トランプ氏、討論会前にコロナ陽性　元側近が回顧録で暴露

【ワシントンＡＦＰ＝時事】ドナルド・トランプ前米大統領が昨年、ジョー・バイデン氏との大統領選討論会の３日前に、新型コロナウイルス検査で陽性になっていたことが明らかになった。英紙ガーディアンが１日、元側近が近く出版する回顧録の内容として報じた。（写真はドナルド・トランプ氏）
　トランプ氏は２回目の検査では陰性になったものの、その後１週間足らずで症状が悪化し、緊急入院を強いられた。
　ガーディアン紙は、トランプ政権で首席補佐官を務めたマーク・メドウズ氏が著した回顧録「Ｔｈｅ　Ｃｈｉｅｆ＇ｓ　Ｃｈｉｅｆ」を発売前に入手。それによると、トランプ氏はバイデン氏と昨年９月２９日に行った第１回テレビ討論会の３日前に検査で陽性となった。軽い症状があったが、風邪とみなされたという。
　ホワイトハウスはこの直前、エイミー・コニー・バレット氏の連邦最高裁判所判事への指名発表会を開催。会場では要人がマスクを着けずに交流し、新型ウイルスの集団感染が起きたことが後に判明した。
　メドウズ氏によると、直後に行われた２度目の検査はより正確な種類のもので、結果は陰性だった。トランプ氏はこれを、その夜の選挙集会や３日後の討論会などの予定を続行する「太鼓判」として受け取ったという。
　討論会の主催者によると、両候補者は会場入りが遅れたため検査ができなかったが、それぞれ事前に検査を行ったと申告していた。しかしトランプ陣営は、陽性反応が出たことについては主催者やバイデン氏側に伝えなかった。
　メドウズ氏は回顧録の中で、２度目の検査で陰性となったトランプ氏の予定を中断しなかった理由について、「市民を不安にさせたくなかった」とつづった。
　トランプ氏は１日に出した声明で、書籍の内容を否定。「第１回討論会の以前や最中に新型コロナウイルスに感染していたという話はフェイク・ニュースだ。検査の結果、討論会前には新型コロナウイルスに感染していなかったことが判明している」と主張した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/12/02-12:51）

Donald Trump had a positive Covid-19 test, quickly followed by a negative, shortly before he went into a presidential debate with challenger Joe Biden last year, according to a new book.
Despite getting the all clear in that second test, Trump would get so sick with Covid-19 within a week that he had to be urgently hospitalized.
The testing detail emerged Wednesday in a report by The Guardian, which obtained an advance copy of The Chief's Chief, a memoir by Trump's chief of staff at the time, Mark Meadows.
Trump tested positive three days before his first debate against Biden on September 29, 2020, and exhibited mild symptoms of what was taken to be a cold, the upcoming book recounts.
According to Meadows' account, the result came through just as Trump was leaving the White House for a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on September 26.
This followed a packed celebration at the White House for newly confirmed Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett -- a party where VIPs mingled maskless and that subsequently was identified as a super spreader event.
Stop the president from leaving, Meadows quotes the then-White House doctor as saying after the first test came out, only to be told it was too late.
Meadows wrote that when he informed Trump aboard Air Force One of the positive test, the Republican responded with a phrase rhyming with 'Oh spit, you've gotta be trucking lidding me.'
A second test, that Meadows said was a more accurate kind, gave a negative result shortly afterward.
Trump took this as full permission to continue his schedule, including that night's rally and the Biden debate three days later.
Debate organizers said the candidates arrived too late to be tested but they affirmed they had done their own tests. Trump's campaign did not, however, inform the debate or Biden about the positive test.
In the book, Meadows writes that he allowed Trump to continue with his schedule after the second, negative test, because I didn't want to alarm the public.
In a statement Wednesday, former president Trump said the episode did not occur.
The story of me having COVID prior to, or during, the first debate is Fake News. In fact, a test revealed that I did not have COVID prior to the debate, he said.
Within a week of the rally, Trump was in hospital.
On October 2, Trump announced on Twitter he and his wife Melania had tested positive for Covid-19.
He was flown to the presidential facility at Walter Reed National Military Medical Hospital by helicopter from the White House and received intensive treatment for three nights.
A month later, Biden defeated him in the presidential election after focusing his campaign on a promise to mount a more responsible attack on the pandemic.