New Jersey Congressman Bonnie Watson Coleman has tested positive for COVID-19 – and she believes she was infected during the isolation during the Capitol riots with other lawmakers who refused to wear masks.
Watson Coleman, 75, is a recent cancer survivor and received the first dose of the two-dose COVID vaccine offered to members of Congress. She said in a statement announcing her diagnosis that she is “experiencing mild cold symptoms” and works from home.
Watson Coleman told The Daily Beast on Monday that she first started feeling sick on Sunday, four days after she was held in the Capitol’s safe room. The longer lawmakers stayed in the chamber, the congressman said, the more apparent the COVID risks became.
“It was not possible to keep a safe distance,” she said. “There wasn’t much you could do about it.”
“There are members of the House of Representatives who have no respect for science, and who don’t care about anyone’s well-being.“
– Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman
Watson Coleman did not say why she thinks she was infected in the grand committee hearing where members of the House took refuge while insurgents looted through the Capitol last Wednesday. The congressman said she has been extremely careful since the start of the pandemic.
But the House’s attending physician had already warned members that “individuals may have been exposed to another resident with a coronavirus infection.” All members who were in that room were urged to take rapid COVID-19 tests. There were as many as 150 people in the space, Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), who also hosted there.
After the riot, a video surfaced showing some Republican members, including the faithful QAnon, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), did not wear masks, even after requests from others to put them on.
Asked what she would say to the maskless lawmakers in the room, Watson Coleman smiled and said, “I have been placed in a vulnerable position for their arrogance, disrespect and disdain.”
“There is a backlash and an arrogance – I don’t understand, it’s incomprehensible and it’s dangerous,” she said. “There are members of the House of Representatives who don’t respect science, and don’t care about anyone’s well-being.”
Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE) attempted to hand out masks in a video obtained by Punchbowl News. “While I was disappointed in my colleagues who refused to wear a mask, I was encouraged by those who did. My goal, amid what I feared was a super spreader event, was to make the room at least a little bit safer, ”she later tweeted.
The Delaware congressman was one of the few people who attempted to force the wearing of a mask. Watson Coleman recalled being in the room when someone said through the public address system, “We recommend that you keep your mask on.”
“I thought, how absurd is that – what do you mean recommend?” said Watson Coleman. “They should be demanding.”
Public health officials have warned that the riot as a whole has set the stage for a superspreader event, with hordes of unmasked rioters shouting inside – and then returning to their hometowns, where they can spread the virus even further.
Other members of Congress continue to contract the coronavirus in various ways. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN) announced on Sunday that he tested positive after his roommate, Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), tested positive on January 6, before the riots.
Dozens of members of Congress have received the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, but medical experts say it does not provide immediate immunity and is not considered fully effective until the second dose is administered weeks later.