Although the United States has had the misfortune of leading the world in COVID-19 cases for months, it seems the country’s coronavirus nightmare is worse than ever as Worldometers reported that the past two days have seen record national caseloads of 144,391 infections on November 11 and 161,541 infections the day after.
But while some communities are being hit harder than others by the virus, it’s clear that nobody at any level of society is necessarily safe from it.
And that fact has recently shown some troubling implications for the security of the White House.
At the time of this writing, over 130 Secret Service agents are in quarantine after exposure to COVID-19.
As The Washington Post reported , many of these agents tested positive for the virus, while the remaining ones are quarantining due to close contact with infected coworkers.
This accounts for approximately 10% of the 1,300 officers in charge of security for President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence both at their residences and while they’re in transit.
Anonymous sources within the White House who spoke to the newspaper partially attributed this rise in infections to the high number of campaign rallies President Trump held in the weeks leading up to the 2020 Presidential Election.
As The Washington Post reported , a particular example of note on November 2 saw the president require five separate groups of Secret Service personnel — each numbering at least 20 but potentially in the dozens — accompany him to campaign events in Fayetteville, North Carolina; Scranton, Pennsylvania; Traverse City, Michigan; and Kenosha and Grand Rapids, Wisconsin.
There, they secured the perimeter around the event and screened its attendees, many of whom were not wearing masks.
By contrast, President-Elect Joe Biden held two campaign stops on that day that both required fewer officers present.
Another factor concerned unexpected decisions made by Trump himself such as his decision to ride by gathered supporters while he was being treated for COVID-19 at Walter Reed Medical Center.
Although he was wearing a mask at the time, NBC 10 reported that the move drew criticism from one of the hospital’s attending physicians for putting Secret Service officers at risk since they were sealed off in the vehicle with him.
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As that physician, Dr. James P. Phillips put it, “This is insanity. Every single person in the vehicle during that completely unnecessary presidential ‘drive-by’ just now has to be quarantined for 14 days. They might get sick. They may die.”
However, it’s also possible that a significant number of these cases came from protecting the White House itself.
As The Washington Post reported , White House staff often forego wearing masks and that’s also found to be true of some Secret Service agents on duty there.
However these Secret Service agents came to be infected by COVID-19, the virus has created a grim situation for them, their colleagues, and national security.
As The Washington Post reported , the Secret Service teams responsible for protecting the president were already overworked prior to the incapacitation of more than 130 of their coworkers and will now have to sacrifice days off and work longer hours to resume their duties.
Such conditions were found to be a factor contributing to security breaches by a blue-ribbon panel in 2015.
As one former Secret Service supervisor told The Post , “Being down more than 100 officers is very problematic. That does not bode well for White House security.”
h/t: The Washington Post
