A8 eZ sU THE WASHINGTON POST.SATURDAy, MARCH 14 , 2020
The coronavirus outbreak
BY DAVID A. FAHRENTHOLD,
ANNE GEARAN
AND MICHELLE YE HEE LEEPresident Trump said Friday
that he has not yet been tested for
the novel coronavirus, even as
three people who were with him
at the Mar-a-Lago Club last week-
end have now tested positive.
Trump said he would be tested
“fairly soon. We’re working on
that. We’re working out a sched-
ule.”
In one televised event, Trump
seemed to defy t wo basic practices
that the rest of his government
has been urging Americans to
follow to prevent the spread of the
virus. People who were exposed to
an infected person are urged to
quarantine themselves and seek
testing. And everyone — exposed
or not — should stop shaking
hands.
But at a Friday news conference
on efforts to combat the coronavi-
rus, Trump continued to shake
hands with other speakers, many
of whom are members of the
White House Task Force charged
with trying to stem the disease.
Trump and many of the speakers
took part in backslapping and
adjusting the shared microphone.
Trump also said he will not
self-quarantine, as members of
Congress and Canadian Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau have cho-
sen to do after known exposures.
“No. We have no symptoms
whatsoever,” Trump said.
In his case, Trump suggested
the risk of exposure from a Brazil-
ian official was low, even though
the two had posed for a photo
together. Trump said he had
posed for so many photos, and
shaken so many hands, that he did
not remember the man.
“I take pictures and it lasts for
literally seconds. I don’t know the
gentleman that we’re talking
about. I have no idea who he is,”
Trump said. “I take sometimes
hundreds of pictures a day and
that night, I was taking hundreds
of pictures. So, I just don’t know.”
Trump’s words and behavior
seemed to signal that he still may
be underestimating the diseases’s
threat to the country — and even
to his own health. As t housands of
schools close, sports leagues sus-
pend games, and American cities
retreat into an eerie emptiness in
the name of limiting the disease’s
spread, the president’s actions
seemed out of step.
Public health and medical ex-
perts have urged people to stop
shaking hands, touching their fac-
es, limit large gatherings and self-
isolate if they have come into
contact with a confirmed case of
the coronavirus because the dis-
ease spreads easily. Trump has
continued to shake hands even
though he has come into close
contact with a number of people
and, at 73, is in a high-risk age
group.
On Friday, the Brazilian Em-
bassy in Washington said that its
ambassador, Nestor Forster —
who sat at Trump’s table during a
dinner Saturday night at Mar-a-
Lago — had tested positive for the
coronavirus. Forster is the second
Brazilian official who visited Mar-
a-Lago that night and then was
diagnosed with the fast-spreading
virus: Fabio Wajngarten, the c om-
munications secretary for Brazil-
ian President Jair Bolsonaro, test-
ed positive on Wednesday. Wajn-
garten had posed for a photo with
Trump; Forster, the newly diag-
nosed ambassador, seems to have
been in even more prolonged
close contact with the president.
On Friday, Republican officials
also said a guest of a donor who
attended a Sunday luncheon at
Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club had lat-
er tested positive for the virus.
“A s you may have had contact
with this individual, please con-
tact your medical provider if you
or any of your loved ones is ill” or
shows symptoms like fever or
shortness of breath, donors were
told, according to a copy of the
warning obtained by The Wash-
ington Post.
At the time, Trump did not
seem to believe the coronavirus
could pose much of a risk to hispersonal health. According to an
account of the Sunday lunch,
shared with The Post by one at-
tendee, Trump even joked about
getting the virus — referring to a
donor in the room who Trump
said had shaken hands with him
twice. The man was a doctor,
Trump said, and his hands were
oddly clammy. Trump said that,
after they shook, sweat from the
man’s hand was left behind on his
own.
“If you hear any bad things
about the health of our president,
there’s the guy,” Trump said, ac-
cording to the account. “The pres-
ident’s not looking good? G et that
doctor. Find out who the hell that
guy was.”
The audience laughed. Repub-
lican officials say the attendee
who tested positive was in the
audience but did not have person-
al contact with Trump at the
lunch, which was attended by
about 1,000 people.
The White House declined to
comment on Trump’s remarks at
the gathering.
The same weekend, Trump met
with the visiting Brazilian delega-
tion — posing for a photo with
Bolsonaro’s communications sec-
retary, Fabio Wajngarten, who lat-
er tested positive for the virus.
On Friday, Bolsonaro said he
had tested negative for the virus.But another person who met with
the visiting Brazilian delegation
— Miami Mayor Francis Suarez —
also later tested positive, accord-
ing to a spokesperson for Suarez.
At Mar-a-Lago itself, one of the
biggest e vents of the winter social
season — a 700-person lunch ti-
tled “Wine, Women and Shoes” —
was postponed on Friday, a day
before it was supposed to occur.
The brunch’s sponsor, an ani-
mal shelter called Big Dog Ranch
Rescue, said they were heeding a
warning from Florida Gov. Ron
DeSantis (R) to avoid large gath-
erings.
“The well-being of our incredi-
ble supporters, vendors and staff
is paramount,” the shelter’s
founder, Lauree Simmons, said in
a statement. She also c ited reports
of two people testing positive in
surrounding Palm Beach County.
But Mar-a-Lago itself r emained
open to members. The Trump Or-
ganization — which operates ho-
tels, golf clubs and resorts in 11
states — does not appear to have
closed any of its properties.
“The safety of our members
and guests are of our utmost im-
portance,” the Trump Organiza-
tion wrote in a statement. “We are
monitoring all of our businesses
closely and are following the
guidelines provided by the CDC.”
Some of the Trump Organiza-tion’s customers, however, have
begun t o cancel upcoming events.
A group of Te xas bankers had
canceled a reception planned for
Trump’s hotel in Washington,
D.C., and a conference for the
auto-repair industry had been
postponed at Trump’s Doral re-
sort outside Miami.
At Mar-a-Lago, the club had
already lost at least one other
event — a private party scheduled
for Wednesday — according to an
email sent to club members.
But the club told members it
was making only minor changes.
In a message to members on
Thursday, which was obtained by
The Post, the club said its seafood
buffet had been canceled — re-
placed with an Italian dinner
served “a la carte.”
“Instead of having the buffets,
they’ll be plating a ll dinners,” s aid
Mar-a-Lago member Suzi Gold-
smith — a founder of a group of
Trump superfans c alled the Trum-
pettes USA. “That’s the only
change. On Tuesdays we have a
prime rib buffet, and on Wednes-
days it’s the seafood buffet. But
rather than doing the buffets, it
will be regular plated dinners.”
Goldsmith said the club had
not notified members about the
Brazilian visitor’s positive test.
Still, Goldsmith said she felt
well-protected and was planningto eat dinner at the club on both
Saturday and Sunday.
“They certainly wouldn’t want
anything to happen to any of the
members or the employees,” G old-
smith said. She is also a patron of
Trump International Golf Club in
nearby West Palm Beach.
“I’m almost thinking that
Trump International and Mar-a-
Lago are the safest places to eat
right now,” G oldsmith said.
But on Friday, several other
people associated with the club
said they felt left i n the dark about
the Brazilian official’s test — won-
dering if they should be tested
themselves, with no guidance
from the club.
“Until now, the atmosphere
over there has been business as
usual, in the same kind of ultra-
optimistic front that [Trump’s]
been putting out on every level,”
said one person familiar with the
club, who spoke on the condition
of anonymity to avoid alienating
Trump’s company officials.
“That’s the prevailing atmosphere
there. Nobody’s going to ring any
bells until he allows that.”
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]Josh dawsey and Yasmeen Abutaleb
in Washington and lori rozsa in Palm
Beach, Fla., contributed to this report.Trump is still shaking hands, and he hasn’t been tested
Alex BrAndon/AssoCIAted Press
Three people who were with President Trump at his Mar-a-Lago Club, above, in Palm Beach, Fla., last weekend have tested positive for the coronavirus.Actions, despite possible
exposure, a re at odds
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