There’s Another Coronavirus Outbreak at the White House

And the administration reportedly tried to hide it from the public.

Mark Meadows

Patrick Semansky / Associated Press

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Late Friday night, Bloomberg News dropped a bombshell: President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday. Four other White House staffers, including one of Meadows’ top aides, have also tested positive, and so has a top Trump campaign aide. One month after Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination ceremony turned into a possible superspreader event, the White House is in the midst of another coronavirus outbreak.

The New York Times added some more details:

One White House official, who asked for anonymity because the official was not allowed to speak publicly about internal discussions, said people were told to keep quiet about the various cases. That follows how Mr. Meadows reacted when there was an outbreak in Vice President Mike Pence’s office a few weeks ago.

Anyone can get COVID, and whatever precautions you take are only as a helpful as the precautions other people take. But that’s the thing: The White House still isn’t taking the kinds of precautions other workplaces are taking. As the Times noted, Meadows’ positive test came less than a day after he attended a huge indoor mask-less party with hundreds of guests (including the First Family) at the White House to watch the election returns. When’s the last time you went to a big hours-long indoor party, let alone one where people weren’t wearing masks?

Meadows has made a point of defying the federal government’s recommendations on how to act in public during a pandemic. In October, he refused to do an interview while wearing a mask and walked away from reporters when they insisted he wear one. In June, he made fun of reporters for wearing masks. Keeping a positive COVID test a secret—let alone five positive COVID tests—leaves everyone who might have been exposed, or might have been exposed to someone who might have been exposed, in the dark. Just like last time. The emphasis on secrecy only underscores the administration’s apparent commitment to downplaying the pandemic even as it enters a truly dire stage.

The United States is in the midst of its third, and perhaps worst, surge of COVID-19 heading into a cold winter, when we’ll be worst prepared to deal with it. The White House appears to take the virus no more seriously than it did before that virus sent the president to the hospital. And the president? He’s completely checked out from his day job. We’re fast approaching a quarter of a million deaths, with cases still continuing to rise. It’s getting really really bad, and the people in charge are so at peace with that, they don’t even seem to care when they have it.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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