President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday and isolated himself with mild symptoms, prompting the White House to show that the 79-year-old president can overcome the virus and continue working because he is vaccinated and has received your booster doses.
Dressed in a navy blue blazer and oxford shirt, Biden recorded a video from the White House balcony to send the message that he will be fine and that the United States should stay calm and move on. He admits that the pandemic is a national trauma that has killed more than a million Americans and alarmed millions more, and his words in the video he posted on Twitter were meant to reassure the public.
“I’m fine, I’m working hard,” Biden said as the sound of an ice cream truck sounded in the distance. “In the meantime, I thank you for your concern. And keep the faith. Everything will be fine”.
The diagnosis laid bare one of the inevitable risks for a president who has insisted on trying to reconnect with the world and ordinary Americans after a prolonged lockdown. It was a reminder that COVID-19, with its mutations and subvariants, remains a threat, and the White House also viewed the occasion as an opportunity to demonstrate progress in combating the disease.
Government officials reminded the population that the prognosis for Biden is positive because he has received all the doses of the vaccines for which he is eligible, including two injections of the original schedule and two boosters. She also receives treatment with Paxlovid, an antiviral medication that serves to prevent more severe symptoms.
The White House COVID-19 response coordinator, Dr. Ashish Jha, told reporters that he had a phone conversation with Biden and that the president “sounded great.”
“He’s been working all morning,” Jha noted. “He hadn’t even been able to finish his breakfast because he was busy. I encouraged him to finish his breakfast.”
Biden’s physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, said in a letter that the president had a runny nose and “fatigue, with occasional hacking cough, which began yesterday afternoon.” The president will remain in isolation for five days and will be able to resume his normal activities once he tests negative for a diagnostic test, Jha said.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the president’s symptoms “very mild,” noting that Biden has been in contact by phone with staff members and participating in their scheduled meetings by phone and email. Zoom from the presidential residence.
Asked where he might have contracted the disease, Jean-Pierre replied: “I don’t think that matters.” He also said the White House is more focused on how Biden is feeling and would initiate contact tracing.
The White House took pains to show that the president was busy working despite his diagnosis, and Biden tweeted a photo of himself taking calls from the Treaty Room of the presidential residence.
The president spoke by phone with lawmakers in Pennsylvania to apologize for having to cancel his trip scheduled for Thursday to the city of Wilkes-Barre, in which he was going to promote his plans for crime prevention. He also called Rep. Jim Clyburn to wish him a happy birthday and congratulate him on receiving an award from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
___
Associated Press writers Shelley Adler, Seung Min Kim, Fatima Hussein and Mike Householder contributed to this report. Householder did it from Detroit.
–
