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PREP. DO NOT PUBLISH UNTIL THE NEWS CROSSES. Vice President Mike Pence Tests Positive For Coronavirus 8 Days After Donald Trump
By Tom Tapp
Tom Tapp
Deputy Managing Editor
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October 8, 2020 3:25pm
Mike Pence looks at Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., during the vice presidential debate.AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
The two most powerful men in America now have coronavirus.
Vice President Mike Pence announced late Wednesday that he is among those who have tested positive in the ongoing White House coronavirus outbreak. Pence’s diagnosis puts the number of of recently-infected people in Trump’s circle at 21, according to the New York Times.
It comes after Pence, 61, had repeatedly said he tested negative for the virus, including before Wednesday night’s debate with Kamala Harris. During that debate, Pence frequently defended the administration’s response to coronavirus.
On Thursday evening, when Pence’s schedule in his home state of Indiana was scrapped for a return to D.C., the vice president’s director of communications, Katie Miller, tweeted that there was nothing out of the ordinary afoot. Miller, for her part, tested positive in May.
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Oddly, one of the top comments about Pence during the debate related to his eyes. Some armchair epidemiologists speculated that, given the redness of his eyes, he might have coronavirus. While not a commonly documented symptom, it turns out they were right.
According to a doctor’s evaluation the V.P. released during the 2016 campaign, he is overall in “excellent” physical health. Like Trump, Pence does not drink. The only medication he takes is Claritin “for seasonal allergies.” Pence did have two basal cell carcinomas removed from his face, one in 2002 and another eight years later.
Pence’s declaration comes, of course after President Trump revealed early Friday morning that he and First Lady Melania Trump had tested positive.
The Wall Street Journal and other outlets reported that the president first tested positive on Thursday, but waited for the results of a second test before alerting others.
The results did not keep Trump from attending a fundraiser on Thursday with about 200 donors that was held partially indoors. Trump also knew at the time of the event that Hicks Had tested positive earlier in the day. Hicks flew twice with the president that week, according to WSJ.
The president has frequently been around other people without his mask, including at rallies and a gathering in 11 days ago in the White House Rose Garden for his supreme court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett. That event may have been a superspreader event given that all of the recent White House cases have been identified in the days since. According to the CDC, COVID-infected people may shed the virus for 10 days after the onset of symptoms. In rare cases, says the CDC, transmission may be possible up to 20 days after symptoms become apparent.
Pence was front and center at the event for Barrett. Others who attended and who have since tested positive include counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway, White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, Senator Mike Lee, Senator Thom Tillis and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who remains hospitalized.
Hicks may have been patient zero in the White House outbreak. White House officials first became aware of her status Wednesday evening, according to the NYT. Hicks traveled on Wednesday with the president on Air Force One to a Minnesota campaign rally. It was during that rally that Hicks began to feel sick. She was separated from the other passengers on the flight home. Hicks had also accompanied Trump to the presidential debate on Wednesday.
Other staffers and government officials who have been infected during the White House outbreak include Nicholas Luna, Stephen Miller, Charles Ray, Rhonna McDaniel, Bill Stephen, John Jenkins and Greg Laurie.
It could be like those obituaries that drop accidentally sometimes. News orgs have them ready even if the person isn’t dead yet.
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HAY GUYS DID YOU HAPPEN TO SEE THE FULL TEXT OF THE LINK THAT JUST GOT POSTED TWICE??
:p
Fake news I think. Article says he announced he tested positive Wednesday.
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Can he still go to the Villages?
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Yeah, I’m not buying this at all.
This doesn’t mean he doesn’t have it, but this story moves the probability needle about zero for me.
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I posted the text because the link only works on certain devices.
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That’s what I’m thinking. They have articles prepped for when Pence actually does announce he has Covid.
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It’s clearly been updated today to reflect his cancelling the voting event. Would seem odd to be constantly updating an article you’re keeping on standby.
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No volatility in market futures, you’d think there’d be some if their sources were on it.
there’s a lot of nuance. swine flu was already present in north america, so even though the new strain was deadly, some populations probably had some immunity or resistance, and flu vaccines probably helped at least somewhat. on top of that, vaccine was developed a lot quicker because flu was much better studied by that time.
h1n1 was unusual in that it affected younger immune systems as well as older, and young people have better chances anyway.
but that’s not to say that stopping the pandemic was easy. if not contained, it can evolve and circumvent whatever lucky circumstances we had at the time.
btw, usa#1 and brazil#2 also had the most h1n1 deaths. draw your own conclusions
He worked for a company that was fixing bread prices.
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Not the first time Trump’s been covered in P.
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This tweet got pulled. Fake News I guess.
Deadline has actually been great for COVID news, the whole business has been so shut down that focusing on COVID has been all that’s left us.
I’ve got an inside source in the Hollywood publishing community, checking on this.
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Twitter saying the earlier Trump video in front of WH was green-screened.
I saw a bunch of stuff pushing back on that, thinks that’s just conspiracy nonsense
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