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3 Top Health Officials Self-Isolate After Coronavirus Cases Inside White House

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Three of the government’s top infectious-disease officials just went into quarantine inside the same administration they’re supposed to be advising.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Robert Redfield and Dr. Stephen Hahn all began isolating over the weekend of May 9-10 after potential exposure to COVID-19 inside the White House complex. The moves came days after a member of President Trump’s military valet staff and Vice President Pence’s press secretary, Katie Miller, both tested positive, forcing officials to yank six staffers off Air Force Two before a planned trip to Iowa.

• Fauci, Redfield and Hahn — the NIAID, CDC and FDA chiefs, respectively — all tested negative but entered isolation after exposure inside the White House.
• The exposures trace back to two confirmed cases days earlier: Trump’s personal valet and VP Pence press secretary Katie Miller, who tested positive Friday, May 8.
• Because of the isolations, Fauci, Redfield, Hahn and testing czar Adm. Brett Giroir will testify to the Senate HELP Committee on Tuesday, May 12, entirely by videoconference.

Three Different Levels of Isolation

Not every member of the task force is quarantining the same way. Dr. Hahn and Dr. Redfield committed to a full two-week quarantine, with Redfield teleworking from home unless he’s needed on-site, in which case he’ll follow critical-infrastructure protocols: daily symptom screening, temperature checks, a mask and physical distancing.

Dr. Fauci’s isolation looks different. NIAID described his situation as a “modified quarantine,” reflecting what the institute called a “relatively low risk” exposure. Fauci plans to telework from home and, when he does need his NIH office, work there alone, in a mask, submitting to daily testing anytime he’s called to the White House.

NIAID says Fauci’s exposure carries a “relatively low risk,” clearing him for a modified quarantine rather than the full two-week isolation his CDC and FDA colleagues are observing.

Origin of the Data Exposure

The chain of infections started with a member of the U.S. military serving as one of President Trump’s personal valets, who tested positive earlier in the week. Then, on Friday, May 8, Katie Miller — Vice President Pence’s press secretary and the wife of White House senior adviser Stephen Miller — also tested positive. Her diagnosis was serious enough that officials pulled six staffers off Air Force Two ahead of a scheduled flight to Iowa, a sign of how quickly the West Wing moved to contain potential spread once a case surfaced that close to the vice president’s office.

Those two cases are what put Fauci, Redfield and Hahn in the White House’s contact-tracing net over that same weekend, prompting all three to isolate out of caution even after negative test results.

A Senate Hearing Goes Virtual

The isolations immediately collided with the calendar. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander announced that Fauci, Redfield, Hahn and Adm. Brett Giroir, the administration’s testing coordinator, would still appear before his committee on Tuesday, May 12 — just not in person. All four will testify by videoconference instead, a scheduling wrinkle that underscores how central these four officials are to the government’s public accounting of its pandemic response even as they’re sidelined physically from the White House.

Tighter Protocols Around the President

In response to the cluster of cases, the administration rolled out stepped-up safety measures around Trump and Pence: deep cleanings of shared spaces, daily testing for staff working in close proximity to either man, and a visibly changed atmosphere across the complex. Secret Service agents and White House employees who previously went without face coverings were seen wearing masks over the weekend — a shift that followed the White House’s directive to staff to wear masks after officials contracted the virus.

The episode has also renewed scrutiny of Fauci’s public standing inside an administration that has occasionally clashed with him over messaging, after Fauci himself called White House attacks on him “bizarre” in an earlier dispute.

Tuesday’s videoconference hearing is the next thing to watch — four of the administration’s most visible pandemic officials answering senators’ questions from separate rooms instead of a shared witness table, with Redfield and Hahn still a week and a half from clearing their two-week quarantines.