Irwin Redlener says President Trump’s diagnosis casts doubt on another in-person presidential debate.
Following President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump’s positive coronavirus diagnosis revealed early Friday morning, questions surrounding the political and public health implications are abound.
One of the critical tasks that the administration must undertake now is painstaking contact tracing efforts, according to pediatrician and director of the Pandemic Resource and Response Initiative at Columbia University, Irwin Redlener.
Redlener estimates that with the earlier positive diagnosis of longtime Trump advisor Hope Hicks, the virus likely incubated in Hicks in mid-September. Given the large swaths of people in the president’s entourage, they, as well as their families and tangential contacts, need to be notified that they may have been exposed.
“We have a couple weeks of potential contact tracing that has to be done, which is an enormous task here,” Redlener said to MSNBC’s Kasie Hunt. He also noted that the transmission could have spread further given Trump’s lax adoption of public health protocols recommended to prevent the virus spread.
“The White House is filled with people who, like the president, have rejected the fundamental notions of how one protects themselves [against the coronavirus],” he said.
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He further advised that to prevent any more infection within the Trump White House, there should be widespread adoption of masks and social distancing.
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As for the broader reverberations of Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis, the future of the next presidential debate is in jeopardy.
Redlener says that while the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) formally state that the virus is primarily spread through respiratory droplets from people within 6 feet, there is data pointing to the coronavirus being aerosolized, or carried on air.
If this is proved true, 6 feet may not be enough to prevent transmission, placing people in Trump’s vicinity, such as Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, at risk for infection.
“This is, as far as I am concerned, the end of political debates in 2020 that are in-person,” Redlener said.
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There should be "enormous" contact tracing of people around Trump, says public health expert https://t.co/62w1Cu1Uzx pic.twitter.com/qCHnFyUJCR
— The Hill (@thehill) October 2, 2020
I’m still waiting for someone to tell me how many attendees at Trump’s rallies have contracted COVID and how many went home and spread it around to family, neighbors, coworkers and friends.
But no. The CDC would rather scare customers away from restaurants, telling them that dining out is dangerous.
There is no reason why Trump can’t debate remotely
If he is feeling g so great why not? They can put them on a split screens. T.v. news does it all the timeI think there was a split screen used during Tuesday’s debate since the candidates were socially distanced. So yes — no earthly reason why these debates can’t be done remotely using split screens.
And with the remote setup, someone could “accidentally” cut off Trump’s feed when he gets out of hand. Oops!
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