WASHINGTON — President Trump is not going to be examined for the coronavirus after coming into contact with a Brazilian official who examined const
WASHINGTON — President Trump is not going to be examined for the coronavirus after coming into contact with a Brazilian official who examined constructive for the virus simply days after collaborating in conferences with him in Florida, the White Home stated on Thursday.
Fabio Wajngarten, a high communications aide to President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, examined constructive days after accompanying him to Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and posing for a photograph with the president and Vice President Mike Pence. Within the picture, which he posted on social media, Mr. Wajngarten is standing shoulder to shoulder with Mr. Trump, who’s clutching a brown “Make Brazil Nice Once more” baseball cap.
A video from the occasion additionally confirmed Mr. Wajngarten standing straight behind Mr. Trump and Mr. Bolsonaro as they spoke to a crowd.
After his assembly with the Brazilian delegation, Mr. Trump hosted a dinner for Mr. Bolsonaro and his aides. However Mr. Pence didn’t keep for the dinner, an aide stated, and had not obtained any steering from his doctor that he wanted to be examined or quarantined.
Mr. Wajngarten additionally stopped by the birthday celebration of Kimberly Guilfoyle, an adviser to Mr. Trump’s re-election marketing campaign and the girlfriend of his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., a marketing campaign aide stated. Mr. Trump additionally attended the celebration.
However the White Home press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, performed down Mr. Trump’s stage of publicity. “Each the president and vice chairman had virtually no interactions with the person who examined constructive and don’t require being examined right now,” Ms. Grisham stated in a press release on Thursday.
She additionally indicated that neither Mr. Trump nor Mr. Pence supposed to self-quarantine as a precautionary measure. “There may be at present no indication to check sufferers with out signs, and solely individuals with extended shut publicity to confirmed constructive circumstances ought to self-quarantine,” Ms. Grisham stated. “Exposures from the case are being assessed, which is able to dictate subsequent steps.”
Whereas the White Home has indicated that its bar for testing the commander in chief is excessive, Dr. Judith N. Wasserheit, a professor of world well being and medication on the College of Washington in Seattle, really useful in any other case. “Due to the important roles that the president and vice chairman play, it might be sensible to have a low threshold for testing no matter symptom standing,” she stated.
Dr. Thomas File, the president of the Infectious Ailments Society of America, stated that anybody inside 5 toes of an contaminated particular person for 5 minutes or extra had potential publicity to the virus. The advice for somebody who had publicity could be to “keep residence and monitor themselves” for 14 days, Dr. File stated. “In the event that they develop signs, they might be examined.”
In distinction to Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence, Senator Rick Scott of Florida introduced on Thursday that he was self-quarantining after potential contact with Mr. Wajngarten.
Mr. Trump additionally selected to not get examined for the coronavirus final week after he had attended the Conservative Political Motion Convention, the place an attendee who was infected with the virus mingled with lawmakers. 4 members of Congress — together with Consultant Matt Gaetz of Florida, who traveled with Mr. Trump on Air Drive One final week — introduced they have been self-quarantining, citing an abundance of warning after coming into contact with the contaminated particular person on the convention.
Mr. Trump, nonetheless, didn’t select to take any precautionary measures. “He has neither had extended shut contact with any recognized confirmed Covid-19 sufferers, nor does he have any signs,” Ms. Grisham stated this week. “President Trump stays in wonderful well being, and his doctor will proceed to carefully monitor him.”
In an interview with “Fox & Pals” this week, Ms. Grisham dismissed the coronavirus as “one thing that is sort of a flu” and stated that when it got here to his personal publicity, Mr. Trump was “not involved about this in any respect” as a result of he “makes use of hand sanitizer on a regular basis.”
Nonetheless, some consultants warned the chance was excessive. “Any public determine, together with the president, who actually doesn’t wish to get contaminated has to grasp: They’ll now not be within the public area with person-to-person contact like this and never get contaminated,” stated Dr. Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist on the College of Minnesota. “This virus will penetrate into our inhabitants.”
Prior to now, presidents made a degree of personally taking precautions for example to the general public. In 1976, when President Gerald R. Ford launched into an formidable crash program to vaccinate tens of hundreds of thousands of Individuals in opposition to what was regarded as a harmful new pressure of influenza, he was photographed receiving the vaccine within the White Home as a part of a public consciousness marketing campaign.
In 2002, President George W. Bush was vaccinated in opposition to smallpox after American troops and civilian well being care and emergency staff have been ordered to have inoculations earlier than the invasion of Iraq out…