April 7, 2022: Covid’s comeback bursts the D.C. bubble

The Playbook Podcast

POLITICO

Daily News, Politics, Government, News

4.2 • 614 Ratings

🗓️ 7 April 2022

⏱️ 5 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

There’s no denying it: Covid is rocking Washington right now. Days after Saturday’s annual Gridiron Club dinner, multiple attendees of the boujee 600-seat confab have come down with it — including Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Joaquin Castro (D-Texas). Throughout the district on Wednesday, the possible superspreader event was seemingly all anyone could talk about, as NYT’s Katie Rogers writes. Reporters and pols alike found themselves trading text messages about who sat by whom and whether so-and-so who was feeling ill got a positive test result. The entire situation, she notes, is a reminder “that, even as officials seek to pivot away from strict restrictions and encourage Americans to learn to live with the coronavirus, the pandemic is not over.” Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletter Raghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Presented by Amazon.
0:02.4	Hey, good morning, Playbookers, and Rookum Lenovalin. It's Thursday, and unfortunately,
0:07.7	it looks like COVID is rocking D.C. once again, it's your Politico Playbook Daily Briefing.
0:18.1	Days after Saturday's annual Gridiron Club dinner, multiple attendees of the 600-seat confab
0:23.8	have come down with COVID, including Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Attorney General
0:28.6	Merrick Garland, and Representative Adam Schiff and Joaquin Castro.
0:33.0	By Wednesday afternoon, another high-profile attendee. Jamal Simmons, Com's director to vice president
0:38.3	Kamla Harris, revealed that he too tested positive. That test result came just a day after
0:43.6	he shook former President Barack Obama's hand at the White House's Obamacare Party, where
0:48.2	President Joe Biden and about 200 other high-level officials got together mask lists while
0:52.8	celebrating the health healthcare law.
0:54.2	Throughout the district on Wednesday, as Katie Rogers from the New York Times writes,
0:57.7	the possible super spreader event was seemingly all anyone could talk about.
1:01.6	Reporters and politicians alike found themselves trading text messages about who sat by whom,
1:06.6	and whether so-and-so who was feeling ill, got a positive test result.
1:10.1	The entire situation, she notes, is a reminder that, quote, even his officials seek to pivot
1:14.3	away from strict restrictions and encourage Americans to learn to live with the coronavirus,
1:19.3	the pandemic is not over.
1:20.8	The gridiron dinner isn't the only likely super spreader event piercing the this town bubble.
1:25.5	As Politico's Eugene Daniels, Sam Stein, and Stephen Overley reported Wednesday, quote,
1:30.5	A number of individuals who attended a prominent antitrust conference in Brussels last week
1:35.0	also came down with COVID.
	...

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