House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn Tests Positive for COVID-19

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat, has tested positive for COVID-19, the latest breakthrough case among members of Congress.

“Tonight, I received a positive COVID-19 diagnosis. This is a breakthrough case, and I am asymptomatic,” Clyburn tweeted. “America is in a new phase of this pandemic. No one is immune. I urge anyone who has not done so to protect themselves by getting vaccinated and boosted.”

Clyburn’s announcement comes shortly after he spent time with President Joe Biden, who delivered the December commencement address at South Carolina State University, Clyburn’s alma mater.

The White House announced that Biden had tested negative for COVID-19 after taking a PCR test after an aide, with whom he’d been in close contact, tested positive for the virus.

Clyburn chairs the House Select Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis, which last week issued a staff report saying that the Trump administration deliberately undermined the country’s pandemic response.

The panel found that in weakening testing guidance and interfering with public health recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), championing “herd immunity,” failure to respond to supply shortages, blocking public officials like Dr. Anthony Fauci from speaking openly, and prioritizing and promoting lies about the 2020 election over the pandemic response, the Trump administration ultimately damaged the country’s ability to effectively control the pandemic from the start.

Alan Ryland

Alan is a writer, editor, and news junkie based in New York.