Capitol Lacks Tests for Returning Senators While White House Tests Many in Trump’s Circle
As senators prepare to return on Monday, Congress’s doctor warned that he does not have the capacity to test all 100 for coronavirus. At the White House, the president and many of his aides are tested repeatedly.
By Sheryl Gay Stolberg, Nicholas Fandos and Katie Rogers
May 1, 2020
WASHINGTON — Dr. Brian P. Monahan, the tight-lipped doctor who attends to Congress, sent up on Thursday what some have construed as a warning: His office, he told senior Republican officials on a private conference call, cannot screen all 100 senators for the coronavirus when they return to work on Monday.
Two miles down Pennsylvania Avenue at the White House, the story is very different. President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are tested frequently, aides who come into close contact with them are tested weekly and the list of people who need to be tested daily keeps expanding, according to officials familiar with the process.
… At the White House, the medical unit is using a rapid-testing kit developed by Abbott, which yields results in about five minutes. But Dr. Monahan told the Republican aides on Thursday that he lacked such equipment, and that it would take at least two days to get test results. …
…Shortly after 11 p.m. Friday, Mr. Trump’s health secretary, Alex M. Azar II, made an announcement on Twitter: “Good news: as the Senate reconvenes to do important work for the American people during this public health crisis, we have now received an initial request and are sending 3 Abbott point of care testing machines and 1,000 tests for their use.”
Whether that will lead to the testing of asymptomatic senators is unclear. Dr. Monahan, a strait-laced Navy rear admiral who has been the attending physician of the Capitol since 2009, has turned down dozens of requests for tests from House members and senators who have not exhibited symptoms, according to a congressional official with knowledge of the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss it.
His attitude is by the book: no symptoms, no test, which is in keeping with the C.D.C.’s guidelines for testing. In detailed guidance issued to lawmakers on Friday, Dr. Monahan advised that members of Congress wear masks or facial coverings when they cannot stand six feet apart from one another.
… Visitors to the White House are also tested before they are allowed to be close to the president, including groups of business leaders and governors this week like John Bel Edwards of Louisiana.
“The governor and Alex Billioux, who is our assistant secretary of public health, both were tested for Covid-19 when they arrived and before they could go into the White House,” Christina Stephens, a spokeswoman for Mr. Edwards, said on Friday. “They also had their temperatures checked several times before entering the Oval Office.”
Reporters who have been traveling with Mr. Pence have undergone coronavirus testing and journalists traveling with Mr. Trump to Arizona next week have been advised that they will be tested before boarding Air Force One.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California had not been tested as of Friday. Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the top House Republican, has, but at the White House, where Mr. McCarthy attended an event with the president last week. …