As more COVID-19 cases crop up among President Donald Trump’s inner circle, new reports show just how easily the virus can spread.
On Monday, October 6, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention added new COVID-19 guidance to its website about the transmission of the coronavirus, noting that, while it's mainly spread through respiratory droplets, the virus can in fact “sometimes be spread by airborne transmission.” The new CDC information adds that people with COVID-19 can, in some circumstances, spread the virus indoors beyond six feet if there’s poor ventilation. This update comes after the CDC published similar guidance on its website weeks ago, and quickly retracted it, saying that it “was posted in error.”
The website update also comes just a week after a now-infamous ceremony to celebrate Trump’s nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, which is being questioned as a super-spreader event. Attendees were largely without masks, with little social distancing and involved close contact indoors and outdoors according to the New York Times. The CDC's updated information on how the coronavirus spreads, which differs from early reports about how COVID-19 spreads, also underscores just how much we’ve learned about the virus in the eight months since it hit the United States.
“We know that the virus spreads through aerosol droplets – from your mouth or nose when you talk, sing, and breathe,” said epidemiologist Sarah Hawkes, a professor of global public health at University College London, and the co-director of Global Health 50/50, an advocacy group for gender equity in global health. Hawkes also added that there’s some possibility that the virus cam be spread through touching highly shared surfaces, like door handles. “A strong public health message is to always wash your hands and avoid touching surfaces and then touching your mouth or nose or eyes. But it does seem that the biggest risk to all of us is from aerosol droplet spread – hence the need to wear a mask.”
In the early days of the pandemic’s arrival in the U.S., scientists did not advise wearing a mask to prevent the spread, and did not initially believe the virus to spread via airborne transmission. While some, including Trump, have used this difference in guidance to undercut the scientific community, the changes actually highlight the advances in science and a deeper understanding of this novel virus.
“When we update information, some people say, ‘So, you’re changing your story?’” Brad Pollock, chair of the UC Davis Health Department of Public Health Sciences, said in a news release in late August. “No, we’ve learned more now. There is a reason we call it the novel coronavirus. We never saw it before January and our understanding has evolved.”
In addition to greater understanding of the virus, we also understand better how it impacts different groups. For instance, we know that BIPOC communities are at higher risk of dying from COVID-19 in part because of systemic racism impacting the care they might receive and even getting access to that care. Hawkes’ group recently published a database that tracks the differences in COVID-19 infection based on sex and gender. As noted by The 19th* News, the data collected spotlights countries’ blind spots when tracking the coronavirus — and the United States is particularly behind.
So far, Hawkes says findings from the database shows:
Women and men’s risk of contracting the coronavirus is relatively equal in the United States
Men have a far greater risk of severe disease and death
Risks are related to age, race, occupation, and the presence of a range of other conditions such as lung disease, heart disease, and obesity
Despite the developments in research, many still flout scientific recommendations to prevent spreading COVID-19 — as we saw with Trump’s White House event.
“There are people who, even in the face of strong evidence on how to protect themselves and others from COVID-19, are still more concerned about the politics of the message rather than the science of the message,” Hawkes said. “When we looked at the political elite of the U.S. gathering together in one place without much regard for social distancing, and without many masks in sight, even the non-epidemiologists among us were worried.”
As recently as the first presidential debate, President Trump criticized Joe Biden for wearing a mask when out in public. To date, Biden has repeatedly tested negative for COVID-19 according to his team.
“People seemed more concerned with projecting an air of invincibility than in wearing masks or socially distancing,” Hawkes said. “Combine that with snide comments about political rivals and their mask-wearing, and it adds up to the impression that what we were seeing was political theatre and the politicization of a public health response.”
Since Trump’s discharge from the hospital Monday evening, the president has tweeted chipper remarks about COVID-19, including calls to not let the virus “dominate your life.”
“Don’t be afraid of Covid,” Trump wrote of a virus that has killed more than 210,000 people in the United States as of Tuesday.
Experts like Hawkes worry about Trump’s cavalier attitude, noting that the access to care and treatment he had as president is much different from an everyday civilian.
“It goes without saying that the treatment the President received is probably unlike that which any other person in America would receive and is certainly playing a role in his recovery,” Hawkes said.
According to CNN, Trump received an experimental antibody treatment not even approved to the general public shortly after testing positive for COVID-19.
As we move forward, Hawkes reminds us this won’t last forever and following simple guidelines collectively will help society collectively get past the pandemic.
“We can help speed up the end of the pandemic by all accepting to play our part – looking after each other’s health as much as we look after our own,” she said. “This doesn’t mean that life has to stop, but for some time we’ll, unfortunately, need to reign in some of the activities we all enjoy until we can all do so safely again.”
Hawkes said that tried and tested measures needed to prevent the further spread of COVID-19 include mask-wearing in any public spaces, frequent hand-washing, and access to COVID-19 testing and contact tracing.
Of course, that last bit is easier said than done. As noted by CNN, many Americans have struggled to get COVID-19 tests and even when they do, results have frequently come with massive delays. In contrast, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany (who has also tested positive for COVID-19), called Trump “the most tested man in America.” It’s also important that people who have tested positive — or suspect they either have the virus or have come in contact with someone who has it — are able to quarantine for 14 days.
But we know that not everyone even has the luxury of being able to quarantine for a day, let alone two weeks.
“At the end of the day, what you need in addition to all of these measures is public trust,” Hawkes said. “We need public trust that the pandemic is real, that public health measures work to stop the spread of the virus, and perhaps most importantly, that we all have a role to play in protecting not just ourselves but each other.”
