White House declines offers from CDC to help with contact tracing

The CDC referred all questions for comment to the White House. An administration spokesman, Judd Deere, said positive cases are taken seriously.

“The White House has plans and procedures in place that incorporate current CDC guidelines and best practices for limiting COVID-19 exposure and has established a robust contact tracing program led by the White House Medical Unit with CDC integration,” Deere said in a statement.

A White House official said a CDC epidemiologist has been detailed to the White House since March and is assisting.

The Washington, DC, government, where many of the attendees reside, has gotten no response from the White House despite multiple efforts by political and health officials to get information. Mayor Muriel Bowser said Monday there had been no “substantial contact.”

Susana Castillo, a spokeswoman for Bowser, said there have been “multiple attempts” since Friday to contact the White House at both the political and public health levels.

So far, the efforts appear mostly contained to White House staff who interacted with the President, first lady and top adviser Hope Hicks, and do not include many who attended their intimate meetings or crowded events. After reaching out to more than half a dozen people who came into contact with Trump over the past week, CNN has uncovered little more than a few phone calls and emails to potentially infected people encouraging them to get tested.

The absence of a robust contact tracing effort is emblematic of the White House’s relaxed approach to preventing the spread of the virus among its ranks. Until this week, masks were worn only infrequently by staffers and social distancing was absent at Trump’s events and within the corridors of the West Wing.

The White House has insisted a “full contact tracing, consistent with CDC guidelines” had been conducted following Trump’s New Jersey fundraiser on Thursday, and that similar efforts were taking place for other events.