October 05, 2020 09:36 AM UTC

Oct-COVID Surprise Goes On: Kayleigh McEnany Tests Positive

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Hill reports, we can confirm that a relentlessly sunny disposition is no defense against the coronavirus, as White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany tests (so far, anyway) asymptomatically positive:

“After testing negative consistently, including every day since Thursday, I tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday morning while experiencing no symptoms. No reporters, producers or members of the press are listed as close contacts by the White House Medical Unit,” she said in a statement.

“As an essential worker, I have worked diligently to provide needed information to the American people at this time,” she continued. “With my recent positive test, I will begin the quarantine process and will continue working on behalf of the American people remotely.”

McEnany is just the latest Trump insider to test positive among those who attended the White Rose Rose Garden ceremony on September 26 to announce the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court–an event that will now live on in epidemiological infamy as President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, and a growing number of attendees get sick with COVID-19.

We of course hope McEnany joins the large percentage in her age cohort who remain asymptomatic even after testing positive–and like youngsters everywhere who risk others more than themselves in their response to contracting the infection, we hope she keeps her at-risk friends and family safe by strictly honoring the rules of her quarantine.

We can all agree in retrospect that this “superspreader” event was not such a good idea, but we do have more sympathy for those for whom attendance was a job requirement. That goes not just for McEnany, but White House correspondents who have tested positive after being present for McEnany’s maskless briefings.

As always, let your schadenfreude be tempered by the degree of compassion you consider suitable.