Biden Campaigns in Michigan After Testing Negative for Coronavirus

By Staff, Agencies

US Democratic nominee Joe Biden made an abbreviated campaign visit to Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Friday, hours after he tested negative for the coronavirus in two separate tests.

“I’d like to start by acknowledging [and] sending my prayers for the health and safety of the first lady and president of the United States,” said Biden at an event hosted by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.

“This is not a matter of politics,” Biden continued. “It’s a bracing reminder to all of us that we have to take this virus seriously.”

US President Donald Trump and the first lady tested both positive for coronavirus infection late Thursday, as did top White House aide Hope Hicks. On Friday, Trump was transferred to Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Shortly after Biden’s speech, a top campaign adviser, Ron Klain, confirmed that the Biden campaign will halt its negative advertising against the president for the time being.

Biden told the assembled guests in Grand Rapids that he was late to the speech [originally scheduled for 1:30 p.m.] because he was awaiting the results of two separate coronavirus tests.

“We wanted to make sure that we’re doing everything by the numbers, so I got two, two COVID tests this morning. One in Delaware and one by the former White House doc who came up. And everything is clear, we wanted to make sure everything was clear before I came,” Biden said at the start of his remarks.

Biden also tweeted about the negative result earlier in the day.

The Biden campaign said the former vice president and his wife, Jill Biden, were both tested Friday morning out of an abundance of caution.

One negative test after potential exposure to the virus is not enough, however, to guarantee that a person hasn’t contracted Covid-19, said Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota.

“All the people who said they were at the debate or at the rally here in Minnesota, or at a fundraiser here in Minnesota this week, none of those tests really are that meaningful to me yet by saying they’re negative,” Osterholm said on CNBC’s “Power Lunch.”

Once a person is exposed, he added, it could be up to 14 days before they exhibit signs or symptoms of infection. “Most of the people will be showing signs of illness if they’re going to get ill and be positive by testing at seven or eight days.”

During the presidential debate Tuesday in Cleveland, Biden was in the same room as Trump was for nearly two hours on stage.

Neither man wore a mask on stage, nor did debate moderator Chris Wallace. But Trump and Biden’s podiums were placed approximately 8 feet apart, and they didn’t get close to one another. The Centers for Disease Control’s current guidance for social distancing is 6 feet.