Some of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s top staffers have tested positive for COVID-19 despite being vaccinated against the virus. Axios reported the news Tuesday morning, so far Pelosi has not tested positive for the virus after attending a rooftop reception with the aides.
The article makes a careful note to imply that the government staffer’s health is of more importance than any average American’s and that government workers have different protocols in place.
While both individuals are vaccinated and mildly symptomatic, they illustrate how Americans inoculated against the coronavirus can still contract and, potentially, unknowingly transmit the virus — even at the highest levels of the nation’s government.
“We know that there will be breakthrough cases, but as this instance shows, cases in vaccinated individuals are typically mild,” a White House official told Axios.
Drew Hammill, deputy chief of staff to Pelosi, told Axios in a statement: “Yesterday, a fully-vaccinated senior spokesperson in the Speaker’s press office tested positive for COVID after contact with members of the Texas state legislature last week.”
The positive test results come after multiple Texas Democrats also tested positive for the virus after fleeing the Lone Star state and traveling to Washington, D.C. by chartering a plane. Photos of the group show multiple people without masks while on the plane, meanwhile Americans are forced to wear masks in every airport across the country.
Axios waited until the fourth paragraph of its article to specify that the reception Speaker Pelosi attended was for the Texas Democrats who fled their taxpayer-funded jobs to deny the state legislature the required quorum to vote on an election bill in the state.
Axios also appeared to point out that government employees are better than most Americans and are apparently less susceptible to germs:
“While both individuals are vaccinated and mildly symptomatic, they illustrate how Americans inoculated against the coronavirus can still contract and, potentially, unknowingly transmit the virus — even at the highest levels of the nation’s government.”
