Outbreak at White House makes it ‘scary to go to work’
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is racing to contain an outbreak of COVID-19 inside the White House as some senior officials believe that the disease is already spreading rapidly through the warren of cramped offices that make up the three floors of the West Wing.
Three top officials leading the government’s coronavirus response effort began two weeks of selfquarantine after two members of the White House staff — Katie Miller, the spokeswoman for Vice President Mike Pence, and one of President Donald Trump’s personal valets — tested positive. But others who came into contact with Miller and the valet are continuing to report to work at the White House.
“It is scary to go to work,” Kevin Hassett, a top economic adviser to the president, said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” Hassett said he wore a mask at times at the White House but conceded that “I think that I’d be a lot safer if I was sitting at home than I would be going to the West Wing.”
He added, “It’s a little bit risky. But you have to do it because you have to serve your country.”
The concern about an outbreak of the virus at the White House — and the swift testing and contact tracing being done to contain it — underscores the broader challenge for Americans as Trump urges them to begin returning to their own workplaces despite warnings from public health officials that the virus continues to ravage communities across the country.
Late Sunday, the White House put out a statement saying that Pence would not alter his routine or selfquarantine. The vice president “has tested negative every single day and plans to be at the White House tomorrow,” said Devin O’Malley, a spokesman for Pence.
Most restaurants, offices and retail stores do not have the ability to regularly test all their employees and quickly track down and quarantine the contacts of anyone who gets infected. At the White House, all employees are being tested at least weekly, officials said, and a handful of top aides who regularly interact with the president are being tested daily, they said.
“To get in with the president, you have to test negative,” Hassett said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Trump continues to reject guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to wear a mask when meeting with groups of people. But a senior administration official said the president was spooked that his valet, who is among those who serve him food, had not been wearing a mask. And he was annoyed to learn that Miller tested positive and has been growing irritated with people who get too close to him, the official said.
Two senior administration officials said there are no plans to keep Trump and Pence apart because of a concern that they both could be incapacitated by COVID-19.
Concern about the spread of the virus in the White House has temporarily sidelined three of the most high-profile members of the White House coronavirus task force — Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Dr. Stephen Hahn, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration; and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Redfield and Hahn announced Saturday that they would self-quarantine for two weeks after coming in contact with an infected member of the president’s staff. Both attended a meeting in the Situation Room last week where Miller was present. Both doctors said they would continue to participate in the response effort from home.