WHAT PANDEMIC?

Trump Speech Attendees Say They Weren’t Even Asked if They Had a Cough

A mostly maskless crowd crammed onto the White House South Lawn for the president’s acceptance speech.

If you’re going to invite 1,500 people into a crowded space during a raging pandemic, it would be fair to have some level of interest in knowing if any of them had the incredibly contagious disease. But, according to guests who attended President Donald Trump’s Republican National Convention speech Thursday night, no one even bothered to ask them if they had any COVID-19 symptoms or took their temperatures. The mostly maskless crowd crammed onto the White House South Lawn for the president’s formal acceptance speech, sitting side by side. Trump campaign and convention officials admitted to The Washington Post that the vast majority of the crowd were not given rapid coronavirus tests, saying it was impossible to test so many people. Two anonymous guests told the newspaper they weren’t even questioned as to whether they had any symptoms, such as coughs or had their temperature taken—which has become standard fare for most Americans entering businesses, health facilities, or any places that have actual people in them. Amesh Adalja, an ­infectious-disease expert at Johns Hopkins University, said: “When you see this type of event... it cements the fact that they have never taken this outbreak seriously from the beginning.”