There is some speculation that the White House Rose Garden event honoring the president’s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett may have been a super-spreader occasion.
President Trump has tested positive, and University of Notre Dame President Father John Jenkins and Sen. Mike Lee of Utah have also tested positive.
They attended the Rose Garden event over the weekend to introduce Barrett, a federal appeals judge in Chicago, and did not wear a mask.
Dr. Michelle Prickett, associate professor of medicine in pulmonary and critical care at Northwestern, has treated more than 400 COVID-19 patients since March.
She said Friday one thing they’ve learned over the past several months is that masks work to protect others and yourself.
“A lot of the cases we are seeing now are people that have been wearing masks, but they’ll have one event and it’s one person they’re in contact with without a mask, in close proximity. Inside versus outside, and for prolonged periods, can lead to infection.”
And she says the infection spreads before people are symptomatic.
Dr. Prickett says she was “surprised, not shocked” when she learned President Trump had tested positive overnight. Top aide Hope Hicks tested positive, prompting the president and his wife to get tested. Mrs. Trump tested positive, too.
“I think what we’ve learned is that no one is immune to this. And we also know there’s limitations on using testing only as a way to protect yourself,” Prickett said.
