A mask-free Donald Trump departed for Florida on Monday for his first campaign rally after his battle with COVID, where hundreds of supporters awaited him with few wearing face coverings or practicing social distancing.
The president didn’t take questions before he boarded Air Force One for the trip to the Orlando Sanford International Airport, where his mega rally will take place outdoors.
It’s his first trip on the plane since Thursday, October 1, when he attended a fundraiser at his golf club in Bedminister, New Jersey, the day before the White House announced he and the first lady tested positive for the coronavirus.
In Florida, hundreds of supporters waited for the president. They walked in close quarters as they queued up in a line that stretched down the street.
Few were wearing face masks even as COVID cases are on the rise in the state.
Campaign volunteers took temperatures and passed out masks, but the campaign did not require attendees to wear them.
Dr. Anthony Fauci said such rallies are ‘asking for trouble.’
He argued this it the ‘worst time‘ to have rallies.
‘When you look at what’s going on in the United States, it’s really very troublesome,’ he told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Monday. ‘A number of states right now are having increase in test positivity.’
Meanwhile, Trump’s personal physician Dr. Sean Conley, released an update on the president’s health before Trump took the stage, stating the president ‘is not infectious to others.’
Conley said President Trump tested negative for COVID on consecutive days but did not specify which dates. The White House still has not answered questions about when the president last tested negative before he was diagnosed with the disease.
President Trump ‘has tested negative, on consecutive days, using the Abbott BinaxNOW antigen card,’ Conely wrote in a memo released by the White House press office ahead of Trump’s rally.
‘It is important to note that this test was not used in isolation for the determination of the President’s current negative status. Repeatedly negative antigen tests, taken in context with additional clinical and laboratory data, including viral load, subgenomic RNA, and PCR cycle threshold measurements, as well as ongoing assessment of viral culture data, all indicate a lack of detectable viral replication,’ Conley noted.
‘The comprehensive data, all indicate a lack of detectable viral replication. This comprehensive data, in concert with the CDC’s guidelines for removal of transmission-based precautions, have informed our medical team’s assessment that the president is not infectious to others,‘ he concluded.
