How Donald Trump Became A Possible Superspreader | HuffPost Politics

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US President Donald Trump knew he may have been exposed to COVID-19 , was experiencing mild symptoms and was tested Thursday, his doctor said at a news conference Saturday.

Trump traveled to a fundraiser in New Jersey anyway, possibly exposing attendees, staff and others to the deadly virus that has killed more than 208,000 Americans.

The timeline Trump physician Sean Conley outlined offered the clearest evidence yet that Trump had, at the very least, serious reason to suspect he had Covid-19 yet continued behaving as if he did not.

Conley said Trump was tested Thursday afternoon after a positive test result from a close contact he declined to identify but is likely aide Hope Hicks. She received a result Thursday morning, though senior officials tried to keep it from the public, Bloomberg News reported .

Trump had a fever Thursday into Friday, Conley said, as well as a mild cough and some nasal congestion and fatigue. He received the test result Thursday evening, Conley said. The president went through a very concerning period Friday, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said Saturday .

Still, the timeline Trumps medical team put forward is extremely muddled . Conley told the news conference that Trump was 72 hours into his diagnosis, which would mean he knew as early as Wednesday, when he attended another fundraiser in Shorewood, Minnesota.

Trump began receiving antibody therapy about 48 hours ago , another member of the medical team said, which suggested it started on Thursday even before Trump attended the New Jersey fundraiser and had a confirmed positive test.

About two hours later, Conley issued a memo saying that was incorrect and that the doctors meant to say he was diagnosed Thursday evening and began treatment on Friday.

Conley declined to tell the news conference when and where Trump likely became infected: Were not going to go into that. As far as his care, its irrelevant.

But its not irrelevant to the countless others who may have been infected. Trumps lax response to the virus, politicisation of masks and insistence on reopening businesses and public spaces has been a major factor in the US death toll.

The latest news implicates Trump as a superspreader in an even more direct way: At least eight people who gathered at the White House on September 26 to celebrate Trumps nominee for the Supreme Court have tested positive after foregoing masks, hugging and shaking hands.

Multiple other members of Trumps inner circle tested positive this week, possibly because of exposure during preparations for Tuesday nights debate or at other events.

And for all of those confirmed cases, countless more may have been infected without willingly putting themselves at risk: people working the events, such as waiters, cleaners, support staff, Secret Service agents, military personnel and others who had little choice in attending. Those people run the risk of affecting their families and communities without the guarantee of medical care that the president, his family and high-ranking lawmakers can expect.