WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans had been struggling to salvage a greater than $1 trillion financial rescue package deal to reply to the coronavirus
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans had been struggling to salvage a greater than $1 trillion financial rescue package deal to reply to the coronavirus disaster after they received the message on Sunday afternoon: Considered one of their very own had been strolling across the Capitol with Covid-19 for days as they debated how greatest to confront the quickly spreading pandemic.
Senator Rand Paul had examined optimistic for the coronavirus, Senator Mitch McConnell, the bulk chief, instructed fellow Republicans over lunch. It was the information that lawmakers had been dreading for weeks as they went about their travel- and handshake-heavy routines whereas the illness circulated across the nation.
The information set off a frantic race to retrace the steps of Mr. Paul, who had continued to indicate up within the Senate — even utilizing the personal senators’ gymnasium, the place he swam laps within the pool on Sunday morning — till he obtained the outcomes of his coronavirus take a look at someday after his exercise.
It injected a doubtlessly harmful new component into the extraordinary negotiation over a stabilization package deal to bolster the nation’s well being system and social security web and to prop up an financial system teetering getting ready to collapse.
Mr. Paul, 57, Republican of Kentucky and a former training eye physician, was “asymptomatic,” his employees stated, relieving rapid considerations about his well being regardless of a 2017 damage that affected his lungs. However his prognosis raised the probability that different members of the 100-person Senate, the place nearly half are 65 or older, had been exposed and might fall ill or need to self-quarantine just as they were racing to enact the rescue plan.
Mr. Paul had been informed last weekend that he had attended a fund-raiser in Kentucky with two individuals who later tested positive for Covid-19, a warning that sent a handful of other prominent elected officials into self-quarantine out of caution.
Not Mr. Paul.
He pressed on with his Washington schedule anyway. On Wednesday afternoon, he spoke and voted on the Senate floor. He dined at the Republicans’ closed luncheon on Thursday and on Friday, sitting with fellow senators. And after being informed of the diagnosis on Sunday, Senator Jerry Moran, Republican of Kansas, rose to tell fellow Republicans at lunch that he had seen Mr. Paul that morning at the senators-only gym, according to two people who heard him and Mr. Moran’s spokesman.
“I’ve never commented about a fellow Senator’s choices/actions. Never once,” Senator Kyrsten Sinema, Democrat of Arizona, who is known to frequent the senators-only pool, wrote on Twitter. “This, America, is completely irresponsible. You can’t be close to different folks whereas ready for coronavirus take a look at outcomes. It endangers others & probably will increase the unfold of the virus.” (A spokesman for Ms. Sinema stated she had been training social distancing and had not been to the pool in two weeks.)
The ripples might shortly be felt across the Capitol, one of many few locations the place work has continued in defiance of public well being steerage that has shuttered most workplaces and discouraged massive gatherings.
Each of Utah’s Republican senators, Mitt Romney and Mike Lee, stated Sunday afternoon that they’d voluntarily quarantine themselves after shut contact with Mr. Paul in latest days. They are going to now be unable to instantly have an effect on what might show to be one of the consequential votes of their careers.
Mr. Lee stated he could be unable to fly or vote for 14 days. He didn’t report any signs of the virus.
Mr. Romney additionally stated he felt high quality however had been suggested by the attending doctor of Congress to isolate himself and get examined. He might be unable to see his spouse, Ann, for 2 weeks as a result of she has a number of sclerosis.
“Very, very sad to listen to that Rand Paul has been identified with Covid-19 — want him the easiest,” a visibly shaken Mr. Romney instructed reporters exterior the Republican luncheon. He added, “And naturally all senators are going to take steps to ensure that we don’t in any method unfold this virus ourselves.”
At a information convention on the White Home on Sunday night, President Trump appeared to take some satisfaction within the scenario of Mr. Romney, who voted last month to remove him from office on impeachment charges.
“Romney’s in isolation?” Mr. Trump said, stretching out the word “gee” before adding, “That’s too bad.”
Asked by a reporter if he was being sarcastic, Mr. Trump looked down and shook his head.
“No, no. None, whatsoever,” he said.
Others who had recently been near Mr. Paul sought guidance on Sunday from Brian P. Monahan, the attending physician of Congress, though they continued to move through the Capitol.
In publicly announcing the news, Mr. Paul’s office played down the diagnosis and did not answer several questions about the senator’s activities and decision-making.
His deputy chief of staff, Sergio Gor, initially said that Mr. Paul was “asymptomatic and was tested out of an abundance of caution due to his extensive travel and events.” His Washington office began operating remotely 10 days ago, Mr. Gor said, and “hence virtually no staff has had contact” with him.
Hours later, Mr. Gor was more specific. He said the senator had decided to undergo testing “after attending an event where two individuals subsequently tested positive for Covid-19, even though he wasn’t aware of any direct contact with either one of them.”
That appeared to be a reference to a fund-raiser Mr. Paul went to this month in Louisville, Ky., where two attendees later tested positive for the virus. After the museum that hosted the event alerted attendees in an email last Sunday, several officials who had also been present — including the state’s governor and Louisville’s mayor — scrambled to get tested.
Representative John Yarmuth, Democrat of Kentucky and the chairman of the House Budget Committee, announced that he would self-quarantine for two weeks while awaiting the results of his test, which later came back negative.
In an email to The New York Times on Sunday, Mr. Gor did not explain why Mr. Paul had been in the Senate gym Sunday morning if he knew he could have the disease. Mr. Gor did not disclose precisely when Mr. Paul had been tested.
After Mr. Moran reported his Sunday morning encounter with the senator, Mr. Paul’s staff posted on Twitter that he had “left the Senate IMMEDIATELY upon studying of his prognosis.”
“He had zero contact with anybody & went into quarantine,” they added, sidestepping why the senator had been within the gymnasium within the first place.
Mr. Paul, an ophthalmologist by coaching, was a training physician earlier than becoming a member of the Senate. Like his father, Ron Paul, a former member of Congress, he considers himself a libertarian. Final week, he was considered one of solely three senators to vote towards a multibillion-dollar rescue invoice to assist combat the coronavirus as a result of its prices had not been paid for and would contribute to the nationwide debt.
Mr. Paul could possibly be at elevated threat for opposed results from the novel coronavirus, which may trigger pneumonia, typically extreme. In November 2017, Mr. Paul was violently attacked by his neighbor in Kentucky throughout a dispute and needed to be hospitalized. On account of the following accidents, Mr. Paul needed to bear surgical procedure in August to have a part of his lung eliminated.
Two different members of Congress — Consultant Mario Diaz-Balart, Republican of Florida, and Consultant Ben McAdams, Democrat of Utah — have additionally examined optimistic for Covid-19.
When a half dozen different senators had been uncovered to people who had examined optimistic for the virus, they voluntarily self-isolated, as high well being officers have suggested. In addition they made certain to speak with constituents that following the rules was an necessary matter of life and dying, even for his or her elected leaders. Senator Cory Gardner, Republican of Colorado, has been absent from the Senate for a lot of the week for that motive.
Privately, some lawmakers had been incensed that Mr. Paul had continued to flow into amongst colleagues when he knew he may need the virus.
“Frequent sense would let you know, you shouldn’t expose folks till you’ve been cleared,” Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, instructed CNN. Mr. Graham voluntarily self-isolated earlier this month after being involved with somebody who examined optimistic for the virus.
Emily Cochrane contributed reporting.