Virus in politicians? The Rs have it more

GOP lawmakers paying for flouting guidelines

Taking their cues from President Donald Trump, Republicans at every level of government have flouted public health guidelines to reduce the risk of catching and spreading the coronavirus. They eschewed masks, attended large gatherings and failed to socially distance.

Now, as the pandemic infiltrates the White House, Congress and statehouses across the nation, Republicans bear the brunt of those infections, a USA TODAY analysis shows. At least 81 elected officials in state and federal government roles have tested positive for the coronavirus since Sept. 1, just as the nation’s case counts were about to rebound. Nearly three out of four are Republican.

Republicans’ refusal to adhere to safety measures puts not only the elected officials themselves at risk, but also the public, health experts told USA TODAY. Those who hold office set the example of expected behavior. And it starts, they said, with the commander in chief.

“We’re incredibly frustrated, angry, sad and despondent,” said epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding, a senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists. He likens it to Trump piloting a plane on a trajectory to crash with 330 million Americans aboard.

“Epidemiologists who know how to steer this plane are pounding on the cockpit door begging him to please listen, please follow the evidence,” FeiglDing said. “It’s a living nightmare.”

COVID-19 at the White House

Just past midnight on Oct. 2, the world learned from a tweet that Trump had the coronavirus.

In the days leading up to his diagnosis, the president attended large campaign rallies and private fundraisers, he held White House ceremonies, and he

debated his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden. He did not practice social distancing. He rarely wore a mask.

Since then, at least 55 people in his orbit also have tested positive, including many who attended the Sept. 26 Rose Garden ceremony announcing his nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The longest stretch between announcements of new positive cases tied to the White House was 10 days – from the Oct. 25 disclosure that Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short, had the coronavirus to the Nov. 4 revelation that White House chief of staff Mark Meadows had it.

Considering the incubation period for the virus is 14 days or more, it has likely been “one big outbreak that has just been perpetuating,” said Syra Madad, an infectious disease expert in New York City. “That clock resets every time you have a new infection and they expose more people, but it’s stemming from that same original outbreak.”

That’s just the publicly known cases and does not include the positive results tied to the Secret Service. Also not included in the tally are at least 20 people who tested positive after attending Trump rallies. The White House does not announce cases and hasn’t cooperated with outside health organizations to formally investigate the outbreak. Media outlets, including Bloomberg and The New York Times, have reported most positive test results.

“The frequency with which cases keep occurring among people connected to the White House, weeks after the

Coney Barrett ceremony, is much higher than would be expected if there were not active transmission going on there,” said Joseph Lewnard, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of California-Berkeley. “It would be exceedingly unlikely for all of these people to be getting infected in the community.”

Physicians were particularly alarmed to see Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, a neurosurgeon, among those not wearing masks on election night in the White House, where more than 100 people gathered in the East Room. Carson and four others tested positive days after the party.

“The man is a damn neurosurgeon and can’t be described as ‘anti-science,’” Craig Spencer, director of global health in emergency medicine for New YorkPresbyterian Hospital, said in an email. “I think it just shows how the ignorance and fealty has extended to even the least expected.”

Flouting guidelines in Congress

Congressional members were more than twice as likely to test positive for the coronavirus than the general public, according to a USA TODAY data analysis that looked at cases since Sept. 1.

Among the nation’s 382.2 million people, about 2.4% have tested positive for the coronavirus since Sept. 1.

Over that same period, 23 U.S. senators and representatives have tested positive, about 4.3% of the 535 members of Congress, according to Ballotpedia. Of those, 74% are Republican.

Public health experts attributed the higher positive rate among congressional members to their jobs, which put them in regular contact with the public, and to their greater access to tests.

The political divide between the parties about coronavirus safety precautions have sparked harsh words in recent weeks. On Nov. 14, Democratic Ohio senator Sherrod Brown scolded his maskless Republican colleagues.

He was interrupted by his Republican colleague from Alaska, Dan Sullivan, who told him, “I don’t wear a mask when I’m speaking like most senators. … I don’t need your instruction.”

Not all Republicans have bought into the party line to disregard preventive measures. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell hasn’t wavered from the pro-mask stance he adopted as early as May.

Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, also has been a consistent advocate for masks and other precautions.

Still, U.S. Rep. Darren Soto, D-Fla., wasn’t surprised to learn that more of his Republican colleagues are being infected than Democrats.

“I would urge my colleagues now that the election is over to do the right thing,” Soto said.

COVID-19 among state leaders

COVID-19 also has struck more GOP elected officials at the state level, with a big rise this fall. Of the 57 known state officials who have tested positive from Sept. 1 to Dec. 1, 40 were Republicans and 17 were Democrats.

One of those is Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano, a Republican who learned he had tested positive for the coronavirus while he was in a meeting Nov. 25 with Trump in the Oval Office, The Associated Press reported. Earlier that day, Mastriano had hosted a mostly maskless meeting with other Republican lawmakers and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani in Gettysburg to discuss efforts to challenge the state’s results.

A party breakdown shows that as mask use and social distancing took hold over the summer, numbers of new cases among Democrats declined, while cases among Republicans accelerated.

Former Arkansas state legislator Nate Bell, a self-employed businessman, watched with apprehension as the Republican stance against masks and social distancing escalated over the spring and summer.

“My biggest fear from the very beginning is that my dad would get it. He runs in the MAGA circles,” said Bell, who left the Republican Party in 2015 and now calls himself politically homeless. “It’s a lot like teenagers in many ways, with negative peer pressure. If you wear a mask you get denigrated; if you take precautions, they call you a sheep.”

Bell’s fears were realized when his father was hospitalized with COVID-19.

“My dad’s own brother, while my dad is in the hospital, posted a picture on Facebook of a bunch of sheep wearing masks and another picture of lions that says “be a lion, not a sheep.” That’s literally while his brother is in his hospital bed barely surviving.”

People question the seriousness of a disease outbreak during every pandemic, but this time it seems a greater percentage doubt the coronavirus pandemic, Madad said. “The amount of misinformation, disinformation, has been so widespread.”

Lately however, more Republicans are veering from the party line. With cases escalating in his own state, Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon, a Republican, said in a Nov. 14 news conference that people are being “knuckleheads” about the virus.

“It’s time that Wyoming woke up,” Gordon said, “and got serious about what it’s doing.”