Fauci explains why he’s ‘absolutely not’ surprised Trump contracted COVID-19

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, says he was “absolutely not” surprised President Donald Trump contracted COVID-19.

The president was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Oct. 2 after testing positive for the coronavirus. He was released the following Monday and returned to the White House after receiving a cocktail of therapeutics and supplemental oxygen.

His doctors, who have kept information about his health largely under wraps, have since said he’s no longer a transmission risk.

Fauci said during an interview that aired Sunday evening on 60 Minutes that he was concerned for the president after watching the Rose Garden event in late September as Trump announced Amy Coney Barrett as his Supreme Court nominee.

“I was worried that he was going to get sick when I saw him in a completely precarious situation of crowded, no separation between people and almost nobody wearing a mask,” he said on 60 Minutes. “When I saw that on TV I said ‘Oh my goodness, nothing good can come out of that. That’s gotta be a problem.’ And then sure enough it turned out to be a superspreader event.”

Several people who attended the Rose Garden event have since tested positive for COVID-19, including former aide Kellyanne Conway and GOP Sens. Mike Lee and Thom Tillis. Fauci has previously called the ceremony a “superspreader event,” NBC News reports.

Photos of the outdoor event show few attendees wearing masks and many greeting each other with hugs or handshakes and ignoring social distancing guidelines. The event included gatherings inside the White House that also didn’t involve the use of masks or social distancing.

The president tested positive for COVID-19 just days later. White House physician Dr. Sean Conley hasn’t answered when Trump last tested negative prior to his diagnosis, which could provide insight into when he contracted the disease and who else may have been exposed.

Trump and Biden gathered for the first presidential debate on Sept. 29, just days before the president announced his positive test. Biden has since said he tested negative.

Trump has returned to the campaign trail after he says he was cleared by his doctors to do so — holding his first public event on the South Lawn of the White House last weekend and planning several more events during the weeks leading up to Election Day.

In the months before contracting COVID-19, Trump held several campaign rallies during which many supporters didn’t wear masks or observe social distancing.

Last week, Fauci said on CNN that Trump is likely no longer contagious but his rallies are “asking for trouble”

“Put aside all of the issues of what political implications a rally has and just put that aside and look at it purely in the context of public health,” Fauci said on CNN when asked how worried he is about the rallies. “We know that that is asking for trouble when you do that. We’ve seen that when you have situations of congregate settings where there are a lot of people without masks. The data speak for themselves.”