The White House COVID-19 outbreak is undermining U.S. President Donald Trump's narrative that it's safe to open up the country and that diagnostic testing is of limited importance.
The news of three top health officials, all members of the administration's coronavirus task force, self-quarantining in some form after one of Trump's valets and another West Wing aide tested positive is jarring alongside Trump's desire to move on from the pandemic and to concentrate on the staggering economic dimension of the crisis.
However, Trump and so-far-unidentified senior administration officials are expected to hold a press briefing on testing on Monday afternoon. Administration officials spent the weekend scrambling as they attempted to do contact tracing for Miller, but they had not identified who Miller contracted the virus from as of Sunday, raising concerns inside the White House about how to contain the outbreak.
Given the cramped nature of the West Wing, which makes proper social distancing all but impossible, the fear is that more cases of COVID-19 will emerge. Trump repeatedly says that the US has done more testing than any other nation, but the US doesn't lead the pack when it comes to testing per capita, the more significant metric.
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