Should Trump get a COVID-19 test?
The president could have come in contact with these coronavirus-positive people
Many people are calling on President Trump to get himself tested for the novel coronavirus even though he insists that he is healthy.
The president has been in contact with a number of people who have tested positive for the virus, including Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's press secretary, Fabio Wajngarten, who was diagnosed days after meeting Trump in Florida. The two took a photo together.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez also tested positive for the virus Friday.
"I was informed that I have tested positive for COVID-19," Suarez said in a Friday statement. "I feel completely healthy and strong. However, I am doing the responsible thing by working with the County’s Health Department to take every precaution to ensure that not only my family is healthy, but everyone I have come in contact with is healthy, as well."
"During the president’s visit to Miami on Monday and Tuesday, I was in the same room as the president and the infected staff member," Suarez said in an earlier statement.
Initial reports from Brazil indicated that Bolsonaro himself had also tested positive, which his son, Eduardo, appeared to confirm to FOX News earlier Friday. He said further testing was being done to confirm the diagnosis and they are expecting the second set of testing results later in the day.
Now, however, Eduardo is telling FOX News that Bolsonaro tested negative in a subsequent appearance on "America's Newsroom."
Additionally, Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton tested positive for coronavirus after meeting with first daughter Ivanka Trump and Attorney General William Barr last week.
Fox News medical correspondent Dr. Marc Siegel told FOX Business' Stuart Varney on Friday that a presidential quarantine is "something that must be considered" when asked whether the president should get tested for COVID-19.
Healthy people carrying COVID-19 have appeared to show no symptoms of having the virus for up to two weeks. It can live in the air for several hours and on some surfaces for as long as two to three days, tests by the U.S. government and other scientists have found.
"I want to make this even more complicated. Unfortunately, it isn't simply getting somebody tested to make sure. Anyone who had close ccontact with the Brazilian President — the test may not be positive initially. You may actually have to self quarantine if you had close contact. Now, what do I deifne close contact as? One handshake, I wouldn't," Siegel said on "Varney & Co."
Trump attended a White House meeting Friday to address concerns about the possibility of the president catching the virus.
Several members of Congress self-quarantined after coming in contact with COVID-19-positive people, including representatives Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., Doug Collins, R-Ga., Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., Julia Brownley, D-Calif., Mark Meadows, R-N.C., Don Beyer, D-Va.), and senators Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Rick Scott, R-Fla. None have tested positive.
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ Dr. Anthony Fauci told ABC News' "Good Morning America" Friday that the decision for the president to get tested for COVID-19 is ultimately up to Trump's White House physician, whom Facui called "an extremely competent individual."
"It depends on the circumstances, but I think we should depend on the guidelines of the CDC," he said.
He added that he thinks the virus could be present in the United States for up to eight weeks.