Fauci backs out of White House Correspondents’ Dinner over Covid risk – NBC News
WASHINGTON — Dr. Anthony Fauci has decided not to attend the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday amid concerns about Covid, a senior administration official confirmed to NBC News.
Fauci, 81, President Joe Biden’s top Covid adviser and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told The New York Times on Tuesday that he decided not to go to the dinner “because of my individual assessment of my personal risk.” His decision was first reported by CNN.
Biden, 79, and first lady Jill Biden, 70, plans to attend the dinner at the Washington Hilton on Saturday, the first time the event has been held since 2019 because of the pandemic. It would also mark the first time a sitting president will be at the dinner since Barack Obama attended in 2016. Trevor Noah, the host of “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central, will be the featured entertainer at the dinner.
A few thousand people have attended the dinner in previous years, held in a large ballroom at the Hilton hotel. Washington, D.C., lifted its mask mandate for many indoor public venues in February.
Covid cases have been rising again due to the omicron sub-variant that has been spreading across the country.
Vice President Kamala Harris, 57, tested positive for Covid on Tuesday and was not exhibiting any coronavirus symptoms, her press secretary, Kirsten Allen, said. An adviser to the vice president later said Harris’ physician prescribed the therapeutic drug Paxlovid, a Covid antiviral pill from Pfizer that has been cleared for use in people at high risk for developing severe illness.
A source familiar with the matter said Fauci made the decision not to attend the dinner before Harris tested positive for Covid.
Biden’s experience at the dinner will be different than that of other guests like Fauci. The president will be seated at the head table, on a dais, and will only be interacting with the people on stage, not the larger crowd at the dinner. Fauci would have been seated on the main floor and would be in closer proximity to more people.
Some experts have questioned whether the dinner should even take place because of the increase in Covid cases. In early April, at least 72 people tested positive for the disease after attending the Gridiron Dinner in Washington.
