Was Mike Pence exposed to coronavirus?
Vice President Mike Pence, who President Trump put in charge of the country's coronavirus-fighting efforts, met with students last week at a Florida high school where one student has been quarantined for exposure to coronavirus. Pence shook hands with cadets at the Sarasota Military Academy on Friday, and since then, a boy from the school had been quarantined after his mother was exposed to a person who'd tested positive for coronavirus, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports.
The Sarasota Military Academy made a Facebook post about the quarantined student and mother on Monday, saying both of them "currently are not showing any symptoms" and promising it would disinfect the school. School maintenance crews also say they had disinfected the school about 10 days earlier, before Pence's visit, as a normal precaution during flu season, per the Herald-Tribune. The school assured the Herald-Tribune that the student hadn't met Pence last week. "We have been in touch with the Pentagon, so we assured them that particular cadet was not present for that occasion," the school's executive director Col. Christina Bowman said.
Two other people in Florida have tested positive for coronavirus, including one in Manatee County, which borders Sarasota. While it seems unlikely Pence was exposed to the virus, it may just be a matter of time before politicians — who are constantly meeting people from around the country — are.
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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.
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