July 21, 2022

President Joe Biden’s coronavirus diagnosis may have disrupted his day. But it’s not giving the White House any pause about how it’s handled the pandemic threat that still looms over his presidency.

White House officials on Thursday struck a defiant tone in the face of questions about Biden’s health and their own Covid protocols, downplaying the risks facing the president and dismissing fresh concerns about their approach to a virus that’s killed more than a million Americans — and is surging across the country once again.

In a briefing just hours after Biden tested positive, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre rejected suggestions the White House should step up its Covid precautions. She dismissed the need for tighter masking requirements and refused to say whether others in the West Wing had come down with the disease.

Read more: