COVID-19 ripples through Capitol: Lawmaker, others test positive.
Experts: Vaccines remain the best protection
WASHINGTON – A spate of COVID-19 infections has rippled through Congress, the White House and a band of Texas state lawmakers, stoking renewed concern among officials about how best to protect against the virus as the delta variant causes a nationwide spike in cases.
Health officials said the best protection remains vaccination, noting the shots reduce the risks of serious illness, hospitalization and death.
“If you’re a fully vaccinated individual and you’re meeting with somebody who has COVID, you really don’t have much to fear from the virus. The vaccines are very robust,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “What we’re seeing now in the United States, as the CDC director said, is a pandemic of the unvaccinated. That’s where the risk is.”
Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-fla., announced Monday that he tested positive for the coronavirus despite being vaccinated months earlier. He said he was quarantining with mild, flu-like symptoms.
A White House staffer and a press aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Dcalif., also tested positive, the White House and the speaker’s office confirmed Tuesday. Pelosi’s office said the aide tested positive after meeting with a group of Texas Democrats who came to Washington last week.
The Texas legislators had fled their home state amid a battle over voting rights. Six of them have tested positive for the coronavirus.
Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said the speaker’s press team has been mostly working remotely and the infected staffer hadn’t come into contact with the speaker.
A White House staffer tested positive after attending an event last week with the Pelosi staffer, spokeswoman Jen Psaki confirmed Tuesday.
“This individual was out of the office when they were tested yesterday, and they’ve stayed out of the office,” Psaki said.
Brian Monahan, the attending physician for Congress, released a memo Tuesday warning about the “severe threat” of the delta variant for unvaccinated people. He didn’t recommend a return to requiring masks, as several counties have done.
“I urge unvaccinated individuals to come for vaccination at any time,” he said. “The Centers for Disease Control does not generally require vaccinated individuals to wear a mask indoors at this time,” Monahan said. “Despite the excellent protective value of the vaccine in preventing hospitalization and death, there is still a possibility a fully vaccinated individual could acquire infection in their nose and throat, mild symptoms, or the ability to transmit the coronavirus infection to others.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch Mcconnell, R-KY., who suffered polio as a child, has been an advocate for vaccinations.
He said Tuesday that 97% of hospitalizations are among unvaccinated people.
“These shots need to get into everybody’s arms as rapidly as possible, or we’re going to be back in a situation in the fall that we don’t yearn for, that we went through last year,” Mcconnell said.