Vice President Kamala Harris tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, the White House announced, underscoring the persistence of the highly contagious virus even as the U.S. eases restrictions in a bid to return to pre-pandemic normalcy.
Harris press secretary Kirsten Allen said neither President Joe Biden nor first lady Jill Biden was considered a “close contact” of Harris in recent days. Harris had been scheduled to attend Biden’s Tuesday morning Presidential Daily Brief but was not present, the White House said. Because of their travel schedules, the last time Harris saw Biden was Monday, April 18.
The vice president returned on Monday from a weeklong trip to the West Coast.
Harris tested positive on both rapid and PCR tests but “has exhibited no symptoms,” the White House said. She will isolate at her residence but continue to work remotely, and will return to the White House only when she tests negative for the virus.
Harris, 57, received her first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine weeks before taking office and a second dose just days after Inauguration Day in 2021. She received a booster shot in late October and an additional booster on April 1. Fully vaccinated and boosted people have a high degree of protection against serious illness and death from COVID-19, particularly from the most common and highly transmissible omicron variant.
Harris’ diagnosis comes a month after her husband, Doug Emhoff, recovered from the virus, as a wave of cases of the highly transmissible omicron subvariant has spread through Washington’s political class, infecting Cabinet members, White House staffers and lawmakers including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Allen said Harris would follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines “and the advice of her physicians.” It was not immediately clear whether she is being prescribed any antiviral treatments.
The White House has put in place strict COVID-19 protocols around the president, vice president and their spouses, including daily testing for those expected to be in close contact with them. Biden is tested regularly on the advice of his physician, the White House has said.
After more than two years and nearly a million deaths in the U.S., the virus is still killing more than 300 people a day in the U.S., according to the CDC. The unvaccinated are at a far greater risk, more than three times as likely to test positive and 20 times as likely to die from the virus than those who have received at least a primary dose of the vaccines, according to the public health agency.
Harris’ diagnosis comes as the Biden administration is taking steps to expand availability of the life-saving COVID-19 antiviral treatment Paxlovid, reassuring doctors that there is ample supply for people at high risk of severe illness or death from the virus.
Paxlovid, when administered within five days of symptoms appearing, has been proven to bring about a 90% reduction in hospitalizations and deaths among patients most likely to get severe disease.
(AP)
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10 Responses
The title of the article seems to intimate that perhaps she shouldn’t have contracted covid considering she’s fully vaccinated. No one, from the manufactures to the government to medical experts, have ever said the vaccines prevent covid. They greatly protect from severe illness and death r’l.
Not shocking in the slightest that the Emergency Authorization Use vax didn’t protect her.
Political actress lady, to set an example for the peasants, acts as though she’s participating in a genetics experiment in which they use a dead murdered unborn baby fetus to hack her genes to give them some instructions unknown, unknown cuz it’s like intellectual property of a profit corporation, probably trade secrets, confidentiality agreements all protecting the information of how precisely she supposedly has allowed a man-made virus to rewrite her genetic codes permanently, effects of the edit long-term unknown, despite flu seeming relatively benign this year. A corporation now claims intellectual property of some of the genes of those experimental subjects, the humanoids if you will.
If you read the “fine” print, no one ever claimed the vaccine prevents Covid19, only that it minimizes the chance of death or serious illness, which never was very great to begin with. So its no big deal that vaccinated people “get” Covid, and to get to the bottom line, that the Vice-President “has” Covid, does not indicate that Nancy Pelosi (who is next in line) is any closer to becoming President.
Another fake news story by the right wing AP. This simply doesn’t fit the narrative. ONLY privileged WHITE racist Republican anti vaxxer males get Covid and die! Never black female democrats! Dictator Fauci/Walensky have told us countless times, that the vaccines and disposable masks are mandatory, as they guarantee the lemechels will NOT get Covid. Follow the science, follow the science, follow the science. Get vaccinated + fully masked – Covid protection. Please remove this fake racist news story.
Its like “who cares”? Its now almost 100 percent certain that anyone, including those vaccinated and boosted, who are in frequent group settings, indoors or outside, will be infected at some point. What is clearly good news is that the vast majority of those who have been vaccinated or boosted will exhibit little or no symptoms. While the same generally holds for unvaccinated, the rates of hospitalization are 2x to 3x higher than those among the vaccinated.
Biden doesn’t have to worry because he doesn’t spend any time with Harris.
These vaccines were not properly vetted and tested. Also, they are causing neuropathy and ear ringing in millions. An N95 mask offers superior protection in crowded places.
Hahahaha!!!
The bottom line, regardless of whether you think Covid, or the vaccines, are a hoax or prank – Nancy Pelosi is not about to end her career living in the White House.