2020 campaign and coronavirus: Precautions don’t apply for presidential candidates

CNN — Public health officials continue to warn older Americans that they are the most vulnerable to the novel coronavirus, but the nation’s three most prominent men in their 70s – Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and President Donald Trump – don’t seem to think the precautions apply to them. “I’m running for president of the United States and that requires a lot of work,” Sanders said, a deflection that was similar to the one he offered to CNN’s Jake Tapper over the weekend during an appearance on “State of the Union.” On Monday, Sanders refused to offer any specifics on how the risks associated with the pandemic were affecting his campaign’s operations, beyond noting that his campaign does not hold a rally “without first conferring with local public health officials.” “I think that every organization in America is taking a hard look at what the coronavirus will mean to their operations, and, yes, that is true of our campaign as well,” Sanders said, before stating that he didn’t want to talk about politics. Though Trump, 73, came into close contact with a conservative leader and two congressmen, US Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida and Doug Collins of Georgia, who interacted with an attendee at the Conservative Political Action Conference who later tested positive for the coronavirus, Vice President Mike Pence could not say during a briefing Monday night whether Trump had been tested for coronavirus.. “I just simply don’t know what the White House physician has recommended to the President,” Pence said during a White House briefing on the virus. He noted that the main task of the White House physician “is to see to the health and well-being of the President of the United States, and we’ll get you a very direct answer on that.” Later Monday, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement that Trump has not been tested for the coronavirus. “At the same time, we will continue to run an aggressive, national campaign to win the Democratic nomination and defeat Donald Trump,” a Biden campaign official told CNN’s Eric Bradner.