White House staff begin wearing masks

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump presided over a press briefing in the Rose Garden Monday with a new addition for the White House team – masks – while key members of the president’s Coronavirus Task Force, including its leader Vice President Mike Pence, were conspicuously absent after they had been exposed to the virus.

“They have put themselves at risk,” noted medical ethicist Arthur Caplan, who criticized the administration’s failure to don masks up until Monday, as well as a failure to maintain proper social distance. “And they’ve set a horrible example for the country.”

“Just about everybody I’ve seen today has a mask on,” Trump said as he revealed that he had ordered staff to start wearing masks to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

The intent of the briefing was to tout the administration’s ratcheting up of diagnostic tests from zero to nearly 10 million over three months and the release of $11 billion to states to fund testing for 2 percent of the population.

But the event itself will be remembered for revealing a White House that had eschewed personal protective gear pivoting to embrace the mask after two White House staffers, one who works closely with Pence, tested positive for COVID-19 last week.

On Wednesday, a valet who often was in close proximity to Trump tested positive. Then Friday, Katie Miller, Pence’s spokeswoman and the wife of top Trump aide Stephen Miller, tested positive for the virus. A day earlier, Miller tested negative.

The revelation resulted in the testing of a number of individuals in the vice president’s staff and among the task force.

Food and Drug Administration commissioner Stephen Hahn, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Robert Redfield tested negative. Nonetheless, the three prominent task force doctors let it be known that they would self-quarantine for two weeks as a precautionary measure.

Where did the system break down? “I don’t think the system broke down at all,” Trump responded. “One person tested positive, surprisingly, because the previous day (she) tested negative.”

Trump predicted that the three doctors probably would be out of quarantine soon.

Their decision to self-isolate raised questions as to why Pence did not decide to work from home as well, while Miller’s positive test raised questions about whether the administration should be doing more to keep the president and vice president apart, lest they both get ill at the same time.

Asked if he was thinking of putting more space between Pence and himself, Trump responded, “It’s something probably during this quarantine period, we’ll probably talk about it. I have not seen him since then. But I would say that he and I will be talking about that. Yeah, we can talk on the phone.”

Sean T. Walsh, who worked in the administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, noted that presidents and vice presidents don’t fly out of the country together in order to promote continuity of government.

“In this case it’s important that they not be together — unless people want Nancy Pelosi to be president,” he said. The House Speaker is second in line to succeed the president, if the vice president cannot do so.

“You just don’t need to tempt fate,” Walsh added.

Trump said only Miller and the valet had tested positive in the last week, but the self-isolation of three task force doctors serves as a recognition that the number could grow. In that event, Caplan warned, the credibility of the White House will suffer.

Trump also returned to a claim he has frequently made, only to be corrected.

“If somebody wants to get tested right now, they’ll be tested,” said Trump, later stipulating, “not everybody should get a test.”

Admiral Brett Giroir, Assistant Secretary for Health, Department of Health and Human Services clarified that “everybody who needs a test can get a test.” But not everybody who wants a test needs a test.

Contact Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7391. Follow @DebraJSaunders on Twitter.