The New York Times - USA (2020-10-26)

A6 N THE NEW YORK TIMES, MONDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2020

Tracking an OutbreakThe White House

helped slow its spread. Mr. Trump
clashed with his own scientists,
pressuring officials at the Centers
for Disease Control and Preven-
tion to change their restrictive
recommendations about how and
when to reopen businesses and
schools.
The president organized his
pandemic response around his po-
litical ideology, warring with “blue
state” governors while praising
the hands-off approach of Repub-
lican leaders. And he publicly
sided with people frustrated with
restrictions and shutdowns, de-
manding on Twitter that the gov-
ernor of Michigan, among others,
“liberate” her state.
Mr. Trump turned mask wear-
ing and other preventive meas-
ures into political loyalty tests,
dismissing the critical importance
of social distancing and pinning
his hopes on Operation Warp
Speed, a plan to accelerate devel-
opment and distribution of a vac-
cine that has shown promise, but
that scientists have insisted was
never going to be quick or easy.
The president and his aides
have taken the same approach in-
side the White House. They have
declined to follow quarantine
guidelines, ignored warnings
from doctors, largely refused to
wear masks and, in the case of the
president, mocked reporters who
did as recently as Friday in the
Oval Office.
“The White House has had very
loose rules about protecting the
workers and leadership,” said Dr.
Ashish Jha, the dean of the Brown
University School of Public
Health. “They’ve had one large
outbreak, and it was very clear
that they didn’t learn from that
outbreak and so these are going to
continue.”
The president and vice presi-
dent have largely stayed in mes-
saging lock step as the pandemic
unfolded. Mr. Trump has min-
imized it from the beginning, and
used his own infection and hospi-
talization as a way of doubling
down, telling Americans after his
treatment with experimental
drugs, “Don’t be afraid of Covid,”

and urging them not to “let it dom-

inate your life.” He said during his

second debate with Mr. Biden last

week that the country was “learn-

ing to live” with it.

As the leader of the White

House virus task force, Mr. Pence

has parroted the president’s rosy

outlook, even mimicking Mr.

Trump’s aversion to masks by re-

fusing to wear one during a visit to

a hospital in April.

Over the past several months,

Mr. Pence stood by as the White

House sidelined Dr. Anthony S.

Fauci, the nation’s top infectious

disease specialist, and Dr. Debo-

rah L. Birx, the task force coordi-

nator, and instead embraced Dr.

Scott W. Atlas, a radiologist and

senior fellow at Stanford Universi-

ty’s conservative Hoover Institu-

tion, who has advocated a largely

hands-off approach by the federal

government.

Mr. Pence tested negative for

the virus on Sunday, and said he

would not quarantine after his ex-

posure to infected aides, who in-

clude Marc Short, his chief of staff,

and Marty Obst, a senior adviser.

His spokesman would not say

whether Mr. Pence was receiving

some of the drugs Mr. Trump was

given, including an experimental

cocktail of antibodies by the phar-

maceutical company Regeneron,

as a preventive measure.

In a statement, the White House

deemed the vice president “essen-

tial” and said he would stick to his

campaign schedule. That included

an address on Sunday evening to

supporters in Kinston, N.C.,

where Mr. Pence made no refer-

ence to the cases that had infiltrat-

ed his staff and instead defended

the administration’s coronavirus

response as the “greatest national

mobilization since World War II.”

But several White House aides

and officials on his campaign said

privately that Mr. Pence should

stay off the campaign trail, and in-

stead host virtual events and

phone calls to demonstrate that

the vice president and his aides

were taking the outbreak in their

ranks seriously.

Others said that the latest out-

break would be in the news either

way, and that deploying Mr. Pence

to a state like North Carolina,

where campaign aides think the

race will come down to fewer than

100,000 votes, was crucial.

But the decision to continue Mr.

Pence’s schedule risked making

the outbreak in his ranks a bigger

story than if he pulled back from

the campaign trail.

Robert C. O’Brien, the presi-

dent’s national security adviser,

defended Mr. Pence’s decision to

maintain his campaign schedule,

even as he acknowledged that the

virus was “ripping through this

country.” He cited the C.D.C.’s

guidelines that allow essential

personnel to continue working.

“Essential workers going out

and campaigning and voting are

about as essential as things we

can do as Americans,” Mr. O’Brien

said.

Those guidelines, issued in

April and updated in September,

were developed to ensure that

“people who are helping us keep

the lights on and the water run-

ning can do their jobs,” said one

federal health official who partici-

pated in drafting them. And while

Mr. Pence has thus far tested neg-

ative, health experts denounced

his decision to continue traveling

to campaign stops.

“The idea that you can just be

declared an essential worker

without being quarantined under-

mines the whole concept of quar-

antine,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, the

director of the C.D.C. under Presi-

dent Barack Obama.

On the campaign trail, blaming

the news media for covering the

virus incessantly has become a

stock part of Mr. Trump’s rally

performance — a sign he is ap-

pealing to voters by leaning into

the country’s general virus fa-

tigue. The president has repeat-

edly said the country is “rounding

the corner” in the fight against the

virus — even as all evidence is to

the contrary.

The president’s assessment

stood in stark contrast to more ag-

gressive guidance from Dr. Fauci,

who said in an interview Sunday

that the country should consider

mandating the use of masks —

something Mr. Trump has repeat-

edly refused to consider — be-

cause “the universal wearing of

masks” is essential to curbing the

spread of the deadly virus.

“It would be optimal if this could

be accomplished without resort-

ing to a mask mandate,” Dr. Fauci

said, repeating comments he first

made late last week. “However, if

the situation continues to deterio-

rate regarding numbers of cases,

hospitalizations and likely deaths

while many people still refuse to

wear masks, we should seriously

consider mask mandates.”

The outbreak in the vice presi-

dent’s office is the third to strike

the White House, following a

small outbreak in May that includ-

ed Mr. Pence’s spokeswoman and

a larger explosion of infection in

late September after a Rose Gar-

den ceremony for Judge Amy Co-

ney Barrett, Mr. Trump’s Supreme

Court nominee.

The latest one began late last

week, when Mr. Obst fell ill. Once

that happened, people who had

been in contact with him went into

quarantine and contact tracing

measures were employed, accord-

ing to a senior administration offi-

cial. But during that period, two

other top aides to Mr. Pence tested

positive for the virus. Officials in

the vice president’s office did not

make it public at the time.

Then on Saturday, both Mr.

Short and Zach Bauer, Mr. Pence’s

personal aide, tested positive, two

senior administration officials

said. Two officials familiar with

the events said Mr. Short wanted

White House doctors to issue a

statement about his diagnosis,

adding that Mr. Pence had tested

negative.

But Mr. Meadows did not want

the information becoming public

on Saturday, the officials said. He

pressed the White House medical

office not to release a statement,

and urged the vice president’s

staff not to publicly reveal the di-

agnoses, the officials said. Several

people said they believed Mr.

Meadows was trying to keep the

situation from becoming public so

close to Election Day. Mr. Mead-

ows has indicated to people that

he was doing what the president

wanted.

A senior administration official

said that Mr. Meadows was not

trying to prevent the outbreak

from becoming public, but instead

that he thought the White House

medical office should not issue the

statement and wanted the vice

president’s office to engage in con-

tact tracing before putting out a

statement. After the Rose Garden

ceremony last month, the White

House made little effort to track

the spread of the virus.

Across the White House com-

plex, there was a mixture of anxi-

ety about what the outbreak

means for the election, and in-

tense frustration with Mr. Short,

who has been among the leaders

in the administration in arguing

the risks of the virus have been

overblown.

Mr. Short has also played down

the value of mask wearing, admin-

istration officials said. Mr. Short

was expected to stay home for at

least 10 days.

Representative Tom Cole, Re-

publican of Oklahoma, said he

gave the vice president’s office

credit for acknowledging that Mr.

Short was sick, and took no issue

with Mr. Pence being out on the

trail.

“I don’t think they should over-

dramatize this,” Mr. Cole said. “It

is near the end of a campaign. I’m

sure all these things are weighed

carefully by a presidential cam-

paign. I guess you could call it ei-

ther way, but if I were in a similar

situation I’d be doing a similar

thing to what Vice President

Pence is doing.”

Asked by reporters on Sunday

whether Mr. Pence should come

off the campaign trail, Mr. Trump

said that “you’ll have to ask him”

and bragged about the size of the

vice president’s rally crowds.

The only person in the presi-

dent’s orbit whose own experi-

ence with the virus appeared to

have altered his thinking is Chris

Christie, the former New Jersey

governor, who was hospitalized

after testing positive and now

urges Americans to wear masks

and practice social distancing.

“These minor inconveniences

can save your life, your neighbors

and the economy,” he wrote last

week in an op-ed in The Wall

Street Journal. “Seldom has so lit-

tle been asked for so much benefit.

Yet the message will be broadly

heeded only if it is consistently

and honestly delivered by the me-

dia, religious leaders, sports fig-

ures and public servants.

“Those in positions of author-

ity,” he said — without directly

mentioning Mr. Trump and Mr.

Pence — “have a duty to get the

message out.”

THE VICE PRESIDENT

Trump’s Approach to Handling Virus

Is Faulted as 5 on Pence’s Staff Fall Ill

From Page A

Despite being heavily involved with the pandemic task force, Marc Short, Mr. Pence’s chief of staff,

has played down the value of masks, officials said. He tested positive for the virus on Saturday.

LEAH MILLIS/REUTERS

Vice President Mike Pence and Karen Pence at his debate. Plexi-

glass barriers were set between Kamala Harris and him onstage.

RUTH FREMSON/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, told CNN on

Sunday that the administration was focused on getting a vaccine.

STEFANI REYNOLDS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Emily Cochrane contributed re-

porting.

The vice president

aims to continue his

campaign schedule.

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