Trump Tests Positive For Coronavirus, COVID-19 Fact Check, SciFri Book Club. Oct. 2, 2020, Part 1
Science Friday
Science Friday and WNYC Studios
4.4 • 6.3K Ratings
🗓️ 2 October 2020
⏱️ 47 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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| 0:00.0 | This is Science Friday. I'm Ira Flato. Later in the hour, we'll fact-check your COVID news feed, |
| 0:05.7 | presidential election edition. But first, the news hit us overnight that President Trump, |
| 0:11.7 | the first lady, and at least one member of his staff, tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. |
| 0:18.2 | Just before 1 a.m., the president tweeted that tonight, Flotus and I tested positive for COVID-19 virus. Just before 1 a.m., the president tweeted that tonight, Flotis and I tested |
| 0:22.8 | positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get |
| 0:29.3 | through this together. Sean Connolly, the White House physician, confirmed the positive COVID test, |
| 0:35.2 | and said that, quote, the president and first lady are both well at this time, |
| 0:40.0 | and they plan to remain at home within the White House during their convalescence. |
| 0:44.8 | Joining us to talk about the medical and health ramifications and possibilities presented by the president's infection with COVID-19 is Dr. Angela Rasmussen, Associate Research Scientist, |
| 0:56.7 | and the Columbia University Malman School of Public Health in New York. Welcome back to Science |
| 1:02.1 | Friday. Thanks for having me, Ira. What do we know about how he may have contracted it? |
| 1:08.2 | So that's the real mystery. There's certainly been speculation that he contracted it from Hope Hicks, the presidential |
| 1:15.6 | advisor who was diagnosed with having it on Wednesday when apparently she became symptomatic |
| 1:20.6 | on Air Force One. |
| 1:21.6 | It's also entirely possible, however, that he could have gotten it from somebody else, that he and Hope Hicks got it |
| 1:28.9 | from the same person, or they each could have acquired it independently through their other |
| 1:33.1 | interactions. This is going to be very complicated and difficult to contact trace, simply because |
| 1:39.9 | the president has been in contact with so many different people. He attended a fundraiser |
| 1:45.4 | yesterday in New Jersey. He's surrounded by AIDS who are also having contacts, presumably, |
| 1:51.5 | with their own households, their own families, and other people that they're working with. |
| 1:55.3 | So this is really going to be a very difficult situation to investigate. And bottom line is we really need more |
| 2:02.5 | information about who else might have contracted coronavirus in this particular situation. |
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