democracynow--2020-10-05--After Recklessness, a Coronavirus Outbreak at the White House; Will Admin Cover Up or Contract Trace

After Recklessness, a Coronavirus Outbreak at the White House; Will Admin Cover Up or Contract Trace?

This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
AMY GOODMAN : Well , during a news conference on Sunday , a reporter asked White House physician Sean Conley about statements made by White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows , who directly contradicted him the day before .
AMY GOODMAN : It was painful to watch these two news conferences , both on Saturday and Sunday , with the level of evasiveness and misinformation .
Dr. Ashish Jha is with us now , dean of the Brown University School of Public Health , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s Global Health Institute .
We welcome you back to Democracy Now !
, Dr. Jha .
And I was wondering if you can talk about the significance of what he was not telling the truth about , the osteopath , Dr. Sean Conley ?
DR. ASHISH JHA : Yes .
Good morning .
Thank you for having me on .
You know , a lot of the information that came from Dr. Conley over this weekend was confusing .
And I think , in general , he made things much worse than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ information Saturday was a disaster , as a press conference .
Yesterday was a bit better , but it was , you know , not that much better .
And at this point , most people , I think , in this country are confused about the president ’ s medical condition , because of both inconsistency and evasiveness and a sense that we ’ re just not getting the full picture at all .
AMY GOODMAN : So , what about Dr. Conley , the personal physician for President Trump , saying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , so he didn ’ t want to tell the truth about getting oxygen , and what it means to get oxygen , why this is so significant ?
And go back to Thursday night , Friday morning , 1:00 in the morning Eastern Time .
It ’ s announced that — President Trump announces he and the first lady have tested positive for COVID .
And very soon after , he is going into — he has serious symptoms , which suggests that he did not just turn positive that night .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ right .
So , look , the natural course of this disease , of course , varies from person to person .
But typically what we see is , after somebody is infected , three to five days later they might turn positive , and a couple of days later they develop symptoms , if they are going to go on to develop symptoms .
And so , this is — again , the timeline here is very confusing .
And when Dr. Conley on Saturday said it had been 72 hours , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the day of diagnosis .
So , there ’ s been a lot of clarification , a lot of back and forth .
At this point I think we think he turned positive for the first time on Thursday and then had symptoms on Friday .
But instead of guesswork , it would be helpful if the White House just came forward and gave us the basic data and facts , and I think that would be very helpful .
AMY GOODMAN : And , of course , we have no idea when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t say when he last took a test before Thursday .
Now it looks like on Tuesday , the Fox moderator , Chris Wallace , said , you know , as I just was saying to Jeff Mason , that Trump came too late to take a test .
And reporters have reported that both on Wednesday and Thursday , when he flew to New Jersey for his fundraiser , that he was not looking good .
He was tired .
His voice was hoarse .
DR. ASHISH JHA : Yeah .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ have difficult schedules .
They can get tired .
Their voices can get hoarse .
So we don ’ t know if those were symptoms of COVID .
I mean , obviously , in retrospect , it sure is concerning that that is the case .
You know , one of the things that people bring up is that in a situation like this — again , he is a president .
He ’ s allowed , obviously , some amount of privacy .
But he is the president , and transparency is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
All of this speculation and guesswork and kind of trying to read between the lines could be made to go away if the White House just released basic information about his testing history , about his symptom history , about his therapy history .
None of this stuff would be difficult to pull together .
I bet somebody could do it in about an hour .
And we could put all the speculation to rest .
And the fact that the White House is not doing that is creating a lot more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ actually just frank-out rumormongering , than what would happen if they just came out and told us what was happening .
AMY GOODMAN : Let ’ s talk about what President Trump is getting right now .
The only person we know that has gotten this combination of drugs , the experimental , investigational Regeneron cocktail — if you could explain what that is , immune-enhancing — then remdesivir and dexamethasone , which is extremely serious , not usually given to anyone but critically ill COVID patients , and he ’ s gotten @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they are , first of all , Dr. Jha ?
And also , is this because he ’ s president of the United States , and they ’ re just hitting him with everything at once , because they have access to it and they can , or is it because he is critically ill ?
DR. ASHISH JHA : Yeah .
So , let ’ s talk about the three therapies , and then let ’ s talk about his particular treatment course .
The three therapies , the experimental Regeneron monoclonal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ these are proteins that are made against viruses , against bacteria .
And what we ’ ve done is , Regeneron and other companies have done , is created , in the lab , synthetic antibodies against the spike protein of the virus .
And there ’ s good reason to believe that that ’ s going to be a useful therapeutic .
It ’ s undergoing critical studies .
We don ’ t know if it works or not , but , again , a lot of us are hopeful .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s just we ’ re hopeful .
And — AMY GOODMAN : About 260 people have taken this , right ?
DR. ASHISH JHA : Yeah .
And it seems , on that preliminary data , to may have been helpful .
But we haven ’ t even seen the full data from those 260 people yet .
We ’ ve seen a press release .
And we need a lot more data on what has happened .
But either way , it ’ s not unreasonable to give the president this experimental @ @ @ @ @ @ @ getting it , and sometimes we do these things .
Remdesivir is an antiviral .
It actually blocks the replication of the virus .
And it has had some evidence of efficacy for this specific virus .
Dexamethasone , of course , is a steroid .
And you use the steroid — the steroid is actually an immunosuppressant , and we tend to use the steroid for this disease in kind of later phases , because what we think is that there are two phases of this disease .
There ’ s a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and people get quite — some people get sick .
And then there ’ s kind of an immunologic phase , where the immune system overreacts .
And so , to deal with that second phase is when you use dexamethasone .
It ’ s very rare to use all of this stuff together in one kind of over a two-day period .
It is unusual .
I do have a little bit of a feel — look , I don ’ t have his clinical record in front of me .
I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other physicians .
He ’ s got excellent doctors working for him and taking care of him .
But it is a bit unusual to have all of this stuff happening the way it is .
And it certainly makes us worried that he is getting what we often talk about as VIP care , which is often worse care , because with VIPs we tend to often throw out the kind of scientific guidebook and go and start improvising , because we want to do everything for them .
But that ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can mean overdoing things .
Again , I don ’ t have enough details about his clinical condition to know whether he ’ s getting the right care , but certainly this is concerning .
AMY GOODMAN : And the dexamethasone , which is a steroid antisuppressant , it ’ s dangerous to give it too early to a COVID patient , is that right ?
DR. ASHISH JHA : Absolutely .
So , again , we ’ ve got one really high-quality clinical trial on this , and it showed that people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ got it when there was no respiratory compromise , actually did worse .
And that ’ s probably because they were in that sort of virologic phase where their immune system was actually necessary and it was not overreacting .
And if you give dexamethasone too early , you can do more harm than good .
Again , with the president , you know , I trust the physicians , the experts at Walter Reed and Hopkins who are involved , so I ’ m assuming they ’ re making good decisions .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ know with all the opacity of what exactly is happening with him .
AMY GOODMAN : So , Dr. Ashish Jha , let ’ s talk about what happened on Thursday .
Whether or not President Trump knew , I mean , I just — with the number of lies that spew from the White House and from the president himself , whether he knew he was positive when he took off to fly to New Jersey , he clearly knew — I mean , the White House spokespeople have said , Mark @ @ @ @ @ @ @ before he took off , that Hope Hicks had tested positive , and he is with her constantly , and they were on the flight together , Air Force One , when she was feeling sick the night before .
He knew this .
Talk about the dangers that he put people in on that flight and then when he arrived in New Jersey .
The people at Bedminster , his donors , did not know about these circumstances before .
Apparently , the White House has refused to turn over the list @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they can do contact tracing .
Hundreds of people were there for an inside/outside event .
Talk about this .
DR. ASHISH JHA : Yeah .
So , the CDC guidelines on this is very clear , and for good reason .
The evidence here is very clear .
So , let ’ s assume that he had not gotten tested positive on Thursday morning , when he took off for Bedminster .
If he had been — if he knew that Ms. Hicks was positive , he at that point was a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to quarantine for 14 days , irrespective of any positive or negative test .
The reason is because he was — he had some significant risk of having been infected and , in fact , having become infectious .
So the idea that , once you know you ’ re a contact , you get on a plane and you go to a fundraiser is deeply irresponsible .
Now , people keep thinking of this as somehow these quarantines and these isolations are nice to have , would be nice to do .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ You know , I was thinking about the fact that we — people are missing work , people are missing school , because of quarantining .
When we have to quarantine , it poses a huge burden on everybody .
But you have to do it , because that ’ s how you break chains of transmission for this highly infectious virus .
And it applies to everyone .
The president is not immune from this virus , as we know , and the president is also not immune from spreading the virus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ knew he was a contact to somebody who was positive , and knew , should have known — everybody around him should have known that he needed to quarantine for 14 days , and yet still went to an event , I think , is — as I said , it ’ s deeply responsible .
It ’ s disrespectful to everybody he came in close contact with , because he was essentially saying that “ I could be transmitting the virus to you , and it doesn ’ t matter.
” And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other Americans to do this , because if the president won ’ t do it for a fundraiser , how do we ask a child to do it to avoid school ?
How do we ask an essential worker to miss days of work and do this ?
I don ’ t understand it , to be perfectly honest .
And I find it upsetting , frustrating .
It just — it ’ s irresponsible .
AMY GOODMAN : And one of the people who President Trump met with there had just recently @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is not to mention the number of workers at Bedminster , at his private golf club , that are exposed , not to mention what ’ s happening at the White House right now .
And we won ’ t even know how many or who have tested positive , because the press secretary says she will not reveal this anymore .
Michael Shear of The New York Times , who has tested positive , who covers the White House , said he hasn ’ t been contacted by the White House .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Jha , and what this means all over ?
The message President Trump sends not wearing a mask ?
His own surrogates , people like Jason Miller , people who work with him , once again , even as Trump was in the hospital , mocked Joe Biden for wearing a mask .
DR. ASHISH JHA : Yeah .
So , let ’ s go back to contact tracing .
Again , contact tracing is not a nice thing to have , it gives you information .
No , no , no , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stopping the outbreak .
There is an outbreak happening at the White House .
It will continue to spread .
It will not go away on its own .
It will not magically disappear .
It will continue to spread within the White House .
It will spread to other people outside the White House .
That ’ s how the virus works .
The way you stop it is you test , trace and isolate .
You test people .
You identify who ’ s been infected .
You isolate folks who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their contacts .
And you keep going until you ’ ve got the virus under control .
And it really feels like the White House is seeing this as an inconvenience .
Sure , it ’ s an inconvenience .
It ’ s also essential .
And the other part , to me , as a citizen , is , you know , we all pay — through our taxes , we pay for the people who work at the White House .
We absolutely have a right to know what ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to know people ’ s personal information , but we absolutely need to know who ’ s been tested , who ’ s been infected , who ’ s quarantined .
That is a basic right of Americans to understand about their government .
So , you can ’ t — I don ’ t believe it ’ s at all reasonable that that information would somehow be kept .
But again , I want to emphasize there is a lot of political leaders , on both sides of the political aisle , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have taken things like quarantining and testing and tracing as nice things to do if you can do it , if you can get around to it .
And I want to emphasize that ’ s actually the only real tool we have for stopping the chains of transmission and bringing the virus under control .
Doing anything else is irresponsible .
AMY GOODMAN : We are at 210,000 people in this country who have died .
More than 7 million have been infected .
Can you talk about , as we wrap @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mistakes of this administration , that President Trump seems to be continuing even as he is sick with COVID ?
DR. ASHISH JHA : Yeah .
So , when you look at other countries that have done a much , much better job , there is one thing that differentiates them from us .
And that is about taking the virus seriously .
There isn ’ t one formula .
You could do masking .
You could do testing and tracing .
You could do really aggressive social distancing , or some combination @ @ @ @ @ @ @ What has happened is that our federal government , at every step , has downplayed the virus , has minimized its impact , has — it ’ s led the American people to believe that somehow it ’ s about to go away .
And that has undermined every effort that it has made , and it has undermined every effort of state and local governments and individuals .
It has created confusion .
It has spread misinformation .
Really , there ’ s one thing .
This is a very serious virus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Let ’ s do the things that we know to bring it under control .
And we can .
And if we do , we can open up schools , and we can open up workplaces .
We can get a lot of our lives back , but only if we control the virus .
And the failure to control the virus will go down as , I think , one of the biggest catastrophes of American domestic and health policy in generations .
And it continues to baffle me that we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ AMY GOODMAN : Dr. Ashish Jha , I want to thank you for being with us , now dean of Brown University School of Public Health .
And I want to thank Jeff Mason , Reuters White House correspondent .
Instead of the question , “ What did the president know , and when did he know it ?
” when was the president infected , and who did he infect ?
As we continue to cover the infection election .
When we come back , Kentucky ’ s attorney general has complied @ @ @ @ @ @ @ release 15 hours of audiotape from the disputed grand jury proceedings .
We ’ ll speak with the family attorney for Breonna Taylor , Ben Crump .
Stay with us .

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, during a news conference on Sunday, a reporter asked White House physician Sean Conley about statements made by White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who directly contradicted him the day before.
REPORTER: Yesterday you told us that the president was in great shape, had been in good shape and fever-free for the previous 24 hours. Minutes after your press conference, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told reporters that the president’s vitals were very concerning over the past 24 hours. Simple question for the American people: Whose statements about the president’s health should we believe?
DR. SEAN CONLEY: So, the chief and I work side by side, and I think his statement was misconstrued. What he meant was that 24 hours ago, when he and I were checking on the president, that there was that momentary episode of the high fever and that temporary drop in the saturation, which prompted us to act expediently to move him up here. Fortunately, that was really a very transient, limited episode. A couple hours later, he was back up, mild again. You know, we could — I’m not going to speculate what that limited episode was about so early in the course, but he’s doing well.
AMY GOODMAN: It was painful to watch these two news conferences, both on Saturday and Sunday, with the level of evasiveness and misinformation.
Dr. Ashish Jha is with us now, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, previously the director of Harvard University’s Global Health Institute.
We welcome you back to Democracy Now!, Dr. Jha. And I was wondering if you can talk about the significance of what he was not telling the truth about, the osteopath, Dr. Sean Conley?
DR. ASHISH JHA: Yes. Good morning. Thank you for having me on.
You know, a lot of the information that came from Dr. Conley over this weekend was confusing. And I think, in general, he made things much worse than making them better. The evasiveness around information Saturday was a disaster, as a press conference. Yesterday was a bit better, but it was, you know, not that much better. And at this point, most people, I think, in this country are confused about the president’s medical condition, because of both inconsistency and evasiveness and a sense that we’re just not getting the full picture at all.
AMY GOODMAN: So, what about Dr. Conley, the personal physician for President Trump, saying he was just trying to be upbeat, so he didn’t want to tell the truth about getting oxygen, and what it means to get oxygen, why this is so significant? And go back to Thursday night, Friday morning, 1:00 in the morning Eastern Time. It’s announced that — President Trump announces he and the first lady have tested positive for COVID. And very soon after, he is going into — he has serious symptoms, which suggests that he did not just turn positive that night.
DR. ASHISH JHA: That’s right. So, look, the natural course of this disease, of course, varies from person to person. But typically what we see is, after somebody is infected, three to five days later they might turn positive, and a couple of days later they develop symptoms, if they are going to go on to develop symptoms.
And so, this is — again, the timeline here is very confusing. And when Dr. Conley on Saturday said it had been 72 hours, that puts him back to Wednesday as the day of diagnosis. So, there’s been a lot of clarification, a lot of back and forth. At this point I think we think he turned positive for the first time on Thursday and then had symptoms on Friday. But instead of guesswork, it would be helpful if the White House just came forward and gave us the basic data and facts, and I think that would be very helpful.
AMY GOODMAN: And, of course, we have no idea when he turned positive, because they won’t say when he last took a test before Thursday. Now it looks like on Tuesday, the Fox moderator, Chris Wallace, said, you know, as I just was saying to Jeff Mason, that Trump came too late to take a test. And reporters have reported that both on Wednesday and Thursday, when he flew to New Jersey for his fundraiser, that he was not looking good. He was tired. His voice was hoarse.
DR. ASHISH JHA: Yeah. You know, I mean, presidents have difficult schedules. They can get tired. Their voices can get hoarse. So we don’t know if those were symptoms of COVID. I mean, obviously, in retrospect, it sure is concerning that that is the case.
You know, one of the things that people bring up is that in a situation like this — again, he is a president. He’s allowed, obviously, some amount of privacy. But he is the president, and transparency is incredibly important to assure the American people.
All of this speculation and guesswork and kind of trying to read between the lines could be made to go away if the White House just released basic information about his testing history, about his symptom history, about his therapy history. None of this stuff would be difficult to pull together. I bet somebody could do it in about an hour. And we could put all the speculation to rest. And the fact that the White House is not doing that is creating a lot more speculation and unease and guesswork, and actually just frank-out rumormongering, than what would happen if they just came out and told us what was happening.
AMY GOODMAN: Let’s talk about what President Trump is getting right now. The only person we know that has gotten this combination of drugs, the experimental, investigational Regeneron cocktail — if you could explain what that is, immune-enhancing — then remdesivir and dexamethasone, which is extremely serious, not usually given to anyone but critically ill COVID patients, and he’s gotten one after another of these. What they are, first of all, Dr. Jha? And also, is this because he’s president of the United States, and they’re just hitting him with everything at once, because they have access to it and they can, or is it because he is critically ill?
DR. ASHISH JHA: Yeah. So, let’s talk about the three therapies, and then let’s talk about his particular treatment course. The three therapies, the experimental Regeneron monoclonal antibodies — antibodies, people understand, these are proteins that are made against viruses, against bacteria. And what we’ve done is, Regeneron and other companies have done, is created, in the lab, synthetic antibodies against the spike protein of the virus. And there’s good reason to believe that that’s going to be a useful therapeutic. It’s undergoing critical studies. We don’t know if it works or not, but, again, a lot of us are hopeful. But hope is not evidence. It’s just we’re hopeful. And —
AMY GOODMAN: About 260 people have taken this, right?
DR. ASHISH JHA: Yeah. And it seems, on that preliminary data, to may have been helpful. But we haven’t even seen the full data from those 260 people yet. We’ve seen a press release. And we need a lot more data on what has happened. But either way, it’s not unreasonable to give the president this experimental therapy. There are people who are getting it, and sometimes we do these things.
Remdesivir is an antiviral. It actually blocks the replication of the virus. And it has had some evidence of efficacy for this specific virus.
Dexamethasone, of course, is a steroid. And you use the steroid — the steroid is actually an immunosuppressant, and we tend to use the steroid for this disease in kind of later phases, because what we think is that there are two phases of this disease. There’s a viral phase, where the virus replicates and people get quite — some people get sick. And then there’s kind of an immunologic phase, where the immune system overreacts. And so, to deal with that second phase is when you use dexamethasone. It’s very rare to use all of this stuff together in one kind of over a two-day period. It is unusual.
I do have a little bit of a feel — look, I don’t have his clinical record in front of me. I generally don’t like to second-guess other physicians. He’s got excellent doctors working for him and taking care of him. But it is a bit unusual to have all of this stuff happening the way it is. And it certainly makes us worried that he is getting what we often talk about as VIP care, which is often worse care, because with VIPs we tend to often throw out the kind of scientific guidebook and go and start improvising, because we want to do everything for them. But that’s not necessarily better care. It can mean overdoing things. Again, I don’t have enough details about his clinical condition to know whether he’s getting the right care, but certainly this is concerning.
AMY GOODMAN: And the dexamethasone, which is a steroid antisuppressant, it’s dangerous to give it too early to a COVID patient, is that right?
DR. ASHISH JHA: Absolutely. So, again, we’ve got one really high-quality clinical trial on this, and it showed that people who got it early, people who got it when there was no respiratory compromise, actually did worse. And that’s probably because they were in that sort of virologic phase where their immune system was actually necessary and it was not overreacting. And if you give dexamethasone too early, you can do more harm than good.
Again, with the president, you know, I trust the physicians, the experts at Walter Reed and Hopkins who are involved, so I’m assuming they’re making good decisions. But it’s really hard to know with all the opacity of what exactly is happening with him.
AMY GOODMAN: So, Dr. Ashish Jha, let’s talk about what happened on Thursday. Whether or not President Trump knew, I mean, I just — with the number of lies that spew from the White House and from the president himself, whether he knew he was positive when he took off to fly to New Jersey, he clearly knew — I mean, the White House spokespeople have said, Mark Meadows has said, he knew, before he took off, that Hope Hicks had tested positive, and he is with her constantly, and they were on the flight together, Air Force One, when she was feeling sick the night before. He knew this. Talk about the dangers that he put people in on that flight and then when he arrived in New Jersey. The people at Bedminster, his donors, did not know about these circumstances before. Apparently, the White House has refused to turn over the list to the New Jersey governor so that they can do contact tracing. Hundreds of people were there for an inside/outside event. Talk about this.
DR. ASHISH JHA: Yeah. So, the CDC guidelines on this is very clear, and for good reason. The evidence here is very clear. So, let’s assume that he had not gotten tested positive on Thursday morning, when he took off for Bedminster. If he had been — if he knew that Ms. Hicks was positive, he at that point was a contact. He was somebody who needed to quarantine for 14 days, irrespective of any positive or negative test. The reason is because he was — he had some significant risk of having been infected and, in fact, having become infectious. So the idea that, once you know you’re a contact, you get on a plane and you go to a fundraiser is deeply irresponsible.
Now, people keep thinking of this as somehow these quarantines and these isolations are nice to have, would be nice to do. No, this is essential work. You know, I was thinking about the fact that we — people are missing work, people are missing school, because of quarantining. When we have to quarantine, it poses a huge burden on everybody. But you have to do it, because that’s how you break chains of transmission for this highly infectious virus. And it applies to everyone. The president is not immune from this virus, as we know, and the president is also not immune from spreading the virus.
So, the idea that he knew he was a contact to somebody who was positive, and knew, should have known — everybody around him should have known that he needed to quarantine for 14 days, and yet still went to an event, I think, is — as I said, it’s deeply irresponsible. It’s disrespectful to everybody he came in close contact with, because he was essentially saying that “I could be transmitting the virus to you, and it doesn’t matter.”
And it also undermines our ability to ask other Americans to do this, because if the president won’t do it for a fundraiser, how do we ask a child to do it to avoid school? How do we ask an essential worker to miss days of work and do this? I don’t understand it, to be perfectly honest. And I find it upsetting, frustrating. It just — it’s irresponsible.
AMY GOODMAN: And one of the people who President Trump met with there had just recently lost their father to COVID. This is not to mention the number of workers at Bedminster, at his private golf club, that are exposed, not to mention what’s happening at the White House right now. And we won’t even know how many or who have tested positive, because the press secretary says she will not reveal this anymore. Michael Shear of The New York Times, who has tested positive, who covers the White House, said he hasn’t been contacted by the White House. The significance of contact tracing, Dr. Jha, and what this means all over? The message President Trump sends not wearing a mask? His own surrogates, people like Jason Miller, people who work with him, once again, even as Trump was in the hospital, mocked Joe Biden for wearing a mask.
DR. ASHISH JHA: Yeah. So, let’s go back to contact tracing. Again, contact tracing is not a nice thing to have, it gives you information. No, no, no, no. It’s essential to stopping the outbreak. There is an outbreak happening at the White House. It will continue to spread. It will not go away on its own. It will not magically disappear. It will continue to spread within the White House. It will spread to other people outside the White House. That’s how the virus works.
The way you stop it is you test, trace and isolate. You test people. You identify who’s been infected. You isolate folks who are infected. And you quarantine all their contacts. And you keep going until you’ve got the virus under control. And it really feels like the White House is seeing this as an inconvenience. Sure, it’s an inconvenience. It’s also essential.
And the other part, to me, as a citizen, is, you know, we all pay — through our taxes, we pay for the people who work at the White House. We absolutely have a right to know what’s happening. I don’t need to know people’s personal information, but we absolutely need to know who’s been tested, who’s been infected, who’s quarantined. That is a basic right of Americans to understand about their government. So, you can’t — I don’t believe it’s at all reasonable that that information would somehow be kept.
But again, I want to emphasize there is a lot of political leaders, on both sides of the political aisle, but certainly this White House, that have taken things like quarantining and testing and tracing as nice things to do if you can do it, if you can get around to it. And I want to emphasize that’s actually the only real tool we have for stopping the chains of transmission and bringing the virus under control. Doing anything else is irresponsible.
AMY GOODMAN: We are at 210,000 people in this country who have died. More than 7 million have been infected. Can you talk about, as we wrap up right now, the most egregious mistakes of this administration, that President Trump seems to be continuing even as he is sick with COVID?
DR. ASHISH JHA: Yeah. So, when you look at other countries that have done a much, much better job, there is one thing that differentiates them from us. And that is about taking the virus seriously. There isn’t one formula. You could do masking. You could do testing and tracing. You could do really aggressive social distancing, or some combination of all three of those things.
What has happened is that our federal government, at every step, has downplayed the virus, has minimized its impact, has — it’s led the American people to believe that somehow it’s about to go away. And that has undermined every effort that it has made, and it has undermined every effort of state and local governments and individuals. It has created confusion. It has spread misinformation.
Really, there’s one thing. This is a very serious virus. Let’s take it seriously. Let’s do the things that we know to bring it under control. And we can. And if we do, we can open up schools, and we can open up workplaces. We can get a lot of our lives back, but only if we control the virus. And the failure to control the virus will go down as, I think, one of the biggest catastrophes of American domestic and health policy in generations. And it continues to baffle me that we still aren’t doing it.
AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Ashish Jha, I want to thank you for being with us, now dean of Brown University School of Public Health. And I want to thank Jeff Mason, Reuters White House correspondent. Instead of the question, “What did the president know, and when did he know it?” when was the president infected, and who did he infect? As we continue to cover the infection election.
When we come back, Kentucky’s attorney general has complied with a judge’s order to release 15 hours of audiotape from the disputed grand jury proceedings. We’ll speak with the family attorney for Breonna Taylor, Ben Crump. Stay with us.


democracynow--2020-10-05--What Did He Know and When Did He Know It? Lies & Contradictions Abound as Trump Is Treated for COVID

This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
AMY GOODMAN : President Trump has entered his fourth day hospitalized at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center .
Trump tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday and was flown to the hospital on Friday after suffering a high fever and a drop in oxygen .
Trump has received supplemental oxygen at least twice after his blood oxygen level fell .
Doctors say Trump could be released back to the White House to continue his treatment as early as today .
Over the weekend , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ conflicting information about his health and refused to answer key questions , lied about other issues .
On Saturday , White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said , quote , “ We are still not on a clear path to a full recovery.
” On Sunday , doctors revealed Trump had been given dexamethasone , a common steroid that ’ s recommended only for patients critically ill with COVID-19 .
His treatment has also included the experimental monoclonal antibody made by Regeneron and the antiviral drug remdesivir .
CNN reports Trump may @ @ @ @ @ @ @ receive this combination of drugs .
On Sunday , Trump broke his quarantine by leaving the hospital to take a short drive to wave at his supporters outside .
Trump appeared to be wearing just a cloth mask inside the sealed vehicle , possibly infecting the Secret Service agents who accompanied him .
Meanwhile , the number of prominent Republicans to get infected keeps growing .
The list now includes first lady Melania Trump , Senators Mike Lee , Thom Tillis and Ron Johnson , Trump adviser Hope Hicks , Trump ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ adviser Kellyanne Conway , Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie , who ’ s been hospitalized .
Trump ’ s personal assistant , Nicholas Luna , has also tested positive .
Many of those infected attended a ceremony at the White House for Trump ’ s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett .
Notre Dame University president John Jenkins , who attended the event , has also tested positive .
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden , who debated Trump on Tuesday , tested negative on Friday @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We begin today ’ s show with Dr. Ashish Jha , dean of the Brown University School of Public Health .
He was previously the director of Harvard University ’ s Global Health Institute .
We ’ re also joined by Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason , the former president of the White House Correspondents ’ Association .
We welcome you both to Democracy Now !
Jeff Mason , let ’ s begin with you .
Now , you ’ re in Wilmington now .
You ’ re covering Joe Biden .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the beginning of Trump ’ s term .
Can you talk about , number one , would we know almost any of this on Thursday if it hadn ’ t been a reporter at Bloomberg News who reported that Hope Hicks had tested positive for COVID-19 ?
JEFF MASON : Well , that ’ s a great question .
We wouldn ’ t have known it when we did .
That ’ s for sure .
I mean , when that news broke by Bloomberg and then ended up being confirmed , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , including my own , that led to a trickle of news about — essentially , about President Trump .
I mean , he came on Fox News later that evening and also confirmed that Hope had gotten sick , and at that time said that he had been tested and also sort of gave an indication that he wasn ’ t sure if he had it and whether he would need to go into quarantine .
So , you know , it ’ s hard , in retrospect , to know what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he still would have gone on Fox in that case .
Clearly , eventually , they would have had to say that he had the disease , but , for sure , it started off because of good reporting from one of my colleagues .
AMY GOODMAN : And this issue is so critical because it is clear that President Trump knew at least before he left the tarmac for that New Jersey fundraiser , where he was inside with at least 18 of his donors and there was an inside/outside event of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hope Hicks had tested positive .
The significance of this at this point ?
It is not clear whether he had been tested at that point , and it ’ s not clear , certainly , that Hope Hicks gave it to him .
For all we know , he gave it to her .
So many people around him , at least 10 , have now tested positive for COVID-19 .
But the significance of him going then in a plane to New Jersey for this fundraiser ?
JEFF MASON : Yeah @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out very well .
It ’ s exactly the opposite of what public health professionals have been encouraging Americans and others around the world not to do .
If you have been exposed , certainly if you feel any symptoms , people are encouraged to stay home and not to travel , to wear a mask .
President Trump , of course , has not been a regular mask wearer .
And the White House isn ’ t giving a lot of details about what we would call a tick tock , which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a timeline of when he first found out .
But the timeline that you have laid out is also what is generally known at this point , and it certainly raises questions about the decisions that were made to allow him to travel , for him to decide to travel , and to expose what seems like a lot of people .
AMY GOODMAN : And the critical question : When was Trump last tested , before Thursday ?
When did he last do a COVID test ?
I mean , the significance @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the White House is refusing to answer it , the doctor — his doctor is refusing to answer it .
Before Thursday , when was he last tested ?
Any reporting on that ?
JEFF MASON : Yeah , I mean , you ’ re asking the question that I think a lot of people would like to know .
He would have been tested — he would have been tested before the debate , I believe .
I know that the Biden campaign — AMY GOODMAN : No , actually , Chris @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — JEFF MASON : Yeah , feel free to correct me on that .
AMY GOODMAN : — that Trump arrived too late to actually have a test , and they worked on the , quote , “ honor system.
” JEFF MASON : OK , all right .
That ’ s right , and I ’ m glad you corrected me on that .
I know that the Biden campaign said that he was tested before going to Cleveland .
And that is obviously a big breach , if that ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with President Trump .
The one thing they have been saying repeatedly throughout the last several weeks and months of this pandemic is that he is tested very regularly .
I think many people assume that that would mean that he is tested on a daily basis , which would have included that Tuesday of that debate .
I can tell you that reporters and others who are around the president regularly at the White House , obviously before this diagnosis , are tested on a daily basis .
And so I think @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was happening with him , too .
AMY GOODMAN : And that is another critical question .
Your colleagues in the White House press corps who were there that weekend covering the events around Amy Coney Barrett , three have now tested positive , as far as we know , one of them Michael Shear of The New York Times .
Now , you are a strong advocate of reporters at the White House .
You were the head of the press association there .
The significance of this ?
And how hard @ @ @ @ @ @ @ White House , when you have a president who the people around him are discouraged from wearing masks and you have a White House press secretary who does not wear a mask when she comes to brief the press ?
JEFF MASON : Yeah , it ’ s very tricky .
It is a tricky time , because journalists , obviously , myself included , and all of my colleagues , feel a responsibility to cover this , which is the biggest story in the world , and to get information out to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the rest of the world , not only about now the president ’ s health , but the policy response to the pandemic and everything else .
So , it is definitely a challenge .
And it ’ s unusual , I would say , that reporters have to put themselves at risk just by going to do their jobs at the White House .
But that has been the case .
AMY GOODMAN : Jeff Mason , I wanted to go back to you questioning President Trump .
I believe it was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ So , Jeff Mason , you clearly stood your ground .
You were wearing that mask , and you refused to take it off .
Talk about the significance of that and him telling other reporters , as well , at different times ?
That was a month ago today , telling them to take off their masks ?
JEFF MASON : I think it ’ s just representative of the ethos around mask wearing that President Trump has employed and used .
He , as you were referring to earlier , doesn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ doesn ’ t like it when people around him are wearing a mask .
In that particular case with me , he is right that I was far enough away from him that we had enough distance , in which I wouldn ’ t have needed to wear a mask , but I was standing next to my colleagues .
And that ’ s why I left mine on .
AMY GOODMAN : And then , what happened yesterday , this moment when President Trump does a drive-by surprise wave to his supporters @ @ @ @ @ @ @ astounding moment to see him in this hermetically sealed , you know , presidential — I don ’ t know if it ’ s an SUV — with two — JEFF MASON : I think it was an SUV , yeah .
AMY GOODMAN : Right — two Secret Service driving him .
He is a sick COVID patient forcing his Secret Service to be in a car with closed windows .
And the press , the White House press corps , told to go leave the premises at that point , because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ President Trump .
JEFF MASON : Right .
And to give a specific timeline on that , so , the small pool of reporters that covers the president ’ s movements , that travels with him , that ’ s called the pool .
And we ’ re given instructions in the morning as to what time to show up at the White House .
And in yesterday ’ s case , they showed up at the White House and then went to Walter Reed and then were given instructions to leave because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ There were other reporters out there , and I think that ’ s , thankfully , why we were able to get some video .
But the pool itself had been dismissed .
And I should also clarify something I said earlier .
It ’ s just the pool of reporters , that 13-member group , that gets tested every day when they go to the White House .
There are lots of other reporters , including on that day of the nomination ceremony for Judge Amy Coney Barrett , who do not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there are limited to a small group of people .
But to get back to your specific question , yes , he certainly breached protocols with regard to the press , and certainly also breached protocols with regard to health , by leaving the hospital and by going out and doing that .
It ’ s the opposite — the opposite — of what COVID patients are encouraged to do all around this country , certainly if they ’ re in a hospital , but also simply if you ’ re at home @ @ @ @ @ @ @ disease — which , let ’ s be clear , he has the disease and is being treated for it — you are to stay quarantined and to stay , in this case , in the hospital , or otherwise at home .
AMY GOODMAN : The sad joke online about yesterday ’ s drive-by : Secret Service members are there to take a bullet for the president , not from him .

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: President Trump has entered his fourth day hospitalized at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Trump tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday and was flown to the hospital on Friday after suffering a high fever and a drop in oxygen. Trump has received supplemental oxygen at least twice after his blood oxygen level fell. Doctors say Trump could be released back to the White House to continue his treatment as early as today.
Over the weekend, his medical team repeatedly gave limited and conflicting information about his health and refused to answer key questions, lied about other issues. On Saturday, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said, quote, “We are still not on a clear path to a full recovery.” On Sunday, doctors revealed Trump had been given dexamethasone, a common steroid that’s recommended only for patients critically ill with COVID-19. His treatment has also included the experimental monoclonal antibody made by Regeneron and the antiviral drug remdesivir. CNN reports Trump may be the only COVID-19 patient to ever receive this combination of drugs.
On Sunday, Trump broke his quarantine by leaving the hospital to take a short drive to wave at his supporters outside. Trump appeared to be wearing just a cloth mask inside the sealed vehicle, possibly infecting the Secret Service agents who accompanied him.
Meanwhile, the number of prominent Republicans to get infected keeps growing. The list now includes first lady Melania Trump, Senators Mike Lee, Thom Tillis and Ron Johnson, Trump adviser Hope Hicks, Trump’s campaign manager Bill Stepien, former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who’s been hospitalized. Trump’s personal assistant, Nicholas Luna, has also tested positive.
Many of those infected attended a ceremony at the White House for Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett. Notre Dame University president John Jenkins, who attended the event, has also tested positive.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, who debated Trump on Tuesday, tested negative on Friday, as well as on Sunday.
We begin today’s show with Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health. He was previously the director of Harvard University’s Global Health Institute. We’re also joined by Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason, the former president of the White House Correspondents’ Association.
We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Jeff Mason, let’s begin with you. Now, you’re in Wilmington now. You’re covering Joe Biden. You were the White House Correspondent president in the beginning of Trump’s term. Can you talk about, number one, would we know almost any of this on Thursday if it hadn’t been a reporter at Bloomberg News who reported that Hope Hicks had tested positive for COVID-19?
JEFF MASON: Well, that’s a great question. We wouldn’t have known it when we did. That’s for sure. I mean, when that news broke by Bloomberg and then ended up being confirmed, of course, by other news organizations, including my own, that led to a trickle of news about — essentially, about President Trump. I mean, he came on Fox News later that evening and also confirmed that Hope had gotten sick, and at that time said that he had been tested and also sort of gave an indication that he wasn’t sure if he had it and whether he would need to go into quarantine. So, you know, it’s hard, in retrospect, to know what would have — you know, if he still would have gone on Fox in that case. Clearly, eventually, they would have had to say that he had the disease, but, for sure, it started off because of good reporting from one of my colleagues.
AMY GOODMAN: And this issue is so critical because it is clear that President Trump knew at least before he left the tarmac for that New Jersey fundraiser, where he was inside with at least 18 of his donors and there was an inside/outside event of like 250 people — he knew that Hope Hicks had tested positive. The significance of this at this point? It is not clear whether he had been tested at that point, and it’s not clear, certainly, that Hope Hicks gave it to him. For all we know, he gave it to her. So many people around him, at least 10, have now tested positive for COVID-19. But the significance of him going then in a plane to New Jersey for this fundraiser?
JEFF MASON: Yeah, I mean, you laid it out very well. It’s exactly the opposite of what public health professionals have been encouraging Americans and others around the world not to do. If you have been exposed, certainly if you feel any symptoms, people are encouraged to stay home and not to travel, to wear a mask. President Trump, of course, has not been a regular mask wearer.
And the White House isn’t giving a lot of details about what we would call a tick tock, which are the exact sort of details about a timeline of when he first found out. But the timeline that you have laid out is also what is generally known at this point, and it certainly raises questions about the decisions that were made to allow him to travel, for him to decide to travel, and to expose what seems like a lot of people.
AMY GOODMAN: And the critical question: When was Trump last tested, before Thursday? When did he last do a COVID test? I mean, the significance of this question is clear, because the White House is refusing to answer it, the doctor — his doctor is refusing to answer it. Before Thursday, when was he last tested? Any reporting on that?
JEFF MASON: Yeah, I mean, you’re asking the question that I think a lot of people would like to know. He would have been tested — he would have been tested before the debate, I believe. I know that the Biden campaign —
AMY GOODMAN: No, actually, Chris Matthews — sorry, Chris Wallace said —
JEFF MASON: Yeah, feel free to correct me on that.
AMY GOODMAN: — that Trump arrived too late to actually have a test, and they worked on the, quote, “honor system.”
JEFF MASON: OK, all right. That’s right, and I’m glad you corrected me on that. I know that the Biden campaign said that he was tested before going to Cleveland. And that is obviously a big breach, if that’s what happened with the White House and with President Trump.
The one thing they have been saying repeatedly throughout the last several weeks and months of this pandemic is that he is tested very regularly. I think many people assume that that would mean that he is tested on a daily basis, which would have included that Tuesday of that debate. I can tell you that reporters and others who are around the president regularly at the White House, obviously before this diagnosis, are tested on a daily basis. And so I think there is certainly an assumption that that was happening with him, too.
AMY GOODMAN: And that is another critical question. Your colleagues in the White House press corps who were there that weekend covering the events around Amy Coney Barrett, three have now tested positive, as far as we know, one of them Michael Shear of The New York Times. Now, you are a strong advocate of reporters at the White House. You were the head of the press association there. The significance of this? And how hard is it to work safely at the White House, when you have a president who the people around him are discouraged from wearing masks and you have a White House press secretary who does not wear a mask when she comes to brief the press?
JEFF MASON: Yeah, it’s very tricky. It is a tricky time, because journalists, obviously, myself included, and all of my colleagues, feel a responsibility to cover this, which is the biggest story in the world, and to get information out to the American people, as well as the rest of the world, not only about now the president’s health, but the policy response to the pandemic and everything else. So, it is definitely a challenge. And it’s unusual, I would say, that reporters have to put themselves at risk just by going to do their jobs at the White House. But that has been the case.
AMY GOODMAN: Jeff Mason, I wanted to go back to you questioning President Trump. I believe it was on September 7th.
JEFF MASON: Thanks, Mr. President. The issue of what happened when you were in France continues to be a story.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You’re going have to take that off, please. Just you can take it off. Your health — how many feet are you away?
JEFF MASON: I’ll speak a lot louder.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, if you don’t take it off — you’re very muffled, so if you would take it off, it would be a lot easier.
JEFF MASON: I’ll just speak a lot louder. Is that better?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: It’s better, yeah. It’s better.
AMY GOODMAN: So, Jeff Mason, you clearly stood your ground. You were wearing that mask, and you refused to take it off. Talk about the significance of that and him telling other reporters, as well, at different times? That was a month ago today, telling them to take off their masks?
JEFF MASON: I think it’s just representative of the ethos around mask wearing that President Trump has employed and used. He, as you were referring to earlier, doesn’t like wearing a mask, doesn’t like it when people around him are wearing a mask. In that particular case with me, he is right that I was far enough away from him that we had enough distance, in which I wouldn’t have needed to wear a mask, but I was standing next to my colleagues. And that’s why I left mine on.
AMY GOODMAN: And then, what happened yesterday, this moment when President Trump does a drive-by surprise wave to his supporters outside the hospital, it was an astounding moment to see him in this hermetically sealed, you know, presidential — I don’t know if it’s an SUV — with two —
JEFF MASON: I think it was an SUV, yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: Right — two Secret Service driving him. He is a sick COVID patient forcing his Secret Service to be in a car with closed windows. And the press, the White House press corps, told to go leave the premises at that point, because there would be no more news from President Trump.
JEFF MASON: Right. And to give a specific timeline on that, so, the small pool of reporters that covers the president’s movements, that travels with him, that’s called the pool. And we’re given instructions in the morning as to what time to show up at the White House. And in yesterday’s case, they showed up at the White House and then went to Walter Reed and then were given instructions to leave because there would be no more movements. There were other reporters out there, and I think that’s, thankfully, why we were able to get some video. But the pool itself had been dismissed.
And I should also clarify something I said earlier. It’s just the pool of reporters, that 13-member group, that gets tested every day when they go to the White House. There are lots of other reporters, including on that day of the nomination ceremony for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, who do not get tested. So, the precautions there are limited to a small group of people.
But to get back to your specific question, yes, he certainly breached protocols with regard to the press, and certainly also breached protocols with regard to health, by leaving the hospital and by going out and doing that. It’s the opposite — the opposite — of what COVID patients are encouraged to do all around this country, certainly if they’re in a hospital, but also simply if you’re at home. If you are diagnosed with a disease — which, let’s be clear, he has the disease and is being treated for it — you are to stay quarantined and to stay, in this case, in the hospital, or otherwise at home.
AMY GOODMAN: The sad joke online about yesterday’s drive-by: Secret Service members are there to take a bullet for the president, not from him.


democracynow--2020-10-05--Headlines for October  5, 2020

Headlines for October  5, 2020

President Trump has entered his fourth day hospitalized at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center .
He could be discharged as early as today , according to his doctors , after a weekend of mixed messages from Trump ’ s team about his health status following his COVID-19 diagnosis last week .
On Saturday , White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows reportedly told staff Trump ’ s vitals were “ very concerning ” and that “ We are still not on a clear path to a full recovery.
” However , President Trump ’ s physician , Sean @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the president ’ s recovery , even as doctors shared that his oxygen levels dropped twice and that he had been on steroids that are usually reserved for critically ill patients .
On Sunday , Conley acknowledged he misled reporters one day earlier about Trump being given oxygen .
Dr. Sean Conley : “ So , I was trying to reflect the upbeat attitude that the team , the president , that his course of illness has had .
I didn ’ t want to give any information that might steer the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And in doing so , you know , it came off that we were trying to hide something , which wasn ’ t necessarily true.
” Trump ’ s medical records show he received the powerful steroid dexamethasone along with the antiviral remdesivir and an experimental antibody cocktail made by Regeneron that ’ s still in clinical trials .
Doctors say President Trump may be the first person ever to receive all three drugs at once , and there is no data about the safety or efficacy of using the drugs in concert @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out three video messages from his presidential suite at Walter Reed hospital .
On Sunday , Trump broke his quarantine by briefly leaving the hospital to take a short drive for a photo op to wave at supporters .
Trump appeared to wear just a cloth mask inside the hermetically sealed vehicle , putting the Secret Service agents who accompanied him at risk of infection .
Meanwhile , the number of prominent Republicans to get infected keeps growing .
The list now includes first lady Melania Trump , Senators Mike Lee , Thom @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hope Hicks , Trump ’ s campaign manager Bill Stepien , former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway , Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie , who has been hospitalized .
Trump ’ s personal assistant , Nicholas Luna , has also tested positive .
Many of those infected attended ceremonies on September 26 at the White House for Trump ’ s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett .
Three journalists who cover the White House also have COVID-19 .
Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the White House @ @ @ @ @ @ @ names of staffers who test positive for the coronavirus .

President Trump has entered his fourth day hospitalized at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. He could be discharged as early as today, according to his doctors, after a weekend of mixed messages from Trump’s team about his health status following his COVID-19 diagnosis last week.
On Saturday, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows reportedly told staff Trump’s vitals were “very concerning” and that “We are still not on a clear path to a full recovery.” However, President Trump’s physician, Sean Conley, painted a much rosier picture of the president’s recovery, even as doctors shared that his oxygen levels dropped twice and that he had been on steroids that are usually reserved for critically ill patients. On Sunday, Conley acknowledged he misled reporters one day earlier about Trump being given oxygen.
Dr. Sean Conley: “So, I was trying to reflect the upbeat attitude that the team, the president, that his course of illness has had. I didn’t want to give any information that might steer the course of illness in another direction. And in doing so, you know, it came off that we were trying to hide something, which wasn’t necessarily true.”
Trump’s medical records show he received the powerful steroid dexamethasone along with the antiviral remdesivir and an experimental antibody cocktail made by Regeneron that’s still in clinical trials. Doctors say President Trump may be the first person ever to receive all three drugs at once, and there is no data about the safety or efficacy of using the drugs in concert. Throughout the weekend, Trump tweeted out three video messages from his presidential suite at Walter Reed hospital.
President Donald Trump: “I came here, wasn’t feeling so well. I feel much better now. We’re working hard to get me all the way back.”
On Sunday, Trump broke his quarantine by briefly leaving the hospital to take a short drive for a photo op to wave at supporters. Trump appeared to wear just a cloth mask inside the hermetically sealed vehicle, putting the Secret Service agents who accompanied him at risk of infection.
Meanwhile, the number of prominent Republicans to get infected keeps growing. The list now includes first lady Melania Trump, Senators Mike Lee, Thom Tillis and Ron Johnson, Trump adviser Hope Hicks, Trump’s campaign manager Bill Stepien, former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who has been hospitalized. Trump’s personal assistant, Nicholas Luna, has also tested positive. Many of those infected attended ceremonies on September 26 at the White House for Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett. Three journalists who cover the White House also have COVID-19. Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the White House will no longer reveal the number or names of staffers who test positive for the coronavirus.


democracynow--2020-10-06--Meet the College Senior Who Built a COVID Tracker After CDC Blocked from Tracing Trump's Contacts

This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
AMY GOODMAN : This is Democracy Now !
The Quarantine Report .
I ’ m Amy Goodman , with Juan González .
As the number of people in President Trump ’ s orbit who test positive for COVID-19 continues to grow , we ’ re joined now by a student journalist who ’ s doing what the White House does not want the Centers for Disease Control to do : tracing the contacts of people who may have infected or been infected by President Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ senior who helped develop a real-time tracking tool called COVID-19 at the White House .
Benjy is also the digital director for Middlebury College ’ s school newspaper .
Benjy , we welcome you to Democracy Now !
Your website now shows 277 contacts , with 25 positive cases and a list of people you know to have come in contact with Donald Trump and others through him .
Can you explain who ’ s on the list , how you were able to come up with this , with a group of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Amy , thank you so much for having me .
So , we ’ ve been able to essentially track the contacts of anyone who ’ s come in contact with the president or Hope Hicks or any of the individuals who have tested positive .
As you said , we ’ ve had 277 contacts that we ’ ve been able to track so far , 25 of those who are positive , including Trump ’ s campaign manager Bill Stepien , White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany , two of her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump , Notre Dame president John Jenkins .
So , we ’ re still trying to understand the scope of the spread of this outbreak and sort of what events really led to the viral transmission .
But we ’ ve determined that the spread is particularly alarming in and around the White House .
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : And you ’ ve included in your contact tracking map a variety of events : the Rose Garden event , where Trump ’ s Supreme Court nominee was officially announced , on Saturday , September @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ; the president ’ s rally in Duluth , Minnesota , on Wednesday ; and his fundraiser at his golf club in Bedminster on Thursday evening .
Talk about the map , how you put it together , and how you ’ re getting this information .
BENJY RENTON : Sure .
So , we were able to essentially use public reports , pictures , flight manifests , as well as we have our own tip line where individuals can fill out any sort of tips or results that they want us to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ve looked essentially at any events or any settings that the president may have come in contact with .
And that goes , as you said , to the Supreme Court nominee event in the Rose Garden , which also there was also an indoor event that was just before the ceremony , which potentially contributed to viral spread , and that was a smaller-scale event but indoors with a larger risk of transmission ; the debate on that Tuesday , the debate prep beforehand ; the Minnesota fundraiser .
We just received @ @ @ @ @ @ @ adding a couple of individuals who were at the restaurant that was helping prepare the food for the fundraiser , who are now quarantined .
So , there ’ s truly a national scope of this outbreak , and we ’ re really trying to cast as wide of a net as possible , using publicly available information , to ensure that the American public have access and have the transparency that they deserve .
AMY GOODMAN : Which also really shows us how important public information is .
I mean , you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Times , who ’ s COVID-positive , one of three reporters , White House reporters , who have tested positive since last weekend .
He has not been contacted by the White House , he says .
And so , the real question , if any contact tracing is being done .
And why , Benjy , is this contact tracing so important , when people find out if they have been near any of the people ?
I mean , Chris Christie now , the former governor of New Jersey , who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Supreme Court ceremony , he is hospitalized with COVID .
BENJY RENTON : Yeah .
And so , as you said , Michael Shear and a couple of individuals , including Chris Christie himself , really only found out that they were in contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19 via the media or any sort of news reports that they consumed , because there was no official contact tracing effort , that we know of , at the White House .
And we received notification yesterday in a New York Times @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — the Supreme Court nomination event Saturday will not be contact traced .
And so , while this is a not an official contact tracing investigation — we ’ re not conducting a medical investigation — we really believe and we hope that this tracker can enact change and essentially help people understand the scope , as well as , hopefully , if those who are contacts of the president or those who are contacts of those who tested positive , really urging them to quarantine and prevent further spread of this virus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ contacts , which are essentially people who were not at the events that the president attended or not at the White House events , but were contacts with somebody else , and they tested positive .
So , this is truly kind of a ripple effect when we talk about spread here .
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : Can you talk about some of the people you ’ ve identified as possible second-level contacts ?
BENJY RENTON : Yeah .
So , Claudia Conway , who is the daughter of former counsel to the president @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that she had tested positive for COVID-19 .
And she was not at any of the initial events or anything .
She had contact , obviously , with her mother , Kellyanne .
And so , we know that COVID-19 spreads oftentimes in home settings or in family settings , because those are areas where individuals are in close contact with each other without masks .
So , that ’ s one of them .
We ’ ve also started to really kind of draw back the scope of this , and maybe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Court event .
We learned yesterday , according to The New York Times ’ s Maggie Haberman , that two White House resident staff have tested positive .
We read a CNN report a couple days ago that showed , even as far back as two or so weeks ago , there was a White House staffer that tested positive .
And we want to reiterate that we really do protect individuals ’ privacy , and so this is all publicly available information .
And that often means that we may need to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” or “ journalist one ” or “ journalist two , ” “ journalist three.
” But we really want to get as accurate and as timely of a data set as possible , without sacrificing privacy or accuracy .
AMY GOODMAN : And if people want to get this information , where can they go ?
We have five seconds .
BENJY RENTON : Yeah , so they can go to WHCOVIDTracker.com , and there ’ s a tip line there that we encourage anybody to submit tips or even results , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : Well , with all the controversies going around college education right now , Benjy , I can see that your time is well spent .
Benjy Renton , senior at Middlebury College in Vermont , one of the creators of the White House COVID-19 outbreak tracker website .
I ’ m Amy Goodman , with Juan González .

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! The Quarantine Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
As the number of people in President Trump’s orbit who test positive for COVID-19 continues to grow, we’re joined now by a student journalist who’s doing what the White House does not want the Centers for Disease Control to do: tracing the contacts of people who may have infected or been infected by President Trump. Benjy Renton is a Middlebury College senior who helped develop a real-time tracking tool called COVID-19 at the White House. Benjy is also the digital director for Middlebury College’s school newspaper.
Benjy, we welcome you to Democracy Now! Your website now shows 277 contacts, with 25 positive cases and a list of people you know to have come in contact with Donald Trump and others through him. Can you explain who’s on the list, how you were able to come up with this, with a group of people?
BENJY RENTON: Yeah. Amy, thank you so much for having me.
So, we’ve been able to essentially track the contacts of anyone who’s come in contact with the president or Hope Hicks or any of the individuals who have tested positive. As you said, we’ve had 277 contacts that we’ve been able to track so far, 25 of those who are positive, including Trump’s campaign manager Bill Stepien, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, two of her assistant press secretaries, first lady Melania Trump, Notre Dame president John Jenkins.
So, we’re still trying to understand the scope of the spread of this outbreak and sort of what events really led to the viral transmission. But we’ve determined that the spread is particularly alarming in and around the White House.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And you’ve included in your contact tracking map a variety of events: the Rose Garden event, where Trump’s Supreme Court nominee was officially announced, on Saturday, September 26th; the presidential debate last Tuesday; the president’s rally in Duluth, Minnesota, on Wednesday; and his fundraiser at his golf club in Bedminster on Thursday evening. Talk about the map, how you put it together, and how you’re getting this information.
BENJY RENTON: Sure. So, we were able to essentially use public reports, pictures, flight manifests, as well as we have our own tip line where individuals can fill out any sort of tips or results that they want us to investigate.
And so, we’ve looked essentially at any events or any settings that the president may have come in contact with. And that goes, as you said, to the Supreme Court nominee event in the Rose Garden, which also there was also an indoor event that was just before the ceremony, which potentially contributed to viral spread, and that was a smaller-scale event but indoors with a larger risk of transmission; the debate on that Tuesday, the debate prep beforehand; the Minnesota fundraiser. We just received an article this morning that we are adding a couple of individuals who were at the restaurant that was helping prepare the food for the fundraiser, who are now quarantined.
So, there’s truly a national scope of this outbreak, and we’re really trying to cast as wide of a net as possible, using publicly available information, to ensure that the American public have access and have the transparency that they deserve.
AMY GOODMAN: Which also really shows us how important public information is. I mean, you have Michael Shear of The New York Times, who’s COVID-positive, one of three reporters, White House reporters, who have tested positive since last weekend. He has not been contacted by the White House, he says. And so, the real question, if any contact tracing is being done. And why, Benjy, is this contact tracing so important, when people find out if they have been near any of the people? I mean, Chris Christie now, the former governor of New Jersey, who did debate prep and was at the Supreme Court ceremony, he is hospitalized with COVID.
BENJY RENTON: Yeah. And so, as you said, Michael Shear and a couple of individuals, including Chris Christie himself, really only found out that they were in contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19 via the media or any sort of news reports that they consumed, because there was no official contact tracing effort, that we know of, at the White House. And we received notification yesterday in a New York Times report that the event at the Supreme — the Supreme Court nomination event Saturday will not be contact traced.
And so, while this is a not an official contact tracing investigation — we’re not conducting a medical investigation — we really believe and we hope that this tracker can enact change and essentially help people understand the scope, as well as, hopefully, if those who are contacts of the president or those who are contacts of those who tested positive, really urging them to quarantine and prevent further spread of this virus, as we’ve seen second-order contacts, which are essentially people who were not at the events that the president attended or not at the White House events, but were contacts with somebody else, and they tested positive. So, this is truly kind of a ripple effect when we talk about spread here.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Can you talk about some of the people you’ve identified as possible second-level contacts?
BENJY RENTON: Yeah. So, Claudia Conway, who is the daughter of former counsel to the president Kellyanne Conway, had posted on TikTok that she had tested positive for COVID-19. And she was not at any of the initial events or anything. She had contact, obviously, with her mother, Kellyanne. And so, we know that COVID-19 spreads oftentimes in home settings or in family settings, because those are areas where individuals are in close contact with each other without masks. So, that’s one of them.
We’ve also started to really kind of draw back the scope of this, and maybe even go earlier than that Saturday Supreme Court event. We learned yesterday, according to The New York Times’s Maggie Haberman, that two White House resident staff have tested positive. We read a CNN report a couple days ago that showed, even as far back as two or so weeks ago, there was a White House staffer that tested positive.
And we want to reiterate that we really do protect individuals’ privacy, and so this is all publicly available information. And that often means that we may need to name someone as “White House staffer” or “journalist one” or “journalist two,” “journalist three.” But we really want to get as accurate and as timely of a data set as possible, without sacrificing privacy or accuracy.
AMY GOODMAN: And if people want to get this information, where can they go? We have five seconds.
BENJY RENTON: Yeah, so they can go to WHCOVIDTracker.com, and there’s a tip line there that we encourage anybody to submit tips or even results, if they are contacts.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, with all the controversies going around college education right now, Benjy, I can see that your time is well spent. Benjy Renton, senior at Middlebury College in Vermont, one of the creators of the White House COVID-19 outbreak tracker website. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.


democracynow--2020-10-06--Activist Who Lost Father to COVID Says Trump's White House Photo Op Was Like "Sci-Fi Horror Film"

This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
AMY GOODMAN : This is Democracy Now !
, democracynow.org , The Quarantine Report .
I ’ m Amy Goodman , with Juan González .
COVID-19 has infected about seven-and-a-half million people in the United States and has killed more than 210,000 people .
That ’ s over 20 % of the deaths reported worldwide , even though the U.S. has less than 5 % of the world ’ s population .
But on Monday , the highest-profile coronavirus patient in the world returned to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ downplaying the severity of the virus in tweets and video .
AMY GOODMAN : President Trump ’ s comments outraged many emergency room doctors , public health experts , survivors of the disease , and those who have lost loved ones , especially as infections are on the rise in many cases of the country .
For more , we ’ re joined by someone who lost her father to COVID-19 in June .
Kristin Urquiza says her dad , Mark Anthony Urquiza , was a supporter of Donald Trump who died after @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the coronavirus was under control .
Kristin spoke about the loss of her father at the Democratic National Convention .
AMY GOODMAN : Kristin Urquiza attended the first presidential debate last week in Cleveland .
After Trump ’ s COVID diagnosis on Friday , she wrote a piece for The Washington Post headlined “ I sat in the front row at the debate .
Did Trump infect me with the coronavirus ?
” She ’ s joining us now from San Francisco , California .
Kristin , welcome to Democracy Now !
We @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Democratic National Convention .
Now we ’ d like to — and our condolences to you on the death of your beloved father .
What was your response when you saw President Trump walk out of Walter Reed and then walk into the White House after taking off his mask , turning around and walking in the door ?
KRISTIN URQUIZA : Hi , Amy .
I was appalled .
And I know that I ’ m not alone .
Every single person out there who ’ s lost a loved one to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and personal what this virus can do , felt the same way .
And I honestly felt like I was watching a sci-fi horror film .
And sadly , it ’ s real life .
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : And , Kristin , I ’ m wondering if you could go back to a week ago , to the first presidential debate .
You were invited .
You were a guest of Vice President Joe Biden , sitting right up front .
Could you talk about what you were told about the COVID status @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Trump family , that was not too far from you , was dealing with the issue of wearing masks ?
Were they offered any masks ?
Can you talk about what you saw ?
KRISTIN URQUIZA : Sure , happy to .
First and foremost , every single person in that audience was told that the people inside of that debate hall would have had a COVID-negative test that day .
So , we all got there early , went through the process of getting tested on site , doing self-isolation between @ @ @ @ @ @ @ being able to enter into the debate hall .
Once I got into the debate hall and we found our way to our seats , there were a couple of things that stood out .
First and foremost , on one side of the hall was full of people wearing masks .
And on the other side , I saw maybe one or two , which was fairly alarming to me , because we had all also been told that mask wearing was going to be enforced inside the debate hall itself .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ to raise my concerns , because the program was getting started .
And as the program was about to get started , the Trump family entered .
They were wearing masks at first , and then they sat down and defiantly took their masks off .
I saw somebody from — I assume it was either Cleveland Clinic or the presidential counsel offer them masks , which they refused .
And they stood there — or , sat there in silence , unmasked , for the 90 minutes that we were together for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ debate ” — debate .
I was appalled then , too .
But honestly , I did kind of take — I took a deep breath and was like , “ At least everyone has been tested.
” And I had no idea that that wasn ’ t the case , which just , I think , is a microcosm of what we ’ ve been seeing over the course of not just this pandemic , but this entire administration , where President Trump himself and the people in his inner circle @ @ @ @ @ @ @ total disregard for law and order , and it ’ s “ Do as I say , not as I do.
” AMY GOODMAN : We ’ ve just been looking at pictures of President Trump and the first lady , Melania Trump , at that debate , who was not sitting yards from you , Kristin .
And we now know that not only President Trump but the first lady have tested positive for coronavirus .
It ’ s not clear if we ’ ll even be told about the rest of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ask you about your dad .
I wanted to ask you about Mark Anthony Urquiza , who died of coronavirus .
Tell us who he was .
Your Twitter bio says , “ Trump lied , and my dad died.
” You blame President Trump and the Arizona governor , Ducey .
Tell us why .
KRISTIN URQUIZA : Sure .
My dad , first and foremost , was great and did not deserve to die alone in a hospital with just a nurse holding his hand .
He was also a lifelong @ @ @ @ @ @ @ watched television news programming fairly regularly , read the newspaper , and engaged me as a young kid in politics , which is kind of where I got my interest in the world around me from .
He was a Trump supporter and voted for Trump and believed him in what he had to say .
And so , as the coronavirus came to the United States , me and my dad engaged in daily conversations about the information that we were all receiving .
And , you know , my dad , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ real , believed that we should take some safety precautions , such as mask wearing and social distancing .
He , like so many of us , made tons of sacrifices over the course of March and April in order to help flatten the curve , which seems like such an old saying now .
But whenever the president started to ram this idea down our throats that we had to pick public health or economic health , my dad tuned in to that .
When my dad heard the president say we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this pandemic ; if we ’ re not — if you don ’ t have an underlying health condition , you ’ re safe ; this is no worse than a flu ; my dad listened to that and made decisions based upon that information .
As the state of Arizona reopened and the governor in Arizona reinforced those messages , actually going on the radio as late as late May saying there ’ s nothing to worry about , my dad listened .
And as a result , two weeks later , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and then , 19 days after that , passed away .
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : So , Kristin , when you hear , for instance , President Trump tweeting on Monday , “ I will be leaving the great Walter Reed Medical Center today at 6:30 … Feeling really good !
Don ’ t be afraid of Covid .
Don ’ t let it dominate your life .
We have developed , under the Trump Administration , some really great drugs & knowledge .
I feel better than I did 20 years ago !
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ given the experience that you and your family went through with your father , what ’ s your reaction ?
KRISTIN URQUIZA : It makes me think about the two or maybe even three Americas that we live in .
There ’ s Donald Trump ’ s America and then everybody else ’ s America .
And while I agree that the president of the United States holds a very important office and whose medical attention should get very high healthcare coverage , when I think about my own situation , my dad @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the president , at least what we know .
My dad had a low-grade fever .
He had a cough .
He had low energy .
And he was told to — after he got his test , the day after he woke up with those symptoms , he was told to go home and quarantine , and to only return if he couldn ’ t breathe .
My dad waited six days , on doctor ’ s orders , to come back — before he returned to the hospital .
And that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ being able to walk into the door because he was so out of breath .
The president of the United States was able to get not only the best medical attention in the world and every single drug known and unknown to treat this virus , he also got the privilege of an abundance of caution in his care .
And I can tell you this : From every single family that I have spoken to over the course of the last several months , through my organization , Marked by COVID , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one has received the same cautionary care .
And that is what ultimately boils my blood .
We should all have that opportunity .
And by the president flaunting it in our face just rams down the fact of our broken , unequitable healthcare system that is causing so much pain and suffering right now .
AMY GOODMAN : Kristin , before we go , I wanted to ask you about your day job .
You started Marked by COVID , but you also work for Mighty Earth , which is — focuses @ @ @ @ @ @ @ talk about how you believe that forest preservation could prevent future pandemics ?
KRISTIN URQUIZA : Absolutely .
One of the largest drivers of potential pandemics is what ’ s called the zoonotic transfer of disease .
It ’ s basically a term that means animals and human beings coming in too close of contact , and germs jumping from one species to another .
We suspect that ’ s where HIV and AIDS comes from .
We also have evidence that this particular strain of coronavirus also came from zoonotic transfer of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the best things that we can do , according to research and science , is to actually work to protect rainforests and bulldozing of rainforests in order to prevent — or the best vaccine to future pandemics .
So , before I even became an activist for public health on COVID , I was already thinking about pandemics on the side of prevention .
And rainforest protection also is a wonderful way in which to protect Indigenous peoples ’ rights , as well as to fight climate change .
So , looking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recovery and resiliency pieces of COVID , there needs to be a strict ban on products entering into the United States , such as cattle , soy and other consumer products , that are linked to deforestation .
AMY GOODMAN : Kristin Urquiza , we want to thank you so much for being with us , co-founder of Marked by COVID .
After her dad died of the virus , she wrote an obituary in The Arizona Republic that went viral .
Kristin spoke at the DNC , attended the first presidential democratic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
She ’ s also deputy director of Mighty Earth , which works to protect tropical rainforests around the world .
She is Mexican American , of course her dad , as well .
And the Latinx and African American populations , the hardest hit by COVID .
When we come back , we ’ ll speak with a Middlebury College student in Vermont who ’ s doing what the White House doesn ’ t want the CDC to do : tracing the contacts of people who may have infected or been infected @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The Quarantine Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
COVID-19 has infected about seven-and-a-half million people in the United States and has killed more than 210,000 people. That’s over 20% of the deaths reported worldwide, even though the U.S. has less than 5% of the world’s population. But on Monday, the highest-profile coronavirus patient in the world returned to the White House while still infectious, downplaying the severity of the virus in tweets and video.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Don’t be afraid of it. You’re going to beat it. We have the best medical equipment. We have the best medicines, all developed recently. And you’re going to beat it.
AMY GOODMAN: President Trump’s comments outraged many emergency room doctors, public health experts, survivors of the disease, and those who have lost loved ones, especially as infections are on the rise in many cases of the country.
For more, we’re joined by someone who lost her father to COVID-19 in June. Kristin Urquiza says her dad, Mark Anthony Urquiza, was a supporter of Donald Trump who died after believing the president’s assurances that the coronavirus was under control. Kristin spoke about the loss of her father at the Democratic National Convention.
KRISTIN URQUIZA: My dad was a healthy 65-year-old. His only preexisting condition was trusting Donald Trump. And for that, he paid with his life.
AMY GOODMAN: Kristin Urquiza attended the first presidential debate last week in Cleveland. After Trump’s COVID diagnosis on Friday, she wrote a piece for The Washington Post headlined “I sat in the front row at the debate. Did Trump infect me with the coronavirus?” She’s joining us now from San Francisco, California.
Kristin, welcome to Democracy Now! We played your speech in full at the Democratic National Convention. Now we’d like to — and our condolences to you on the death of your beloved father. What was your response when you saw President Trump walk out of Walter Reed and then walk into the White House after taking off his mask, turning around and walking in the door?
KRISTIN URQUIZA: Hi, Amy. I was appalled. And I know that I’m not alone. Every single person out there who’s lost a loved one to COVID, who has seen up close and personal what this virus can do, felt the same way. And I honestly felt like I was watching a sci-fi horror film. And sadly, it’s real life.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Kristin, I’m wondering if you could go back to a week ago, to the first presidential debate. You were invited. You were a guest of Vice President Joe Biden, sitting right up front. Could you talk about what you were told about the COVID status of the candidates, and also how the Trump family, that was not too far from you, was dealing with the issue of wearing masks? Were they offered any masks? Can you talk about what you saw?
KRISTIN URQUIZA: Sure, happy to. First and foremost, every single person in that audience was told that the people inside of that debate hall would have had a COVID-negative test that day. So, we all got there early, went through the process of getting tested on site, doing self-isolation between that and our test results, before being able to enter into the debate hall.
Once I got into the debate hall and we found our way to our seats, there were a couple of things that stood out. First and foremost, on one side of the hall was full of people wearing masks. And on the other side, I saw maybe one or two, which was fairly alarming to me, because we had all also been told that mask wearing was going to be enforced inside the debate hall itself. I didn’t have really time to raise my concerns, because the program was getting started.
And as the program was about to get started, the Trump family entered. They were wearing masks at first, and then they sat down and defiantly took their masks off. I saw somebody from — I assume it was either Cleveland Clinic or the presidential counsel offer them masks, which they refused. And they stood there — or, sat there in silence, unmasked, for the 90 minutes that we were together for that — if you can call it “debate” — debate.
I was appalled then, too. But honestly, I did kind of take — I took a deep breath and was like, “At least everyone has been tested.” And I had no idea that that wasn’t the case, which just, I think, is a microcosm of what we’ve been seeing over the course of not just this pandemic, but this entire administration, where President Trump himself and the people in his inner circle run a government where there is a total disregard for law and order, and it’s “Do as I say, not as I do.”
AMY GOODMAN: We’ve just been looking at pictures of President Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump, at that debate, who was not sitting yards from you, Kristin. And we now know that not only President Trump but the first lady have tested positive for coronavirus. It’s not clear if we’ll even be told about the rest of the family. But I wanted to ask you about your dad. I wanted to ask you about Mark Anthony Urquiza, who died of coronavirus. Tell us who he was. Your Twitter bio says, “Trump lied, and my dad died.” You blame President Trump and the Arizona governor, Ducey. Tell us why.
KRISTIN URQUIZA: Sure. My dad, first and foremost, was great and did not deserve to die alone in a hospital with just a nurse holding his hand. He was also a lifelong Republican who was politically aware. He watched television news programming fairly regularly, read the newspaper, and engaged me as a young kid in politics, which is kind of where I got my interest in the world around me from. He was a Trump supporter and voted for Trump and believed him in what he had to say.
And so, as the coronavirus came to the United States, me and my dad engaged in daily conversations about the information that we were all receiving. And, you know, my dad, first and foremost, believed it was real, believed that we should take some safety precautions, such as mask wearing and social distancing. He, like so many of us, made tons of sacrifices over the course of March and April in order to help flatten the curve, which seems like such an old saying now.
But whenever the president started to ram this idea down our throats that we had to pick public health or economic health, my dad tuned in to that. When my dad heard the president say we’re on the other side of this pandemic; if we’re not — if you don’t have an underlying health condition, you’re safe; this is no worse than a flu; my dad listened to that and made decisions based upon that information. As the state of Arizona reopened and the governor in Arizona reinforced those messages, actually going on the radio as late as late May saying there’s nothing to worry about, my dad listened. And as a result, two weeks later, he woke up with a fever, and then, 19 days after that, passed away.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: So, Kristin, when you hear, for instance, President Trump tweeting on Monday, “I will be leaving the great Walter Reed Medical Center today at 6:30 … Feeling really good! Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life. We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago!” — when you hear that, given the experience that you and your family went through with your father, what’s your reaction?
KRISTIN URQUIZA: It makes me think about the two or maybe even three Americas that we live in. There’s Donald Trump’s America and then everybody else’s America. And while I agree that the president of the United States holds a very important office and whose medical attention should get very high healthcare coverage, when I think about my own situation, my dad had similarly — eerily similar symptoms as the president, at least what we know. My dad had a low-grade fever. He had a cough. He had low energy. And he was told to — after he got his test, the day after he woke up with those symptoms, he was told to go home and quarantine, and to only return if he couldn’t breathe. My dad waited six days, on doctor’s orders, to come back — before he returned to the hospital. And that was underneath the conditions of him hardly being able to walk into the door because he was so out of breath.
The president of the United States was able to get not only the best medical attention in the world and every single drug known and unknown to treat this virus, he also got the privilege of an abundance of caution in his care. And I can tell you this: From every single family that I have spoken to over the course of the last several months, through my organization, Marked by COVID, that I’ve launched, no one has received the same cautionary care. And that is what ultimately boils my blood. We should all have that opportunity. And by the president flaunting it in our face just rams down the fact of our broken, unequitable healthcare system that is causing so much pain and suffering right now.
AMY GOODMAN: Kristin, before we go, I wanted to ask you about your day job. You started Marked by COVID, but you also work for Mighty Earth, which is — focuses on the Amazon rainforest. Can you talk about how you believe that forest preservation could prevent future pandemics?
KRISTIN URQUIZA: Absolutely. One of the largest drivers of potential pandemics is what’s called the zoonotic transfer of disease. It’s basically a term that means animals and human beings coming in too close of contact, and germs jumping from one species to another. We suspect that’s where HIV and AIDS comes from. We also have evidence that this particular strain of coronavirus also came from zoonotic transfer of disease in Indonesia.
So, one of the best things that we can do, according to research and science, is to actually work to protect rainforests and bulldozing of rainforests in order to prevent — or the best vaccine to future pandemics. So, before I even became an activist for public health on COVID, I was already thinking about pandemics on the side of prevention. And rainforest protection also is a wonderful way in which to protect Indigenous peoples’ rights, as well as to fight climate change. So, looking ahead, as we look at the recovery and resiliency pieces of COVID, there needs to be a strict ban on products entering into the United States, such as cattle, soy and other consumer products, that are linked to deforestation.
AMY GOODMAN: Kristin Urquiza, we want to thank you so much for being with us, co-founder of Marked by COVID. After her dad died of the virus, she wrote an obituary in The Arizona Republic that went viral. Kristin spoke at the DNC, attended the first presidential democratic debate as a guest of Joe Biden. She’s also deputy director of Mighty Earth, which works to protect tropical rainforests around the world. She is Mexican American, of course her dad, as well. And the Latinx and African American populations, the hardest hit by COVID.
When we come back, we’ll speak with a Middlebury College student in Vermont who’s doing what the White House doesn’t want the CDC to do: tracing the contacts of people who may have infected or been infected by President Trump. Stay with us.