White House COVID-19 outbreak

For the group convened by the Trump Administration to coordinate federal response to the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States, see White House Coronavirus Task Force. For the group convened by the Biden Administration, see White House COVID-19 Response Team.

White House COVID-19 outbreak
President Donald Trump speaking during the event held to announce Amy Coney Barrett's nomination to the Supreme Court in the White House Rose Garden.
DiseaseCOVID-19
Virus strainSARS-CoV-2
LocationWhite House, Washington, D.C., United States
First reportedOctober 1, 2020
Index caseSeptember 30, 2020
Arrival dateSeptember 26, 2020; 4 years ago (2020-09-26)
Confirmed cases
  • Total: At least 53, including President Trump[1]
  • Pre-nomination: At least six as of October 14[2]
  • Nomination: At least 25 as of October 14[2]
  • Pence staff: At least 5 as of November 11[3]
  • Election Day: At least 20 as of November 11[3]
Hospitalized casesAt least one, by October 15[4]
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The White House COVID-19 outbreak was a cluster of SARS-CoV-2 infections that began in September 2020 and ended in January 2021 that spread among people, including many U.S. government officials, who were in close contact during the COVID-19 pandemic in Washington, D.C. Numerous high-profile individuals were infected, including then President Donald Trump, who was hospitalized for three days.[5] At least 48 White House staff members or associates, closely working with White House personnel, tested positive for the virus.[2][3][6] The White House resisted efforts to engage in contact tracing, leaving it unclear how many people were infected in total and what the origins of the spread were.[7]

Many of the infections appeared to be related to a ceremony held on September 26 in the Rose Garden for the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, where seating was not socially distanced and participants were mostly unmasked. His chief of staff recalled that Trump looked "a little tired" and was suspected of having a "slight cold".[8]

Hours after the ceremony, Trump tested positive for COVID-19, although the public would not learn of this result until one year later, in October 2021.[8] Trump himself may have been infectious at that point, but he and his entourage attended several subsequent events unmasked, including the first presidential debate against Joe Biden in Cleveland, Ohio on September 29.[9] The next day, Presidential Counselor Hope Hicks was placed in quarantine aboard Air Force One while returning with Trump from a campaign event in Minnesota. Following that, the president proceeded on schedule to an October 1 New Jersey fundraiser where he mingled, unmasked, with donors.[10] More infections were reported in late October among Vice President Mike Pence's staff,[11] and a second large outbreak occurred after Election Day, after Trump held a watch party in the East Room.[12]

Other infections included First Lady Melania Trump; Republican Senators Thom Tillis, Mike Lee, and Ron Johnson; Republican Representative Matt Gaetz; Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien; RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel; former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway; former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie; Notre Dame president John I. Jenkins; Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany; presidential advisor Stephen Miller; Chief of Staff Mark Meadows; and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson. As of November 11, at least 48 people had tested positive.[2][3] At least one person, White House security office head Crede Bailey, was reported as "gravely ill,"[13] having fallen sick in September prior to the Rose Garden event.

The Rose Garden cluster emerged in the final weeks of Trump's campaign for the 2020 presidential election, a little more than a month before the last day of voting, November 3. Commentators were critical of the White House for providing conflicting information about Trump's condition and the timeline of his infection, as well as delaying the disclosure of the initial diagnoses of White House staffers.[14] According to public health experts such as Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, the outbreak could have been prevented.[15][16][17]

  1. ^ Bennett, Geoff [@GeoffRBennett] (December 6, 2020). "By NBC's count, at least 53 people in Trump's orbit have tested positive for COVID-19. That number includes administration officials, campaign staffers and close contacts. (The count starts with Hope Hicks' diagnosis in October and includes the Giuliani announcement today.)" (Tweet). Retrieved December 17, 2023 – via Twitter.
  2. ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference nyttrack was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b c d Walker, Amy Schoenfeld; Conlen, Matthew (November 21, 2020). "White House Outbreaks Persist, as Cases Now Span Three Months". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 25, 2020. Retrieved November 21, 2020.
  4. ^ Rosenberg, Benjamin; Williams, Tim Ryan; Collins, Sean (October 7, 2020). "Everyone in the White House cluster who has reportedly tested positive for the coronavirus". Vox. Archived from the original on October 8, 2020. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
  5. ^ Gross, Elana Lyn (October 4, 2020). "White House Outbreak: Chris Christie, Campaign Chief Among Those Near President Trump Who Have Tested Positive For Covid-19". Forbes. Archived from the original on October 3, 2020. Retrieved October 3, 2020.
  6. ^ Collins, Kaitlan; Diamond, Jeremy; Acosta, Jim; Diaz, Daniella; Liptak, Kevin; Klein, Betsy (October 24, 2020). "At least 5 of Vice President Pence's aides test positive for coronavirus". CNN. Archived from the original on November 1, 2020. Retrieved October 27, 2020.
  7. ^ Butler, Desmond; Hamburger, Tom; Sun, Lena H.; Kaplan, Sarah (October 28, 2020). "White House could have traced and contained its covid-19 outbreak. It chose not to". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 1, 2020. Retrieved October 29, 2020.
  8. ^ a b Pengelly, Martin (December 1, 2021). "Trump tested positive for Covid few days before Biden debate, chief of staff says in new book". The Guardian. Archived from the original on December 1, 2021. Retrieved December 1, 2021.
  9. ^ Yong, Ed (October 2, 2020). "Biden's Negative Test Result Isn't Enough to Say He's in the Clear". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on November 1, 2020. Retrieved October 3, 2020.
  10. ^ Choma, Russ (October 2, 2020). "Donald Trump Mingled Without a Mask at a New Jersey Fundraiser". Mother Jones. Archived from the original on November 1, 2020. Retrieved October 5, 2020.
  11. ^ Haberman, Maggie (October 25, 2020). "Members of Pence's Inner Circle Test Positive for Coronavirus". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on November 12, 2020. Retrieved November 12, 2020.
  12. ^ Colvin, Jill (November 8, 2020). "Trump election party draws scrutiny as guests test positive". Associated Press. Archived from the original on November 10, 2020. Retrieved November 11, 2020.
  13. ^ Folley, Aris (October 7, 2020). "White House security official reported to be gravely ill with COVID-19". The Hill. Archived from the original on November 1, 2020. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
  14. ^ Baker, Peter; Haberman, Maggie (October 5, 2020). "As Trump Seeks to Project Strength, Doctors Disclose Alarming Episodes". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on October 23, 2020. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference fauci-preventable was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ Cite error: The named reference ranney-preventable was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference pryde-preventable was invoked but never defined (see the help page).