All interactions occurred before any symptom onset
The White House doctor also says Trump doesn’t need to quarantine…which is even more bonkers.
On Friday evening, Conley said the White House became aware that another individual who Trump had contact with had tested positive for coronavirus. That individual is Nestor Forster, Brazil’s chargé d’affaires in Washington, who tested positive on Friday, according to the Brazilian Embassy.
Conley said Trump had spent more time in closer proximity to Forster, but “all interactions occurred before any symptom onset.”
But the virus can be spread before symptom onset.
“These interactions would be categorized as LOW risk for transmission per CDC guidelines, and as such, there is no indication for home quarantine at this time,” Conley wrote.
Which, again, is exactly not the advice the CDC is giving the rest of us. On the contrary we’re being told to stay the fuck away from people.
Conley’s ruling for the President runs counter to actions some of Trump’s close allies in Congress have taken after interacting with people who tested positive for the coronavirus. Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Reps. Doug Collins of Georgia, Mark Meadows of North Carolina and Matt Gaetz of Florida each put themselves into self-quarantine after interacting with someone at the Conservative Political Action Conference who tested positive for coronavirus.
But Trump is president so there’s a magic force-field around him that shields him from low-risk infection. Or something.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that people who are 60 and older, such as the President, stay at home as much as possible. Trump has also ignored guidance from health officials to stop shaking hands.
…
Medical professionals and others on Friday questioned why Trump had not already been tested.
“It is really inconceivable that they haven’t been tested. I can tell you that the White House Medical Unit has a very proactive response to biohazard threats after 9/11,” said a source familiar with medical procedures at the White House.
A second doctor who advises and has advised the White House doctors for years told CNN, “Yes, they should absolutely get tested especially given their numerous and repeated exposures.”
It’s the genes. He’s got excellent genes. That’s why he’s 6’3 – TALLER THAN OBAMA! – and 239 pounds, which is totally not obese. And his health is amazing. Everybody says so.
And everybody should keep saying so, right up to the ventilator.
Remember this?
https://media2.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2017_34/2127971/170821-trump-eclipse-348p-rs_eaeb6584deafab9252f1238003f82d32.fit-1240w.JPG
President Trump was told not to look directly at the sun during an eclipse. Trump did exactly that, thus modeling behavior which endangered the eyesight of any American citizens who trusted him over what all experts were saying.
Nothing’s changed. “You’re not the boss of me — I’m fine.”
I see him crowing about the biggest stock market rise in history, in all caps. The day after the biggest drop in history in which he was completely silent about. Let’s just sweep that under the rug, shall we? Also he’s not saying much about the public panic buying at all the grocery stores. No, no problem at all. He needs to quarantine himself from twitter most of all, because he’s infecting everyone with his disinformation.
Yes, and not just staples. The bakery was out of bagels…guess the coastal elite in our midwestern landlocked town were stocking up. And what is much, much worse – the store was out of dog food. Fortunately, the other grocery store (I refuse to go to WalMart, so I’m down to two choices, having had five grocery stores close in 10 years) had plenty of dog food – it costs more at the other store.
My local Kroger was wiped out of frozen pizza of all things, lmao…
Yes I alway have kept enough food around to go 2 weeks anyway, both me and the dog, water too, but nothing out of the ordinary. What I saw at Kroger at 7 this morning was pretty bizarre and fairly entertaining, considering there are only 40 odd cases in all of Georgia right now.
Only 40 cases in all of Georgia is an astronomical growth rate, and it is 66 now. The Atlanta area appears to have community spread, the real number is undoubtedly rather higher. Not surprising that people are getting scared and behaving accordingly. The US Federal Government has essentially been AWOL since the first case March 3.
It’s pandemonium here in Toronto. Every afternoon as part of my job I go to a giant supermarket (in the former Maple Leaf Gardens hockey arena — that’s how big it is), and each successive day it’s been crazier. Yesterday most aisles were bare. Even the vast fresh produce tables — ordinarily piled high with pyramids of oranges and lemons and tomatoes and avocado(e?)s — were empty save for a couple weird gourds. You can’t even get an onion.
Naif, yes that’s just the ones tested, there is going to be a huge increase as testing increases. This is everywhere, the numbers are going to go up a lot before they level off. China’s numbers are now decreasing, so the wave here in the U.S. is probably 6 to 8 weeks or so behind China before we see any decreases.
twiliter,
China accomplished that levelling off with very dramatic interventions. We haven’t seen any meaningful policy measures in the US at this point, other than what badly overwhelmed state governments have managed. In Canada, the planning nightmare looming is the simple fact that with a border that sees 300k crossing daily, there will be no way to keep Canada off the US pathway even if we control outbreaks here – Canada has had cases since January, but progression has been slow. With 350k seniors returning from Florida, another state where it is clearly in the community, we are probably screwed.
The US scenario is tracking the Italian one more closely, and that doesn’t show signs of having peaked yet, despite the draconian lockdown.
Yes we might be on the way to lockdown too. All of North America will probably be on the same timetable, depending on how effective the response is. The maps are showing Europe slightly ahead of N.A. in terms of outbreak, so it will be interesting to see how long it takes for it to be on the decline. A few interesting charts here >> https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/3/12/21172040/coronavirus-covid-19-virus-charts
New Zealand has six cases so far, all people returning from overseas. We have a travel ban on anyone except New Zealand citizens coming back from China or Iran. Yesterday the government introduced a whole raft of new measures. These include all travellers coming to New Zealand from anywhere must going to self isolation for 14 days. That essentially kills our tourist industry. Also no one from New Zealand can travel to the Pacific Islands unless they have been in isolation for 14 days prior to that travel. Cruise ships are banned from coming into New Zealand from midnight last night until 1 June at the earliest. Early next week they are going to make announcements about mass gatherings. We’ve also been asked not to travel overseas except for urgent business.
Holy crap! I hadn’t thought of all those returning “snowbirds” (our name for people who leave Canada for the southern US to escape our winter). Unless there’s some very stringent controls at the border (which I don’t know how they could do that; delay re-entry for two weeks? Hold people at secure, isolation facilities after crossing back into Canada?), we are indeed screwed.
I work in a mall that has a lot of seniors (and probably more than a few snowbirds among them) as customers. I’m hoping at some point that it closes down at some point, following the lead of many other organizations, institutions, and businesses. The federal government has set aside funds to assist businesses and workers, so I’m hoping that will be sufficient incentive to do so.
My hometown of London, Ontario has its first official, confirmed case. (There was a case in January of a student who’d come back from China, passing through London before self-isolating in Toronto). The case announced today is of a healthcare worker in her 50’s who has mild symptoms. Her case is not connected with travel. The Medical Officer of Health and CEO of the London-Middlesex Health Unit said “It’s actually you know surprising we’ve been able to hold that off for so long. Containtment efforts have been very effective. We are now moving into mitigation. We know there is going to be community spread. It is still very low numbers now but those will increase over the coming weeks and days.”
The tide advances.
YNNB,
We cannot hold that many people at the border, and the simple reality is that the infection rate is likely to be in the 10-30% range, because that is what the models project to for Florida by the end of the month. It won’t be a matter of preventing contagion, it will be a matter of caring for 25,000-75,000 of our own.
The brutal math is that there are around 130,000 ventilator machines for assisting breathing in the country. Each serious case will use one of those machines for 3 weeks. So, probably have to manage our situation here for the next 21 days to use only half that to leave the space for those coming home, and figure out how to pass the entire population through that constraint.
I guess the only reassurance I can offer is that there is a good understanding of this problem, and we have learned some critical lessons from SARS. With good social discipline and solidarity, we can get through this. The government doesn’t get everything right, but they are in the fight on this, getting ready for when the spike hits. We are holding the line at 1 casualty so far. There will be more, but we hold the line as long as we can. Be good to your neighbours.