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The Genetic Signature of the White House Covid-19 Outbreak
The White House did not do contact tracing for the cluster of Covid-19 cases last month that included President Donald Trump among many others. As a way to better understand the outbreak, the New York Times teamed up with geneticists to sequence the viruses of two infected Times journalists who were believed to have been infected while covering the White House.
“The study reveals, for the first time, the genetic sequence of the virus that may have infected Mr. Trump and dozens of others, researchers said. That genome is a crucial clue that may allow researchers to identify where the outbreak originated and whether it went on to infect others across the country,” the Times reports. Whether that information will be used to better understand the outbreak is unlikely, given the White House’s disinterest in tracing it so far. Read more below.
