OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
President Joe Biden has tested positive for COVID again.
The president made the announcement on Saturday in a message on Twitter.
“Folks, today I tested positive for COVID again. This happens with a small minority of folks. I’ve got no symptoms but I am going to isolate for the safety of everyone around me. I’m still at work, and will be back on the road soon,” he said.
Folks, today I tested positive for COVID again.
This happens with a small minority of folks.
I’ve got no symptoms but I am going to isolate for the safety of everyone around me.
I’m still at work, and will be back on the road soon.
— President Biden (@POTUS) July 30, 2022
“As described last week, acknowledging the potential for so-called “rebound” COVID positivity observed in a small percentage of patients treated with PAXLOVID the President increased his testing cadence, both to protect people around him and to assure early detection of any return of viral replication,” White House Doctor Dr. Kevin O’Connor said in a letter.
It was less than two weeks ago that the White House announced Biden had tested positive for COVID the first time.
“I talked to him just a few minutes ago. He’s doing fine, he’s feeling good,” the first lady said of her husband.
The first lady has tested negative for COVID after the president tested positive, Fox News reported.
“This morning, President Biden tested positive for COVID-19,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. “He is fully vaccinated and twice boosted and experiencing very mild symptoms. He has begun taking Paxlovid. Consistent with CDC guidelines, he will isolate at the White House and will continue to carry out all of his duties fully during that time. He has been in contact with members of the White House staff by phone this morning, and will participate in his planned meetings at the White House this morning via phone and Zoom from the residence.”
“Consistent with White House protocol for positive COVID cases, which goes above and beyond CDC guidance, he will continue to work in isolation until he tests negative,” she said. “Once he tests negative, he will return to in-person work.”
“Out of an abundance of transparency, the White House will provide a daily update on the President’s status as he continues to carry out the full duties of the office while in isolation,” she said.
Per standard protocol for any positive case at the White House, the White House Medical Unit will inform all close contacts of the president during the day Thursday, including any members of Congress and any members of the press who interacted with Biden during his travel Wednesday, the statement added.
On Wednesday the president made what sounded like another health announcement, but it was another gaffe.
The White House has issued a response after President Joe Biden went viral on Wednesday for appearing to claim he has cancer.
While speaking in Somerset, Massachusetts, Biden talked about his childhood and oil pollution growing up in Delaware, saying he wanted to create energy jobs and enact more measures to protect the climate.
“Five years ago, this towering power plant that once stood with cooling towers 500 feet high closed down,” Biden said. “The coal plant at Brayton Point was the largest of its kind in New England. 1,500 megawatts of power, enough to power one in five Massachusetts homes and businesses.”
“I just lived up the road in an apartment complex when we moved to Delaware, and just up the road a little school I went to, Holy Rosary grade school, and because it was a four-lane highway that was accessible, my mother drove us and rather than us be able to walk,” Biden said. “And guess what? The first frost, you know what was happening, you’d have to put on your windshield wipers to get literally the oil slick off the window.”
Biden said in his speech that he “has” cancer — present tense.
WATCH:
President Joe Biden to crowd: "I and so damn many other people I grew up with have cancer."
What? The president has cancer? pic.twitter.com/b9fwgF2xnT
— Carmine Sabia (@CarmineSabia) July 20, 2022
The White House clarified that he was referring to minor skin cancer removals before his presidency, claiming that Biden “mistakenly stated (present tense) that he has cancer.”
Update: WH official tells me POTUS was referring to past removal of skin cancer in his remarks from Massachusetts.
Biden mistakenly stated (present tense) that he has cancer.
— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) July 20, 2022
Earlier this week, a former top official in President Bill Clinton’s administration became the latest Democrat to speak out against Biden.
Robert Reich, the 76-year-old former Labor secretary, referenced his own age to counsel the president not to run again in 2024, citing his “dwindling capacities.”
“It’s not death that’s the worrying thing about a second Biden term,” Reich wrote in an op-ed for The Guardian regarding Biden, who is 79. “It’s the dwindling capacities that go with aging.”
The op-ed itself ran under a curt headline: “As a 76-year-old let me say: Joe Biden is too old to run again.”
“Biden’s secret service detail can worry about his wallet, and he’s got a teleprompter for wayward nouns, but I’m sure he’s experiencing some diminution in the memory department,” Reich continued as the far-left figure turned the issue political.
“I’m also noticing less patience, perhaps because of an unconscious ‘use by’ timer now clicking away. I’m less tolerant of long waiting lines, automated phone menus, and Republicans,’ he wrote, adding: “How the hell does Biden maintain tact or patience when he has to deal with Joe Manchin?”
