President Biden tests positive for COVID-19, has ‘mild symptoms’

President Joe Biden is positive for COVID-19 and young people are experiencing “very mild symptoms”, says Casa Blanca, and that the new variants of the highly contagious virus challenge the efforts of the nation to return to normality after two years is medium. – pandemic year. interruptions

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden had started taking paxlovide, an antiviral drug designed to reduce the severity of the illness. He was isolated in the White House and “continued to perform all his duties to the fullest,” he said.

Biden’s doctor, Dr. Kevin O’Connor said in the letter that Biden had a runny nose and “fatigue, sometimes with a cough that started last night”.

“I really appreciate your questions and concerns,” Biden said in a video posted to Twitter. “But I’m doing fine, I’m doing a lot.”

Biden, 79, is fully vaccinated after receiving two doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine shortly before taking office, the first booster in September and an additional dose on March 30.

Jean-Pierre described the president’s symptoms as “very mild” and said Biden was on the phone with White House officials and would attend their scheduled meetings “by phone and from home via Zoom.”

The White House took steps to show the president was busy working despite the diagnosis, with Biden tweeting an image of calls from the White House contract room.

The president spoke by phone with Pennsylvania lawmakers to apologize for canceling a planned trip to Wilkes-Barre on Thursday to promote crime prevention plans. Biden also called South Carolina Representative Jim Clyburn to wish him a happy birthday and congratulate him on receiving an award from the NAACP.

In his letter about the president’s treatment plan, O’Connor wrote, “We hope he will respond favorably to paxlovide, as will most protected patients.”

Jean-Pierre said Biden tested negative on Tuesday and will remain in isolation until he tests negative again.
White House Chief of Staff Ron Klein said in a letter obtained by the Associated Press that “all close contacts of the president” would be informed of Biden’s positive test “by standard protocol”.

“We said some time ago that there was a substantial possibility that the president, like anyone else, could contract COVID, and we prepared for that possibility,” Klein wrote to the White House staff. “We are finalizing our plan for the president to continue working from home.

First Lady Jill Biden told reporters during a visit to a school in Detroit that she had just dropped the phone with her husband.

“He’s fine,” she said. “Feel good”.

The first lady, who was wearing a mask, said she had tested negative earlier in the day. He will maintain a full schedule in Michigan and Georgia on Thursday, but will follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidance on mask wearing and distancing, said Michael LaRosa, his spokesman.

The president spent much of the past week in Israel and Saudi Arabia. White House officials told reporters that Biden planned to keep contact to a minimum during the trip, but as he departed Air Force One on July 13, the president was seen shaking fists, shaking hands and even hugging. The CDC says symptoms can appear two to 14 days after exposure to the virus.

Biden had minimal public hours after returning from Saudi Arabia on Saturday night, attended church the next day and helped welcome Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska to the White House on Tuesday. The president traveled to Massachusetts on Wednesday to promote efforts to combat climate change.

Dr. Graham Snyder, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Pittsburgh, said in an interview that it’s not surprising Biden tested positive, given the scope of his activities and interactions with people. He said it looks like Biden is getting treatment that will allow him to recover from even worse health risks.

“It was implemented to have the best outcome, which is the least chance of getting sick, going to heaven-forbidden hospital or intensive care, or dying,” Snyder said.

Up until this point, Biden’s ability to avoid the virus appeared to be against all odds, even with testing procedures in place for anyone expected to come into close contact with him. Previous waves of the virus swept through Washington’s political class, infecting Vice President Kamala Harris, cabinet members, White House officials and lawmakers. Biden has increased his travel schedule and has returned to holding major national events that not everyone has experience with.

A White House official said Harris tested negative for COVID-19. The last time he was with the president was on Tuesday and he spoke on the phone Thursday morning. Harris planned to remain masked under the direction of the White House medical staff.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she hopes Biden’s positive test for the virus will lead to more Americans getting vaccinated and getting stronger because “none of us are immune, including the President of the United States, and we really have to have caution”.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell wished the president a “speedy recovery” on Twitter.

In recent months, senior White House officials have spoken matter-of-factly about the president’s likelihood of contracting COVID, a measure of how ingrained the virus has become in the community and its reduced threat to those who are up to date with the latest news. vaccines. . and access to treatment.

Within five days of symptom onset, paxlovide, made by pharmaceutical company Pfizer, has been shown to reduce hospitalizations and mortality by 90% in patients with severe illness.

Biden is ready to be the first world leader, the first president of EE. UU., to contract the coronavirus, which has infected British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron, and more than a dozen leaders and senior officials worldwide.

When Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump contracted the disease in October 2020, there were no vaccines available and treatment options were limited and underdeveloped. Since being diagnosed at the White House, Trump has received experimental antibody and steroid treatments after his blood oxygen levels dropped dangerously. He was hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for three days.

After more than two years and more than a million deaths in the US, the virus still kills an average of 353 people a day, according to the CDC. According to the Public Health Agency, the unvaccinated are at a much higher risk, twice as likely to test positive and nine times more likely to die from the virus than those who received at least the first dose of vaccines.

The highly contagious Omicron variant is the dominant strain in the US, but scientists say it poses a lower risk of serious illness in those who are up to date on their vaccines. Omicron’s BA.5 substrain, considered even more contagious, now accounts for more than 65% of cases in the US.

“There are a lot of infections in the United States,” Ashish Jha, the White House COVID-19 coordinator, said May 18, blaming highly contagious variants as well as relaxed measures such as mask requirements.

The coronavirus pandemic helped propel Biden into the White House as he vowed to handle COVID-19 better than his predecessor. After he managed to increase the supply and availability of vaccines in the first few months, the virus became a worse problem in the first year of his presidency as he struggled to stay ahead of the unpredictable disease.

As cases dropped sharply earlier this year, Biden highlighted his administration’s efforts to end the pandemic and help the country regain a sense of normalcy. He said in his March 1 speech, “It’s time for Americans to get back to work and replenish our great centers.”

The White House sought to waive public health guidelines to protect the president, requiring all visitors and staff to confirm their vaccination status or take daily tests. People who will be near Biden check in daily.