By Philip Wegmann - RCP StaffJuly 21, 2021
The Texas Democratic lawmakers who hurriedly fled the state last week to deny their Republican colleagues a quorum and thereby stall a voting reform bill, forgot to pack their masks. They were not wearing them when they smiled for a selfie on a chartered flight to the nation’s capital. Their faces were not covered when they met with Vice President Kamala Harris in Washington either.
Some of them are sick now. Six members of the Texas delegation have reported testing positive for the coronavirus, and one White House official is also ill. But White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki didn’t say much specifically about that case Tuesday other than to “wish our colleague a speedy recovery.”
She chaffed at suggestions that the meeting with Harris was “a super-spreader event.” She confirmed that the infected White House official had been previously vaccinated. And she noted that medical professionals are taking the requisite precautions before adding, “The news today is that while breakthrough cases will happen, the vaccines are effective and prevent against serious illness and death.”
Case closed. At least, that’s what the White House would prefer. It is clear the administration wants a strictly apolitical kind of contact tracing.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2021/07/21/white_house_plays_new_covid_cases_close_to_its_vest_146114.html
