Did President Super-Spreader Doom Anyone Before They Forced Him To Go To The Hospital?

 

We'll get to the Bedminster crime scene in a moment. First, though, on Sunday Trump or a stunt double got in an SUV and drove around the hospital waving at the Proud Boys and other fascists camped out there. He was locked up in the truck so unable to spread the disease to anyone. But let's go back a week, to Saturday, Sept 26, to what CNN reported was "a triumphant event unveiling the worst president in history's new Supreme Court nominee, dangerous right-wing lunatic Amy Coney Island. "Their first stop was a small room in the White House basement."

After providing their names, phone numbers and dates of birth, each was taken one-by-one by a staff member from the White House Medical Office to a smaller room nearby. The door was shut, and out came the swab.

One swirl in the right nostril, one swirl in the left. As their names were written on a paper sleeve to contain the sample, they were told: "No news is good news."

So began what is now believed by many White House officials to be a nexus for contagion that resulted Friday in the positive tests of at least seven attendees, including the President himself, who is hospitalized in Maryland.

It is not known how or when Trump caught the infection that resulted in a positive test unveiled after midnight on Friday. But the string of people who attended last Saturday's event-- where few guests wore masks and social distancing was absent-- was growing.

On Friday, Republican Sens. Mike Lee and Thom Tillis both said they had tested positive. They sat three seats apart in the second row during the ceremony, separated by other senators.

The President's former counselor Kellyanne Conway said she, too, had become infected. She was seated directly behind the first lady.

The president of Notre Dame, where Trump's nominee Amy Coney Barrett teaches, was also diagnosed with coronavirus. He sat three seats away from Conway-- right behind the nominees' young children.

That is in addition to the President, the first lady and senior adviser Hope Hicks, all of whom tested positive last week.

Others who are close to the White House but did not attend Saturday's event also announced positive tests, including Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, who had spent time with the President at the end of last week, and Trump's campaign manager Bill Stepien, who participated in mask-less debate preparatory sessions at the White House last weekend. So did former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who also helped Trump prepare for the debate.

On Saturday, Sen. Ron Johnson became the third Republican senator after Lee and Tillis to test positive-- but he did not attend the ceremony on Saturday. Three members of the White House press corps also tested positive, according to the White House Correspondents Association.

The ceremony in the Rose Garden-- and Trump's Supreme Court nomination more broadly-- were once viewed as the President's best last chance to supplant coronavirus as this election's dominant theme. Instead, the tightly packed ceremony became the best illustration to date of the White House's own mismanagement of the crisis, including shrugging off best health practices and openly flouting the mitigation recommendations offered by his own government.

...The [testing] system the White House uses, the Abbott Laboratories rapid test, has a higher false negative rate than other diagnostic tools that sometimes take longer to produce results.

And even those who test negative still have the potential to spread the disease. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says asymptomatic contacts who test negative should still self-quarantine for 14 days from their last exposure to someone with Covid-19. People who are asymptomatic or who have not yet developed symptoms are able to transmit the virus.

Symptoms can appear within two to 14 days of exposure; symptoms most often develop with four to five days, and early mild symptoms can become more serious.

So when the White House advised Jenkins and other guests it was safe to remove their masks, it stood in direct opposition to public health advice that has been offered to Americans for months.

So, too, did the close quarters defy recommendations for social distancing. Before guests headed to the Rose Garden, some attended gatherings inside the White House reception rooms where social distancing was not practiced-- including with hugs and handshakes.

Seats for guests in the Rose Garden did not appear spaced apart the recommended six feet. And throughout the ceremony, only a very small number of attendees were seen wearing masks-- including a woman wearing a full plastic face shield.

...Top administration officials, including Attorney General William Barr and Dr. Scott Atlas, a neuroradiologist who is the latest addition to the White House coronavirus task force, were also seen without masks, shaking hands and interacting closely with other attendees.

Lee, the Utah Republican who tested positive last week, was seen speaking to another guest with his mask in his hand.

...The Rose Garden ceremony was not unique in Trump's schedule. None of the events he attended in the days before or after required masks, and all relied on the testing plan the White House officials have repeatedly insisted would protect the President from catching coronavirus.

At events in Florida, Georgia, Washington and Virginia the Friday before the announcement, Trump interacted with mask-less officials and donors, most of whom had been tested but who nonetheless could still have been contagious.

The day after, Trump participated in debate preparatory sessions inside the White House Map Room with Stepien, Conway and others, including Christie and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani.

It remains unclear how many more guests from the Rose Garden might test positive, and a number-- including Barr and some other members of Trump's family-- said Friday they had negative results.

Yes, yes, most Americans would like to see McConnell catch COVID and die. Unfortunately, he wasn't at the infamous Bedminster super-spreader event after Trump already knew he was positive and spreading contagion. There about 200 paying customers-- rich Republicans-- and it will be interesting to see how many get sick. The White House is claiming Trump didn't know he was contagious when he was posing for pictures with the wealthy donors. That's probably false but what he did absolutely know is that Hope Hicks was infected and that he had been physically close to her. The White House cut the number of staffers going to Bedminster once they realized that it would be a disease-spreading event.

The Regime has now given the New Jersey Department of Health a list of 206 of the assholes (many from out of state) who paid to catch COVID from Trump. The White House is contacting the rich Republicans and the department is contacting staffers and other non-rich people who might have been there and recommending "that they self-monitor for symptoms and quarantine if they were in close contact with the president and his staff."

COVID Tour by Chip Proser

Ticket prices began at $2,800 a head, went to $35,000 to attend "a VIP round table," $50,000 to get a picture of yourself with Señor Trumpanzee and $250,000 to prove that you are criminally insane and a danger to America, hopefully soon residing in a cemetery.

Bedminster is in the northwest corner of Somerset County, bordering on Hunterdon and Morris counties. Yesterday, Somerset County reported 15 new cases bringing the county total to 5,981. Hunterdon reported 6 new cases (for a total of 1,442) and Morris reported 19 new cases bringing their total to 8,130.

Before Trump spent time raking in the big bucks and spreading COVID, New Jersey officials expressed alarm that he was setting up a super-spreader event in their state. Even Republican officials stayed away from the event-- except right-wing goon Joe Piscopo. Gov. Murphy warned that the fundraiser was a regional event and so it had the potential to spread the virus beyond New Jersey. Somerset County Democratic Chair Peg Schaffer: "This morning we wake up to learn that Trump was infected with COVID-19 while glad-handing his supporters in Bedminster. While this is completely irresponsible behavior for anyone, for the President of the United States to risk the health and lives of his own supporters, their families, their neighbors and the workers and wait staff at his club is unfathomably selfish."