After Gridiron Dinner, a covid outbreak among Washington A-list guests

By Wednesday morning, Reps. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) and Joaquin Castro (D-Tex.) and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo had announced they had received positive results on coronavirus tests after attending the dinner at the downtown Renaissance Washington Hotel. They were soon followed by Attorney General Merrick Garland, who requested a test Wednesday afternoon after learning he may have been exposed — and discovered that he, too, carried the virus.

Jamal Simmons, the communications director for Vice President Harris, also said Wednesday he had tested positive and is now isolating at home. But since he had been in close contact with Harris, she, too, would be consulting with a physician, her press secretary said.

In addition, about a half-dozen journalists as well as members of the White House and National Security Council staffs said they tested positive after the event. Their names are being withheld because they have not announced their status publicly.

How many of the infections began at the dinner and how serious the outbreak will prove to be remains unclear. Many of the guests have jobs that require regular testing that catches some asymptomatic cases, and all the guests were required to show proof of vaccination. Castro and Raimondo said they are suffering only mild symptoms while Schiff said he is “feeling fine” — and touted the value of vaccinates and boosters.

But the outbreak at the Gridiron — where some of the comic skits featured actors dressed as the coronavirus, like large, green bouncing balls with red frills — highlights the personal risk-benefit balancing act much of the country will be negotiating as the pandemic subsides.

Administration officials and many experts have said that, more than two years into the pandemic, individuals now have the tools they need to make about what level of risk they’re willing to tolerate — and that every social interaction, large or small, comes with a non-zero risk of covid-19 and other respiratory illnesses.

“The virus isn’t going to go anywhere. There’s not going to be any activity that isn’t going to have some level of covid risk associated with it,” said Amesh Adalja, an infectious-disease doctor and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security “People are out at bars every day. People are having dinners, watching sports games, doing whatever they want but when it happens to a celebrity or politician, then it becomes something you have to talk about.”

Several of the White House aides who tested positive did so after traveling to Poland last week with President Biden and before the Gridiron dinner. White House press secretary Jen Psaki — who attended the Gridiron dinner — reiterated Wednesday that all White House employees who come in proximity to Biden are regularly tested.

Biden didn’t attend the dinner but appeared via video.

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Tom DeFrank, a contributing editor at the National Journal and the president of the Gridiron Club, said in a statement that dinner guests were required to show proof of vaccination but that “a small number of our guests have reported positive tests since then.”

“We wish them a speedy recovery,” he said.

The white-tie-and-gowns dinner attracted about 630 guests, including members of Congress, the Cabinet, diplomatic corps, military and business.

Among those in attendance were Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert and Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Other guests included Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Roy Blunt (R-Missouri); Reps. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.) and Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.); Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and special presidential envoy John F. Kerry; Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell; Govs. Larry Hogan (R) of Maryland and Chris Sununu (R) of New Hampshire; and New York Mayor Eric Adams (D).

The possibility that senators at the dinner were infected could conceivably delay a Senate vote to confirm Biden’s Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson. A vote could come later this week; no delays have been announced.

The dinner’s guest list also included former NFL great Emmitt Smith; NBA Commissioner Adam Silver; CBS host Jane Pauley and her spouse, “Doonesbury” cartoonist Garry Trudeau; Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova; “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan, PBS NewsHour anchor Judy Woodruff; ABC…