The federal government’s top infectious disease expert says the White House has kept him out of the loop since President Donald Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis.
During an interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci on CNN, host John Berman noted that at least one White House reporter who tested positive for COVID-19 has not been contacted by White House staff to trace the origins of his infection.
“Should he be contacted?” Berman wondered. “What does that tell you about the contact tracing from that potentially dangerous event [in the White House Rose Garden]?”
“You know, John, I don’t know what the process of the contact tracing is that’s going on at the White House,” Fauci explained. “In general, the CDC is very much involved with local authorities so I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to comment about the contact tracing that’s gone on the White House because I’m not informed on it.”
He added: “But the one thing we do know is if you get cases, you have a situation where someone comes into contact and is infected and you know that there are people around them, the important public health measure is to do the identification, isolation and contact tracing so that you can get people who have been exposed to go under the appropriate quarantine, get tested and do the things that are very clearly delineated in the CDC guidelines.”
As for the White House correspondent who tested positive, Fauci said that he “absolutely” should have been contacted by staff.
