact that we receive vaccines, therapies and other areas of mitigation,” Meadows said on CNN. He added: “We are making efforts to contain it.”

– Associated Press