Schumer Accuses White House of ‘Deliberately’ Hiding Information About COVID-19 Outbreak

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is calling on White House officials to be more transparent about the 🦠Coronavirus Outbreak that appears to stem from a super-spreader event in the Rose Garden.

In a letter, Schumer and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wa.) wrote, “We write seeking information on the steps the White House is taking to address the COVID-19 super-spreader event that occurred at the White House complex last week and the outbreak that has hospitalized the President of the United States and infected numerous White House staff.”

The senators said it is crucial that those who were at the White House during the Rose Garden event — to announce the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court — get “accurate and transparent” about their potential exposure to the virus.

However, they said, “The White House has conducted itself in a secretive manner and shown a complete lack of regard for public health and safety. Critical information about the health of the President and his associates appears to have been deliberately withheld in order to minimize public scrutiny and awareness.”

“And it is still unclear when the President or his advisors first knew there was an outbreak,” they added.

Additionally, they cited press reports that the White House was conducting very little contact tracing and charged that there has been little guidance about the risk of asymptomatic spread of the virus.

“The opaque and secretive handling of information related to these events constitutes an obvious threat to public health and is unacceptable in a free nation whose elected leaders must be transparent with and accountable to the American people,” the letter continued.