Tendrils Of White House Outbreak May Stretch Throughout Nation
As more people linked to the White House test positive for COVID-19, USA Today investigates the multiplying effect those infections could have on the rest of the U.S. And ABC news obtains a FEMA memo that offers new details on the known White House cases.
USA Today:
White House Coronavirus Outbreak May Have Exposed Thousands
President Donald Trump and other White House insiders infected with COVID-19 carried the virus across the country in a matter of days, potentially exposing hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people as they went about their business, a USA TODAY investigation found. From a religious summit outside Atlanta to a campaign rally at a Pennsylvania airport and a private fundraiser in Minnesota, Trump, his aides and political allies attended events with thousands of people, often without masks and little regard for social distancing. (Salman and Voyles Pulver, 10/7)
ABC News:
34 People Connected To White House, More Than Previously Known, Infected By Coronavirus: Internal FEMA Memo
The coronavirus outbreak has infected "34 White House staffers and other contacts" in recent days, according to an internal government memo, an indication that the disease has spread among more people than previously known in the seat of American government. Dated Wednesday and obtained by ABC News, the memo was distributed among senior leadership at FEMA, a branch of the Department of Homeland Security and the agency responsible for managing the continuing national response to the public health disaster. (Margolin and Bruggeman, 10/7)
The Hill:
No. 2 Marine General Tests Positive For COVID-19
The Marine Corps announced Wednesday that its assistant commandant tested positive for COVID-19, days after most of the military's top officials began quarantining following possible exposure to the virus. The Marine Corps reported Gen. Gary Thomas's diagnosis in a press release Wednesday, adding that he had been in quarantine after being notified that he had come into contact with the Coast Guard’s vice commandant, Adm. Charles Ray, who tested positive for the coronavirus on Monday after feeling mild symptoms over the weekend. (Castronuovo, 10/7)
Bloomberg:
White House Security Official Contracted Covid-19 In September
A top White House security official, Crede Bailey, is gravely ill with Covid-19 and has been hospitalized since September, according to four people familiar with his condition. The White House has not publicly disclosed Bailey’s illness. He became sick before the Sept. 26 Rose Garden event President Donald Trump held to announce his Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett that has been connected to more than a dozen cases of the disease. (Jackson, 10/7)
Also —
The Hill:
COVID-19 Sparks National Security Concerns With Top Brass In Quarantine
The quarantining of most of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, coming on the heels of President Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis, is raising fears that U.S. adversaries might seek to exploit a perceived weakness. Few expect any sort of overt military action, but there are other ways to wreak havoc on the United States. Chief among them is disinformation. Experts have been warning ever since Trump tested positive for the coronavirus last week that disinformation is likely to kick into overdrive. (Kheel, 10/7)
The Washington Post:
Genetic Tracing Could Show How Coronavirus Spread Through White House
There’s a way for the White House to prove exactly how the outbreak traveled among its ranks: through gene-based contact tracing. But it doesn’t appear interested in doing so — even as the circle of President Trump's associates infected with the virus expands by the hour. The Trump administration could, if it chose, search samples taken from dozens of White House staff members and visitors for tiny genetic variants. Because the virus undergoes slight changes as it moves from person to person, it’s possible to map where it has moved by looking for similarities in mutations. (Cunningham and Ellerbeck, 10/7)
The New York Times:
BuzzFeed News Pulls Reporter From White House, Citing Virus Risk
BuzzFeed News has pulled a political correspondent from the White House press pool, citing concerns that the area has become a coronavirus hot zone after President Trump, many of his top aides — including the press secretary Kayleigh McEnany — and several journalists have tested positive for the virus. A BuzzFeed News spokesman, Matt Mittenthal, confirmed that the company on Tuesday had withdrawn the correspondent, Kadia Goba, from her Wednesday shift out of concern for her safety. The spokesman added that BuzzFeed News was awaiting further guidance from the White House Correspondents’ Association. (Robertson, 10/7)
The New York Times:
Notre Dame’s President Faces An Angry Campus After Getting The Coronavirus
As college leaders deliberated whether to bring students back to campus, none led the charge for reopening more forcefully than the president of the University of Notre Dame. ... But all the humility in the world might not have spared The Rev. John I. Jenkins, the university’s president and a 66-year-old Catholic priest, from the storm of protest he now faces over the latest news from South Bend: that he not only violated his own health rules — appearing without a mask at a White House reception last month for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, a Supreme Court nominee and former Notre Dame Law School professor — but also is infected with the coronavirus himself. (Gray and Hubler, 10/7)
