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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who met with President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend, has tested positive for the 2019 novel coronavirus, Brazilian news outlet Jornal O Dia and Fox News reported Friday.
Bolsonaro was tested Thursday after his press secretary Fabio Wajngarten, who also met with Trump, tested positive for the virus. Wajngarten’s diagnosis was confirmed by the president’s office.
So Trump has had contact with at least two people who have tested + for the virus. If nothing else we can be confident he is not happy. I want him to be not happy.
Bolsonaro and Wajngarten were part of a delegation who traveled to the U.S. over the weekend and met with multiple high-level officials. The group dined at Mar-a-Lago with Trump, National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien and Trump’s daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.
Oh yes, about that – Princess Ivanka has an additional exposure:
Ivanka Trump and Attorney General William Barr are the latest people in President Trump’s inner circle to have come into contact with someone who has tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Last week, the first daughter and attorney general both met with Australian Minister for Home Affairs, Peter Dutton, who has now confirmed on Twitter that he has COVID-19.
So it turns out there’s a downside to being Princess Barbiedoll and playing at being In Government.
Meanwhile Trump’s administration continues to try to minimize the pandemic.
After news of Wajngarten’s positive test result emerged Thursday, White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement that Trump and Pence had “almost no interactions” with the senior aide and “do not require being tested at this time.”
That’s contrary to what the rest of us mere mortals are being told.
“Exposures from the case are being assessed, which will dictate next steps,” she added. “To reiterate CDC guidelines, there is currently no indication to test patients without symptoms, and only people with prolonged close exposure to confirmed positive cases should self-quarantine.”
Yeah right: err on the side of risky. That is not good advice. The fact that there are not enough tests (to put it mildly) does not mean we shouldn’t get tested unless we’ve been having hourly sex with the virus-haver.
These people should all self-isolate on the moon so that we can have competent adults in charge.
And telling people to stay away from other people only after they have been potentially exposed is like…well, to use an old cliche, locking the barn door after the horse has been stolen. Perhaps instead of quarantine, we should call it self-isolation. That might help people understand that this is their best bet of not getting sick, not just not getting other people sick. But closing down things might lead to businessmen losing some dollars (or must not making a lot more dollars than they already have), and we can’t have that.
The only ones I sympathize with in that are the hourly employees who can’t afford the lost wages. At this point, I feel like Trump’s millions should be dispersed to help those individuals stay safe and healthy while businesses close down and people stay home and well.
President Pelosi?
Given Trump’s acknowledged germophobia and his overwhelming self-absorption, I would be surprised if he wasn’t already being tested on a fairly regular basis. And, if so, I would be shocked if the results were ever released to the public. Trump will have a “cold,” or will be in “meetings” or some other excuse. If he’s got Coronavirus it will make him look bad on several fronts. It will contradict his preening insistence that he is strong, strong, strong and fit for re-election.
Very true.
Meanwhile I just shared a tweet of Jake Tapper’s that shared a genuine communication from the Trump campaign calling Biden a “rotting corpse.”
More projection?
Unusually positive news!