The New York Times reports:

Trump continues to reject guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to wear a mask when meeting with groups of people. But a senior administration official said the president was spooked that his valet, who is among those who serve him food, had not been wearing a mask. And he was annoyed to learn that Ms. Miller tested positive and has been growing irritated with people who get too close to him, the official said.

President Trump in a meeting with senior military leaders on Saturday. He has rejected his own government’s guidance to wear a mask when meeting with groups of people.Credit…Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times
Two senior administration officials said there were no plans to keep Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence apart because of a concern that they both could be incapacitated by Covid-19.

Concern about the spread of the virus in the White House has temporarily sidelined three of the most high-profile members of the coronavirus task force — Dr. Robert R. Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Dr. Stephen Hahn, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration; and Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Dr. Redfield and Dr. Hahn announced over the weekend that they would self-quarantine for two weeks after coming in contact with an infected member of the president’s staff. Both attended a meeting in the Situation Room last week where Ms. Miller was present, and they said they would continue to participate in the response effort from home. Dr. Fauci said he, too, had begun a “modified quarantine” after what he called a “low risk” contact with an infected staff member.

Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, said that all three doctors would participate on Tuesday by videoconference in a previously scheduled hearing on the virus response and efforts to reopen the economy.

Ms. Miller, who was a fixture at the White House during the weeks when the task force was holding daily briefings, received her positive diagnosis on Friday morning but had been negative on previous tests as recently as the day before. It is unclear whether the earlier results might have been in error.

Like other members of the White House staff, Ms. Miller did not regularly wear a mask while at work. On Thursday, just hours after receiving a negative diagnosis, she was seen on television talking without a mask within a few feet of several reporters, all of whom were wearing one. [Continue reading…]