Prominent Democrats Have Tested Positive for COVID-19

Zach Rathner

Health

6th October 2020

Prominent Democrats Have Tested Positive for COVID-19

Polls show that Democrats are more likely to follow COVID-19 regulations (Getty Images).

The Claim

No well-known Democrats have tested positive for COVID-19.

News posted on

Emerging story

Following the COVID-19 diagnosis of Donald Trump, on October 2, 2020, former Republican congressional candidate DeAnna Lorraine tweeted, "Does anyone else find it odd that no prominent Democrats have had the virus but the list of Republicans goes on and on?"

Users across social media continued to push this claim.

Misbar’s Analysis

The Misbar team has determined that this claim is false. An article written for NPR has a running list that keeps track of which members of congress have contracted COVID-19. The list highlights six democratic representatives who have tested positive for the virus, while no Democratic senators have tested positive as of yet. Alternatively, three Republican senators and nine republican representatives have tested positive for COVID-19. While there are more prominent Republicans to test positive for the disease, plenty of Republicans have tested negative as well. Outside of congress and the senate, both Virginia Governor Ralph Northam and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, both Democrats, have tested positive for COVID-19. New surveys show that Republicans and Democrats view the pandemic differently, which could possibly have an impact on the number of positive cases for each party.

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