Does Speaker Pelosi Get a 2nd Lifetime Payment for Being Speaker Again
Firm Speaker Nancy Pelosi revealed Th that she tested positive for COVID-19 before long after President Biden kissed her at the White Business firm — joining Biden's sister on a growing listing of influential Democrats who defenseless the coronavirus this week.
The White House insisted Thursday that Biden, who turns 80 this yr, doesn't need to have extra precautions and announced plans to hold a big outdoor celebration Fri to marking the confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.
The dreaded virus swirled through DC following this by weekend's elite white-tie Gridiron Guild dinner, where Attorney General Merrick Garland, Commerce Secretarial assistant Gina Raimondo, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and many reporters mingled before testing positive this week.
Biden skipped the haughty gala to spend the weekend at his home in Wilmington, Del., where he often hosts his sis Valerie Biden Owens. The president's sibling revealed her own diagnosis Thursday. Her publisher said she was non a close contact of her blood brother as divers by the CDC, though it's unclear if she socialized with him in the past week.
Play tricks News correspondent Peter Doocy asked White Firm press secretary Jen Psaki at her Thursday briefing if "there is any chance" that Biden'south political party to celebrate Jackson would be a "superspreader result," using the derisive terminology widely applied to a 2022 Rose Garden event where one-time President Donald Trump celebrated his nomination of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
Trump tested positive after that largely outdoors event and was hospitalized for three nights at the Walter Reed National Armed forces Medical Center in Maryland. Many other guests also brutal ill.
"Well, at that point in fourth dimension vaccines were unavailable, people were not vaccinated," Psaki said of the Barrett event. "It certainly puts usa in a different infinite. This upshot is also going to be exterior tomorrow."
Psaki also faced questions about the CDC'due south definition of close contact in light of his proximity to Pelosi (D-Calif.), who authorities assessed also was not a close contact. The health agency describes close contact equally beingness within six anxiety for a total of 15 minutes over 24 hours.
Bloomberg reporter Josh Wingrove pointed out that Pelosi stood quite close to Biden for almost 15 minutes Wednesday as she and other lawmakers crowded around him at a postal reform beak signing event.
On Tuesday, Pelosi got a kiss on the cheek from Biden at an event jubilant the 12th anniversary of Obamacare.
The Tuesday outcome featured former President Barack Obama, who exchanged a hug with Vice President Kamala Harris' communications director Jamal Simmons. Simmons, who also attended the Gridiron dinner, tested positive the side by side twenty-four hour period.
Virtually nobody wore antiviral face masks at the two gatherings that Pelosi and Biden attended and the president greeted guests afterwards. Indoor mask mandates in DC were repealed just before Biden'due south March 1 State of the Union speech.
"Every bit far as nosotros know, Speaker Pelosi might have left just after the event that was 14 minutes yesterday, and it was 45 minutes the day before… [And] she was seven feet away," Wingrove said.
Psaki replied that "the but deviation" for Biden is that he would be tested daily and vesture a mask indoors if he was accounted a close contact of someone with the virus.
Psaki acknowledged to NBC journalist Peter Alexander that Biden may have mingled at both White House events with people who were not tested for the virus.
It's unclear what would happen if Biden, whose advanced age puts him at increased chance of serious illness or death, were to contract the virus and the White Firm hasn't said if he is taking any condom medications to preempt symptoms.
Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill tweeted Thursday forenoon that Pelosi, 82, tested positive, simply said she is asymptomatic and in quarantine.
Before long after Hammill's announcement, the White House said Biden tested negative for COVID-19 on Midweek evening. The assistants claimed he'southward "not considered a close contact of Speaker Pelosi every bit defined past the CDC."
"The President saw Speaker Pelosi at the White House events and had brief interactions over the course of the last two days," the statement said.
House intelligence committee chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) besides tested positive this week.
Psaki, who recently recovered from a second COVID-19 infection, shrugged off a reporter's proffer that Biden be tested every twenty-four hours, proverb, "that would be a conclusion made past his doctor but that is non deemed to be necessary at this point."
Biden, Harris and Jackson are scheduled to deliver remarks on the South Lawn on Fri to celebrate Jackson becoming the first black woman to join the high court. Harris is considered a shut contact of Simmons and as a result is supposed to vesture a mask while in proximity to other people, according to White House policy.
Biden has had a remarkable streak of luck every bit others shut to him catch the virus, which has killed almost 1 million US residents.
In the past month, second admirer Doug Emhoff, Obama, 2022 Autonomous nominee Hillary Clinton, Psaki'south deputy Karine Jean-Pierre and many House Democrats at a Philadelphia briefing attended by Biden got sick.
At least 14 lawmakers, journalists, administration officials and White House staff who attended the Gridiron dinner tested positive. Many cases among journalists are non publicly disclosed.
Pelosi was scheduled to lead a Congressional delegation to Asia during Congress'due south upcoming two-week recess. Her spokesman tweeted that the trip volition be postponed.
The ascent in DC cases comes as COVID-nineteen restrictions continue to be relaxed beyond the country.
In February, the CDC changed its recommendation for masking guidelines, proclaiming that low-take a chance areas no longer needed to wear face coverings in indoor public spaces.
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser — who separately announced Th that she tested positive for COVID-nineteen — appear the city'southward indoor mask mandate would cease March 1. That conclusion ultimately was followed at the Capitol, where Pelosi previously docked the pay of Republicans who flouted mask rules.
The Capitol partially reopened to tourists last month for the showtime time in two years.
Despite the shift back to normalcy, Pelosi last week decided to extend proxy voting, citing a letter from House Sergeant-at-Artillery William Walker that a public health emergency "remains in effect."
The policy allows members to submit their votes through designated colleagues and is set to expire on May 14.
US coronavirus cases remain much lower than the height of the Omicron variant surge in Jan, only the seven-day rolling average shows a pocket-size increase this week as more than people catch the BA.2 subvariant.
Source: https://nypost.com/2022/04/07/house-speaker-nancy-pelosi-tests-positive-for-covid/
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