October 5 Trump Covid-19 news

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease, said on CNN Monday that period from when someone is able to spread the coronavirus to when they show symptoms varies from person to person, and the general guideline is that it’s safe for a person to go out 10 days after they developed symptoms.

But Fauci declined to comment about President Trump’s SUV ride on Sunday, a few days after Trump developed symptoms. 

Fauci said that there have been studies that tried to isolate the virus when people are in the disease state or recovering and they don’t have it. 

He said the period when someone is contagious is “usually before they get symptomatic and for a few days thereafter."

When asked by Berman about the President riding in an SUV on Sunday about four days after he reportedly showed symptoms, Fauci responded, “I don’t want to really go there, John, and comment on that.”

The nation’s top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci has worked on a number of outbreaks, including HIV/AIDS, Ebola and Zika virus. Even though every outbreak has been intense, he says, there has been “nothing to the intensity that we're experiencing now” and that what’s different this time is “a very divisive society.”

“You always have a degree of that when you have outbreaks as we've been in the past but nothing to the intensity that we're experiencing now with Covid-19," Fauci said.

Basing decisions and actions on science is critical, he said.

“Make sure you stay on that path because otherwise things don't work out right,” he added.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is calling for federal cooperation as authorities continue to contact trace after President Trump’s big-dollar fundraiser at his New Jersey golf club Thursday night despite the President and staff knowing he had been exposed to coronavirus.

“We need everybody to punch at their weight here,” he added.

The President announced he and first lady Melania Trump tested positive for coronavirus roughly eight hours after leaving the fundraiser, when he was back at the White House.

Murphy also emphasized the need for everyone at the Trump event to self-quarantine.

“This borders on reckless in terms of exposing people not just in New Jersey, but looks like from folks around the country, who have now scattered by the way,” he added.

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Wall Street opened higher on Monday after President Trump’s doctors said he might be released from the hospital today. 

That said, there’s still a lot of room for volatility. Aside from the President’s health, hopes for a new round of fiscal stimulus and uncertainty surrounding the election in four weeks are keeping investors on their toes.

Here's how things looked at the opening bell:

Dr. Anthony Fauci said everyone who was at the White House Rose Garden event should “absolutely” be contacted by contact tracers.

Speaking to CNN’s John Berman on New Day on Monday, Fauci said he is not involved in the contact tracing efforts underway.

“I don't know what the process of the contact tracing is that's going on at the White House,” he said. “In general, the CDC is very much involved with the local authority.”

Berman said he was surprised to hear that New York Times reporter Michael Shear – who did not attend the event, but was at the White House that Saturday, traveled on Air Force One that night, and has now tested positive for Covid-19 – has not been contacted for contact tracing. “Yes, absolutely,” Fauci replied.

Though Fauci wouldn’t comment specifically about the contact tracing efforts, he did say, “But the one thing we do know is that when you get cases, if you have a situation where someone comes into contact and is infected, and you know that there are people around him, that it the important public health measure is to do the identification, isolation and contact tracing.”

Fauci said the goal is “so that you can get people who have been exposed, to go into the appropriate quarantine, get tested and do the things that are very clearly delineated in the CDC guidelines.”

Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that New York Times reporter Michael Shear attended the Rose Garden event. Shear did not attend the event, but was at the White House that Saturday. 

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President Donald Trump was demanding to go back to the White House on Sunday, two sources familiar with the situation told CNN.

“He is done with the hospital,” one of the sources said of Trump’s mood yesterday.

Trump is concerned the sight of him being hospitalized “makes him look weak,” the other source said.

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said earlier this morning that a determination by Trump's doctors as to whether the President would return to the White House would be made later today.

President Trump's campaign has been thrown into chaos, adjusting its tactics, messaging and work environment following Trump and a number of top aides and political allies' positive tests for coronavirus.

Trump is in the hospital. His campaign manager, Bill Stepien, and the Republican National Committee chair, Ronna McDaniel, contracted the virus. All of the campaign's planned rallies and fundraisers featuring the President and his family are on hold. And Trump's ability to debate Democratic rival Joe Biden again is uncertain.

Trailing Biden with one month left in the 2020 race, Trump is now stuck in a position he's spent months trying to avoid: Faced with an election that is all about the coronavirus pandemic, with no way to change the topic.

Biden meanwhile has committed to getting tested more frequently as he continues in-person campaigning in the final month before Election Day. He is campaigning in Miami today, delivering remarks at 4 p.m. ET focused on the economy and the Hispanic community. 

With ballots already available in 35 states and voting beginning in the swing states of Arizona, Iowa, New Hampshire and Ohio within the next week, millions of votes could be cast with Trump sick with a virus he has downplayed for months.

The next time Trump and Biden are scheduled to meet in person for a debate is October 15, for a town hall-style event in Miami. But it's unclear now whether Trump will be physically able to participate.

The Commission on Presidential Debates is already preparing to make a change that is effectively a rebuke of Trump, whose guests declined a Cleveland Clinic doctor's request that they wear masks at the first debate on Tuesday.

A source familiar with the matter said the commission will announce that everyone in the debate halls, except the candidates and moderator, must remained masked until conclusion — and those not wearing masks will be escorted out.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN this morning that he has not been involved in the care of President Trump and declined to comment on the status of his condition following the President's Covid-19 diagnosis Friday.

Fauci praised the physicians that have been treating Trump at Walter Reed medical center, saying he is getting "optimal care."

"I might comment that my colleagues that I know, including Sean Conley, are very good physicians and very qualified so I am really confident that the President of the United States is it getting the optimal care that you can get with the team over at Walter Reed," Fauci said.

Watch Dr. Fauci:

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said a decision about President Trump’s discharge from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center will be made later today after a consultation between Trump and his doctors, but he added that Trump has made “unbelievable progress.”

“We are still optimistic that based on his unbelievable progress and how strong he’s been in terms of his fight against this Covid-19 disease, that he will be released, but that decision won't be made until later today,” he added.

Later in the interview, Meadows said it's his understanding the earliest time this decision may be made would be this afternoon.