With at least ten people who attended last weekend’s Rose Garden introduction of Amy Comey Barrett as Trump’s Supreme Court nominee testing positive for coronavirus, the White House has offered little guidance on contact tracing to the 150 people who attended that event, the Washington Post reports.
The same situation holds for the two hundred people who attended a Trump fundraiser at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club–held on Thursday after Trump was tested for coronavirus but before his positive results were announced.
In between, Trump held a public rally in Duluth, Minnesota and met with dozens of other people around the country, possibly making him and staff not just superspreaders, but the causes of outbreaks around the nation.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has a team of contact tracers ready to activate, has not been asked to track the contacts of the White House personnel or the guests at the events.
“The White House has plans and procedures in place that incorporate current CDC guidelines and best practices for limiting Covid-19 exposure and has established a robust contact tracing program,” White House spokesperson Judd Deere said.
The New York Times reports that New Jersey state officials are scrambling to track the people who attended Trump’s event at Bedminster, during which Trump reportedly held two indoor meet-and-greets during which no social distancing or masking recommendations were enforced.
New Jersey Democratic Gov. Philip D. Murphy said that “as far as we know, folks are cooperating [with the contact-tracing process]. And we need them to.”