Reporter possibly infected on Air Force One says White House hasn't contacted him since

The New York Times' Michael Shear tested positive for COVID-19 after traveling with President Trump on Saturday, Sept. 26 — the day of Amy Coney Barrett's Rose Garden nomination that may have become a superspreader event. But even though he might have given COVID-19 to the president or gotten it from him, Shear tells CNN he hasn't heard from the White House since.

It's been ten days since Shear flew with Trump on Air Force One, but "I have not been contacted by the White House," or asked "where I was or who I talked to or who else I might have infected," Shear said. He then detailed how Trump even spoke to reporters on the plane without a mask on, though if Trump had contracted the virus that day, medical experts suggest he probably wasn't very infectious yet.

While Shear wasn't at the nomination event Barrett earlier that day, Trump or other members of the White House press corps could have contracted the coronavirus there. As New York Magazine reported Monday, Pastor Greg Laurie of California tested positive for COVID-19 after attending a prayer march on the National Mall alongside Vice President Mike Pence and thousands of marchers, many of them maskless. Laurie later attended Barrett's nomination, and since, several senators, advisers, and reporters who were there have tested positive.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up