White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows stunned the nation on Sunday when he said in an CNN appearance that the federal government was not going to make any efforts to control the spread of the coronavirus. He explained, “it’s just like the flu,” which medical experts have said over and over, is not true. Here is Mr. Meadows speaking with Jake Tapper. The comments came at the same time that Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff has tested positive for the virus, along with 4 others in Pence’s close circle. Pence’s office said that he and his wife Karen Pence have both tested negative for the virus. David O’Malley, a Pence office spokesperson said, “the vice president will maintain his schedule in accordance with the C.D.C. guidelines for essential personnel.” According to the New York Times, “Two people briefed on the matter said that the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, had sought to keep news of the outbreak from becoming public.” 

Democratic Nominee Joe Biden blasted the Trump campaign for its failure to curb the virus and also to allow Pence to keep campaigning in light of the outbreak in his office. In a statement responding to Meadows’ CNN remarks, Biden’s campaign said that the Trump administration, “stunningly admitted this morning that the administration has given up on even trying to control this pandemic, that they’ve given up on their basic duty to protect the American people.” Infectious diseases expert Dr. Sandra Nelson of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital told Huffington Post, “With multiple members of his office testing positive, this would be considered a work-based cluster. Anytime there is a cluster like this, I would advise that the entire office transition to remote work for 14 days.” Biden’s campaign has created a website to showcase Trump’s failure on the coronavirus called TrumpCovidPlan.com which points to a page that simply says, “Not Found,” and adds in small type, “The Trump plan to defeat the Coronavirus and reopen safely does not exist,” along with a timeline of Trump’s many comments claiming that the virus would disappear on its own. 

The President who only recently recovered from the virus has continued to travel around the nation at breakneck speed, encouraging his followers to congregate in large crowds without masks. In the week before the election he is hitting up numerous battleground states like Pennsylvania and even traditionally Republican states like Texas where the polling is close. On Monday in Allentown, Pennsylvania he spoke as he has repeatedly done, about the virus going away. Meanwhile the U.S. has had the highest number of virus infections in the past two days. 

While Trump narrowed his lead in 9 out of 12 swing states as per new polling figures, former Joe Biden remains in the lead in 10 out of those 12 states. That lead is small though.