The White House COVID-19 Crisis
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.2 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 5 October 2020
⏱️ 13 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ever since President Trump left the White House for Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Friday, administration officials — including the president's physician — have been reluctant to share clear and complete information about his health.
Zeynep Tufecki, professor at the University of North Carolina, explains how the White House cluster may have developed.
The president's niece, psychologist Mary Trump, tells NPR that her family has a hard time confronting the hard reality of disease. Trump is the author of Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man.
In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what's going on in your community.
Email us at considerthis@npr.org.
To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The story of the White House coronavirus cluster may have started back on September 26. |
| 0:11.0 | Thank you very much. |
| 0:13.0 | That Saturday, Republican officials and conservative leaders gathered at the White House for the |
| 0:19.0 | President's announcement of his nominee to the Supreme Court. |
| 0:23.0 | Judge Amy Coney Barrett |
| 0:27.0 | Hundreds of people were there. |
| 0:30.0 | At least nine of them and counting, including the President, the first lady and several Republican |
| 0:36.0 | senators have now tested positive. |
| 0:39.0 | Photos from the event showed guests including the President talking close together inside the White House without masks. |
| 0:46.0 | The truth is, it was very rare to see any of the staff wear a mask in the building, unfortunately. |
| 0:53.0 | Until August, Olivia Troy was working in the White House on the coronavirus task force as a Homeland Security |
| 0:59.0 | advisor to Vice President Pence. |
| 1:01.0 | She resigned, she says, because the President and his administration failed to take the pandemic seriously. |
| 1:07.0 | You know, I felt awkward at times when I would wear a mask and sometimes I would feel the pressure of everyone else not having one and being the only one in the room. |
| 1:14.0 | I would take it off, but I always needed a point to really keep at least 60 to part from the Vice President and other critical players |
| 1:22.0 | because I knew the risk was there. |
| 1:26.0 | The virus spreads very easily. |
| 1:29.0 | Consider this. |
| 1:31.0 | The President's illness reveals just how easily. |
| 1:34.0 | What's not easy is getting a straight answer from the White House about how the President is doing. |
| 1:40.0 | From NPR, I'm Audie Cornish. It's Monday, October 5. |
| 1:45.0 | With the unemployment rate at record highs right now, millions of Americans are without health insurance. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.