The White House Is Refusing To Conduct Contact Tracing As Trump’s COVID Hot Spot Keeps Growing

Even as a growing number of Donald Trump’s staff members are testing positive for COVID-19, the White House is refusing to conduct contract tracing.

According to The New York Times, “Despite almost daily disclosures of new coronavirus infections among President Trump’s close associates, the White House is making little effort to investigate the scope and source of its outbreak.”

More from the report:

The White House has decided not to trace the contacts of guests and staff members at the Rose Garden celebration 10 days ago for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, where at least eight people, including the president, may have become infected, according to a White House official familiar with the plans.

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Instead, it has limited its efforts to notifying people who came in close contact with Mr. Trump in the two days before his Covid diagnosis Thursday evening. It has also cut the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has the government’s most extensive knowledge and resources for contact tracing, out of the process.

Contact tracing is an essential piece of any outbreak investigation and is a key to stopping the virus from spreading further, especially after a potential “super spreader” event where many people may have been infected.

Any of the closely packed guests and staff members at the Rose Garden ceremony could have gone on to transmit the virus to many others, so the White House’s decision not to investigate the cluster of infections, and pinpoint the source, has potentially devastating consequences for hundreds of people, several experts warned.

Trump is again ignoring his own CDC and putting lives at risk

According to Donald Trump’s own CDC, “Contact tracing is key to slowing the spread of COVID-19 and helps protect you, your family, and your community.”

The fact that this president and his negligent administration are refusing to conduct life-saving contact tracing for political reasons is just the latest proof that they have not and will never change – not even after the president and a growing number of his staff catch the virus.

To Donald Trump, putting lives in danger is worth if it helps his ailing reelection campaign.

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Sean Colarossi

Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.