The Rev. Paul Scalia, the son of the late Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, apologized to his congregation for exposing them to the coronavirus after not wearing a mask at the White House event in the Rose Garden to introduce Amy Coney Barrett as President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, NPR reports.
Fr. Scalia said when he and his brother, Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia, arrived at the event, they were given a rapid coronavirus test. When they came back as negative, they were told they could remove their masks.
The rapid system used by the White House, Abbott’s ID Now test, has a documented 50% false negative rate.
Fr. Scalia told his parishioners at St. James Catholic Church in suburban Virginia that he was careless in not looking out for his health.
“Since the pandemic began, it has been my desire to ease people’s fears and anxieties,” Scalia wrote to members of the Falls Church, Va., parish. “My actions at the White House seemed reasonable at the time given the presumed controls in place. Nevertheless, I apologize that they did not follow my own expectations, caused disquiet and anxiety, and have distracted from the work of the Gospel.”