Zeke Miller, Chris Megerian and Josh Boak, The Associated Press Published Thursday, July 21, 2022 10:38 a.m. EDT Last updated Thursday, July 21, 2022 6:57 p.m. EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19 Thursday and is self-isolating with mild symptoms. White House officials went out of their way to show that the 79-year-old US leader could beat the virus and continue working because he was vaccinated and fortified.
Dressed in a navy blazer and Oxford shirt, Biden recorded a video on the White House balcony to send the message that he would be okay and that the country should keep calm and carry on. He acknowledges the pandemic as a national trauma that has killed more than a million Americans and alarmed millions more, and his words in the video posted on Twitter were meant to be reassuring.
“I’m doing great, doing a lot of work,” Biden said, the faint sound of an ice cream truck clinking in the distance. “And in the meantime, thanks for your concern. And keep the faith. It’ll be alright.”
Thursday demonstrated one of the inevitable risks that await a president who has insisted on trying to reconnect with the world and everyday Americans after a prolonged lockdown. It was a reminder that COVID-19, with its mutations and substrains, remains a threat; the White House also saw it as an opportunity to demonstrate progress in the fight against the disease.
Administration officials reminded people that Biden’s prognosis is strong because he has received all vaccine doses for which he is eligible, including two original shots and two boosters. He is also being treated with Paxlovid, an antiviral drug used to prevent more severe symptoms.
The White House’s COVID-19 coordinator, Dr. Ashish Jha, told reporters at a briefing that he spoke to Biden by phone and that the president “sounded great.”
“I had been working all morning,” Jha said. “I hadn’t even been able to finish breakfast because I had just been busy. I encouraged him to finish his breakfast.”
Biden’s physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, said in a letter that Biden had a runny nose and “fatigue, with an occasional dry cough, which began last evening.” The president will self-isolate for five days and can return to normal activities after a negative test, Jha said.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre described the president’s symptoms as “very mild” and said Biden had been in contact with staff members by phone and participating in their scheduled meetings by phone and Zoom from the White House residence.
When asked where Biden might have contracted the virus, Jean-Pierre said, “I don’t think that matters.” He added that the White House was more focused on how Biden felt and would engage in outreach.
The White House took steps to show that the president was busy working despite his diagnosis, with Biden tweeting a photo of him making calls from the White House’s Treaty Room.
The president spoke by phone with Pennsylvania lawmakers to apologize for having to cancel his planned Thursday trip to the city of Wilkes-Barre to promote his crime prevention plans. He also called South Carolina Representative Jim Clyburn to wish him a happy birthday and congratulate him on receiving an award from the NAACP.
Dr. O’Connor wrote in his letter about the president’s treatment plan: “I anticipate that he will respond favorably” to Paxlovid “as most patients with maximum protection do.”
White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said in a letter to White House staff obtained by The Associated Press that “all close contacts of the president” will be informed of the positive test in accordance with standard protocol .
First lady Jill Biden, speaking to reporters as she arrived on a school visit in Detroit, said she had just spoken with her husband.
“It’s okay,” he said. “He’s fine.”
The first lady, who was wearing a mask, said she had tested negative earlier in the day. He planned to keep his full schedule in Michigan and Georgia on Thursday while following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s masking and distancing instructions, said Michael LaRosa, his spokesman.
The president returned Saturday night from a trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia. White House officials had told reporters that Biden planned to minimize contact during the trip, but as soon as he stepped off Air Force One on July 13, he was punching, shaking hands and it was all seen in a casual hug. The CDC says symptoms can appear two to 14 days after exposure to the virus.
Biden had a light schedule after returning from Saudi Arabia, attending church on Sunday and helping welcome Ukraine’s first lady Olena Zelenska to the White House on Tuesday. The president traveled to Massachusetts on Wednesday to promote efforts to combat climate change.
Up until this point, Biden’s ability to avoid the virus seemed to defy the odds, even with testing procedures in place for those expected to be in close contact with him. Previous waves of the virus swept through Washington’s political class, infecting Vice President Kamala Harris, cabinet members, White House staff and lawmakers. Biden has increasingly ramped up his travel schedule and resumed holding large domestic events where not everyone gets tested.
A White House official said Harris tested negative for COVID-19. She was last with the president on Tuesday and spoke to him by phone Thursday morning. Harris planned to remain masked under the guidance of the White House medical team.
Leana Wen, a professor of public health at George Washington University, said “we’re in a very different place” than before vaccines and therapeutics were widespread.
“Coronavirus is everywhere and your chances of getting it, even if you’re vaccinated and boosted, and even if you’ve had it before, are very high,” he said. “At the same time, it’s also true that for almost everyone, the coronavirus has gone from being a potential death sentence to something we can live with.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she hoped Biden’s positive test for the virus would prompt more Americans to get vaccinated and boosted because “none of us are immune, including the president of the United States, and we really have to be careful.”
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell on Twitter wished the president “a speedy recovery.”
Top White House officials in recent months have been realistic about the likelihood that the president has COVID, a measure of how entrenched the virus has become in society and of its diminished threat to those who are up to date with the their vaccinations. and with access to treatments.
When given within five days of the onset of symptoms, Paxlovid, made by drugmaker Pfizer, has been shown to lead to a 90% reduction in hospitalizations and deaths among patients most likely to have the disease serious
Biden is far from the first world leader, and not the first US president, to have the coronavirus, which has infected British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron and more than a dozen other leaders and senior officials worldwide.
When Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, contracted the disease in October 2020, vaccines were not available and treatment options were limited and less advanced. After being diagnosed at the White House, Trump was given an experimental treatment of antibodies and steroids after his blood oxygen levels dropped dangerously low. He was hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for three days.
After more than two years and more than a million deaths in the United States, the virus is still killing an average of 353 people a day here, according to the CDC. According to the health agency, the unvaccinated are at much greater risk, more than twice as likely to test positive and nine times more likely to die from the virus than those who have received at least one primary dose of the vaccines.
The highly transmissible omicron variant is the dominant strain in the US, but scientists say it poses a lower risk of serious illness for those who are up to date with their vaccinations. The BA.5 substrain of Omicron, believed to be even more contagious, now accounts for more than 65% of US cases.
Associated Press audio correspondent Shelley Adler and writers Seung Min Kim, Fatima Hussein and Mike Householder contributed to this report. Owner contributed from Detroit.