Amid fears over COVID-19 cases in Congress, White House, experts urge vaccinations
- Rep. Vern Buchanan and aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi test positive for COVID-19
- Dr. Brian Monahan, the attending physician for Congress, urges vaccinations
- Dr. Amesh Adalja of Johns Hopkins calls COVID a 'pandemic of the unvaccinated'
WASHINGTON – A spate of COVID-19 infections has rippled through Congress, the White House and a band of Texas state lawmakers, stoking renewed concern among officials about how best to protect against the virus as the delta variant causes a nationwide spike in cases.
Health officials said the best protection remains vaccination, noting the shots reduce the risks of serious illness, hospitalization and death.
“If you’re a fully vaccinated individual and you’re meeting with somebody who has COVID, you really don’t have much to fear from the virus. The vaccines are very robust,” Dr. Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told USA TODAY. “What we’re seeing now in the United States, as the CDC director said, is a pandemic of the unvaccinated. That’s where the risk is.”
Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., announced Monday that he tested positive for the coronavirus despite being vaccinated months earlier. He said he was quarantining with mild, flu-like symptoms.
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“I look forward to returning to work as soon as possible,” Buchanan said. “In the meantime, this should serve as a reminder that although the vaccines provide a very high-degree of protection, we must remain vigilant in the fight against COVID-19.”
A White House staffer and press aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., also tested positive, the White House and the speaker's office confirmed Tuesday. Pelosi's office said the aide tested positive after meeting with a group of Texas Democrats who came to Washington last week.
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The Texas legislators had fled their home state amid a battle over voting rights. Six of them have tested positive for the coronavirus.
Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said the speaker's press team has been mostly working remotely and the infected staffer hadn’t come into contact with the speaker.
“Our office will continue to follow the guidance of the Office of Attending Physician closely,” Hammill said, referring to the Capitol's in-house doctor.
A White House staffer tested positive after attending an event last week with the Pelosi staffer, spokeswoman Jen Psaki confirmed Tuesday.
“This individual was out of the office when they were tested yesterday, and they've stayed out of the office,” Psaki said.
A White House official said medical staff conducted contact tracing interviews and determined there were "no close contacts" among White House principals and staff with the infected individual, who has mild symptoms.
On Capitol Hill, the coronavirus testing site was busy Tuesday after a lull for the past month. At least 15 people waited in line in the afternoon.
Brian Monahan, the attending physician for Congress, released a memo Tuesday warning about the "severe threat" of the delta variant for unvaccinated people. He didn't recommend a return to requiring masks, as several counties have done.
"I urge unvaccinated individuals to come for vaccination at any time," he said.
"The Centers for Disease Control does not generally require vaccinated individuals to wear a mask indoors at this time," Monahan said. "Despite the excellent protective value of the vaccine in preventing hospitalization and death, there is still a possibility a fully vaccinated individual could acquire infection in their nose and throat, mild symptoms, or the ability to transmit the coronavirus infection to others."
The Capitol campus has largely reopened since the insurrection Jan. 6; temporary fencing was removed, and the National Guard is gone. But Capitol tours aren’t likely to return soon because of the surging cases of the delta variant, according to a House leadership aide.
The Texas lawmakers, who fled Austin to block passage of voting legislation, tested positive after a whirlwind tour of meetings with members of Congress and Vice President Kamala Harris. Harris has been vaccinated.
The vice president's office said she has since tested negative for the coronavirus and is being monitored.
Precautions against COVID-19 on Capitol Hill became as contentious as the rest of the country. The House required lawmakers to wear masks on the House floor, which some members bristled at. The House and Senate staggered voting to have fewer people in each chamber at one time. The House allows remote voting, relayed through colleagues.
The House dropped the mask requirement in mid-June, as more members and staffers became vaccinated. The Senate never required masks, but some members and staffers wear them.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said Tuesday he would like to reinstate the mask requirement. He said that view is shared by others with unvaccinated children.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he would work with Monahan about guidance on masks and the delta variant.
“We’re going to listen to science, plain and simple,” Schumer said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who suffered polio as a child, has been an advocate for vaccinations. He said Tuesday that 97% of hospitalizations are among unvaccinated people.
“These shots need to get into everybody’s arms as rapidly as possible, or we’re going to be back in a situation in the fall that we don’t yearn for, that we went through last year,” McConnell said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective but do not provide 100% protection. That means A small percentage of people who are fully vaccinated will still get COVID-19 if exposed to the virus that causes it, according to the CDC.
Vaccinated people who have breakthrough infections are much less likely to get severely sick or die. Of the more than 159 million fully vaccinated people in the USA, about 5,500 have been hospitalized or died from COVID-19 as of July 12, according to the CDC.
"Unfortunately, cases are now rising, particularly in communities with very low vaccination rates," President Joe Biden said Monday in touting the economic recovery. "Just four states account for nearly 40% of all cases last week. Virtually all hospitalizations and deaths are occurring among unvaccinated Americans. These tragedies are avoidable."
Adalja said the goal of vaccines was to reduce deaths and hospitalizations from the illness, which they accomplished, and to reduce spread of the disease. But he said the virus will remain in circulation even after widespread vaccinations.
“Ten years from now, there will be COVID cases,” Adalja said. “Our goal is to deny the ability of the virus to make our hospitals go into crisis and make it a much more manageable respiratory virus, the way we have made influenza or other respiratory viruses. That’s what the vaccine accomplishes.”
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White House official, Pelosi aide test positive for coronavirus after attending event together
