Thread by @svdate

NEW -- Trump honestly seemed to believe that if he only ever had contact with people who had tested negative, he couldn't possibly get sick himself.

Respectfully, it was an idiotic thing to believe. Obviously.

huffpost.com/entry/trump-te…

Instead of using a test with an effective 10% to 20% “false negative” rate as a screening tool, as it was designed, the WH used it as the sole means of determining whether employees and visitors were COVID-free ― and rejected other measures, such as masks and social distancing.

“They tried to test their way out of COVID, and you can’t do that,” said William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. “They were looking for a magical way out, a magic wand.”

That the plan could not work was obvious to him and his colleagues in the field from the start, Schaffner said, but it became obvious to the world in the aftermath of a large gathering at the White House on Sept. 26 to celebrate a Supreme Court nomination.

From a former administration official:

Here is Trump, explaining his logic:

“We get tested. I’m tested. I have people tested. When people come into the Oval Office, it’s like a big deal. No matter who they are ― if they’re heads of countries, they all get tested. So I’m in sort of a different position.”

The big problem: There is a 1-2 day window during which someone exposed to the virus is contagious and spreading it WHILE ALSO showing negative on the 15-min test the White House has relied upon.

Even if they switched to a more precise PCR test that took several hours to get a result, such a window would still exist, although it would be shorter.

Trump, who, during a visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta this spring, claimed to have a full understanding of medical issues, appeared not to grasp the implications of how a person could test negative one day but positive the next.