This week, a number of high-profile Washington lawmakers and White House staffers reported that they tested positive for Covid. Nearly all of them praised vaccines and boosters for sparing them from severe outcomes of the disease that is known for being mild in most people who don’t suffer from multiple comorbidities.
On Thursday, 82-year-old House Speaker Pelosi found out that she is Covid-positive.
“After testing negative this week, Speaker Pelosi received a positive test result for COVID-19 and is currently asymptomatic,” Pelosi’s Deputy Chief of Staff Drew Hammill tweeted. “The Speaker is fully vaccinated and boosted and is thankful for the robust protection the vaccine has provided.”
In a consequent message, he added, “The Speaker will quarantine consistent with CDC guidance, and encourages everyone to get vaccinated, boosted and test regularly.”
Pelosi herself confirmed her condition in a tweet, expressing her gratitude for being vaccinated and boosted and once again encouraging the public to get the shots.
A day earlier, Pelosi posted a photo of herself standing near President Joe Biden as he signed the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022.
The House Speaker and the President were caught exchanging a smooch while hugging each other on Tuesday. Given that the Covid virus has an incubation period of 14 days and considering the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) claim that asymptomatic people can spread the virus, one could assume that the 79-year-old president has been exposed to it. According to the CDC guidelines, if the president experiences symptoms, he should be isolated and get tested. If he is asymptomatic, he still should get tested and wear a snug-fitting mask when around others.
The White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki argued that the two elderly politicians’ kissing was not considered “close contact” under the CDC guidelines since they were close for less than 15 minutes.
Last week, President Joe Biden received his fourth dose of the coronavirus vaccine.
The virus once again made its way to the White House nonetheless. Also on Thursday, First Lady Jill Biden’s Press Secretary Michael LaRosa confirmed to Fox News that he had tested positive, the outlet’s producer, Pat Ward, tweeted.
Among other lawmakers who were confirmed to have tested positive this week were Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine), Senator Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Representative Angie Craig (D-Minn.), Representative Adam Schiff (D-Ca.), Representative Joaquin Castro (D-Tx.), andRepresentative Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.).
According to The Hill, Senators Collins and Warnock were both on the Senate floor Thursday to vote on the confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. Collins was one of three members of the GOP who voted to confirm Jackson.
Warnock and other lawmakers used their announcements to encourage Covid vaccination.
“I’m so thankful to be both vaccinated & boosted, and at the advice of the Attending Physician I plan to isolate,” Warnock tweeted, “If you haven’t gotten your shot yet, I encourage you to do so.”
“I’m feeling fine, and grateful to be vaccinated and boosted,” tweeted the 61-year-old Representative Schiff, seemingly repeating the same “thank-the-vaccine” mantra, urging people to “please get vaccinated!”
“This week, as part of my regular testing routine, I received several negative COVID tests while in Washington,” Craig posted, “But after learning that several of my colleagues had tested positive this week, I sought an additional test today. This afternoon, I began experiencing mild symptoms & soon after learned of my positive COVID test result.”
Craig attended an Affordable Care Act event in the East Room of the White House on Tuesday along with President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Speaker Pelosi, and other cabinet members and legislators.
Jamal Simmons, Harris’s communications director, tested positive Wednesday. While the official statement explicitly said that Simmons was Harris’s “close contact” and that the VP would follow the CDC protocols necessary in this case, she did not wear a mask, as recommended, when presiding over the Senate the next day.
Earlier this week, Attorney General Merrick Garland, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, and Assistant House Speaker Katherine Clark (D.-Mass.) also confirmed they tested positive for Covid, according to the media reports.
Last week, White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, confirmed she tested positive after traveling with President Joe Biden to Europe.
And days earlier, 43-year-old White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced that she contracted the virus for the second time and had to skip her trip to Europe with the President. In a statement, she said, “Thanks to the vaccine, I have only experienced mild symptoms. In alignment with White House COVID-19 protocols, I will work from home and plan to return to work in person at the conclusion of a five-day isolation period and a negative test,” and she did.
Fully vaccinated Psaki got Covid in late October. Back then, she similarly said she was “grateful for being vaccinated.”
CIA Director William Burns, fully vaccinated and boosted, also tested positive last week.
According to govtrack.us, a website tracking the spread of Covid among U.S. politicians, 155 Congress members have fallen ill to the pandemic. One of the representatives, Rep. Ron Wright (R-Tx.), subsequently died of Covid at the age of 68 in February 2021.
