White House officials are interfering with efforts by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to release strict guidelines for the emergency authorization of a coronavirus vaccine, according to a new report by the New York Times. The FDA has been trying to release guidelines for vaccine development that include a recommendation that participants in the trials be tracked for two months after they receive their final dose, according to the report. The proposed follow-up period would help to catch possible side effects, as well as ensure that a vaccine provides long-term immunity. But the two-month period would also almost certainly delay any announcement of emergency authorization for a vaccine until after the 3 November election. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows is blocking release of the guidelines, according to the report. The refusal to approve the guidelines is just the latest example of the Trump administration favoring potential political gains over the health and wellbeing of the public. Read the full report here. The White House will not perform contact tracing for attendees of the Rose Garden event celebrating the supreme court nomination of Amy Coney Barrett, despite confirmed infections of at least 11 attendees, according to a new report by the New York Times. The Rose Garden ceremony for Barrett has drawn scrutiny as a potential “super-spreader” event. Attendees neither wore masks nor practiced social distancing. Attendees who subsequently tested positive for Covid include Donald Trump, Melania Trump, Kellyanne Conway, Senator Mike Lee, Senator Thom Tillis, the Rev John Jenkins, Chris Christie and Kayleigh McEnany. According to the Times, the CDC was prepared to perform contact tracing for the White House, but was not asked. Instead, the White House Medical Unit said it would handle the effort, but has chosen to focus only on events within a 48-hour window of Trump’s diagnosis. Read the full report here. In these extraordinary times, the Guardian’s editorial independence has never been more important. Because no one sets our agenda, or edits our editor, we can keep delivering quality, trustworthy, fact-checked journalism each and every day. Free from commercial or political bias, we can report fearlessly on world events and challenge those in power. Your support protects the Guardian’s independence. We believe every one of us deserves equal access to accurate news and calm explanation. No matter how unpredictable the future feels, we will remain with you, delivering high quality news so we can all make critical decisions about our lives, health and security – based on fact, not fiction. Support the Guardian from as little as $1 – and it only takes a minute. Thank you. My colleague Julian Borger has written about what’s behind Trump’s desperation to leave the hospital and return to the White House. Many students of Trump’s life and career have warned that he would be prepared to sacrifice anyone – even those closest to him – to spare himself the humiliation of a one-term presidency, but even they surely could not have anticipated how literal that sacrifice would be. It involved creating a culture in the White House in which the wearing of masks was scoffed at, and seen as a sign of disloyalty, the worst sin in the Trump court. It produced a toxic workplace to the point of potential lethality. Here is video of the moment that Donald Trump took off his mask to pose for photographs on the White House’s Truman balcony, before walking inside, still maskless. Waring a face mask is not a precaution for Trump, who has already contracted Covid-19, but for those around him. The president has an active case of the potentially deadly disease, which is highly contagious. Already numerous White House staffers and members of the White House press corps have been infected in the outbreak that has spread through the president’s inner circle since last week. Today it was reported that two housekeeping staff at the White House have also tested positive for the disease. The White House residence is staffed by approximately 90 people, including ushers, butlers, housekeepers and cooks, according to the Washington Post. The staff is predominantly Black, Latino and older. Moments after returning to the White House, Donald Trump climbed a set of stairs to the balcony, took off his face mask and posed for photographs. The president still has an active coronavirus infection that is contagious to others. According to CDC guidelines, he should remain in isolation until at least 10 days after his diagnosis, which occurred on Friday. By removing his mask, Trump is most likely endangering those who work at the White House. On Monday, the CDC updated its coronavirus guidance to make clear that the disease can spread more than six feet through the air, especially in enclosed spaces. Trump leaves hospital to return to White House despite ongoing Covid case Donald Trump left the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to return to the White House, despite still having an active case of Covid-19, at 6.38pm on Monday. The president walked out of the front doors of the hospital, pumped his fist, flashed a thumbs up, and entered a car. He did not respond to a question from a reporter about how many of his staff were sick, or whether he was a “super-spreader”. He was wearing a mask. Trump said that he was “feeling really good” in a tweet earlier on Monday that downplayed the severity of the disease that has killed more than 1m people worldwide and nearly 210,000 in the US. “Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life. We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago!” Trump has been treated at the military hospital since late afternoon Friday, following his disclosure of a positive coronavirus test in the early hours of Friday morning. As we await Donald Trump’s scheduled departure from Walter Reed medical center, the president is tweeting his intention to return to the campaign trail. Trump still has the coronavirus, is still contagious, and according to CDC guidelines, should remain in isolation until at least 10 days after his diagnosis, which came in the early hours of Friday. Thirteen restaurant employees in Minneapolis are quarantining after they catered a Donald Trump fundraiser last Wednesday – the day before the president disclosed he had contracted Covid-19, the AP reports. The high-dollar fundraiser was held at the private home of Marty Davis, the CEO of a company that manufacturers quartz countertops, and featured catering from Murray’s Restaurant. “Our staff was there to work the party only and at no point did any staff come in close proximity to the president,” the restaurant said in a statement to the AP. “Upon learning of the president’s positive Covid-19 test, we immediately enacted a 14-day quarantine for all staff who worked the party. Additionally, each staff member who worked the party will be tested for Covid-19.” Attendees of the fundraiser paid $100,000 a piece, or $200,000 per couple, to meet with the president. One guest said that attendees took photos with Trump, but from “6 to 8 feet away”. Trump and the White House have refused to be transparent about the precise timeline of Trump’s exposure to Covid-19, onset of symptoms, and positive or negative test results. Trump’s own diagnosis was only made public after a reporter for Bloomberg broke the news that his aide, Hope Hicks, had tested positive for the coronavirus. Despite the constant stream of coronavirus misinformation from the president, his administration, his campaign, and the Republican party, a National Geographic/Morning Consult poll taken over the weekend found that Americans are increasingly wearing masks and feeling positive toward others who wear masks. The survey of 2,200 adults found that 92% “always” or “sometimes” wear masks when leaving the house, up from 85% in July. The percentage of people who “always” wear a mask when leaving the house increased from 60% to 74%. Women were more likely than men to respond that they always wear a mask, despite consistent data showing that men are more likely to die from Covid than women. The survey also found higher rates of mask-wearing among Democrats than Independents or Republicans, and among Black, Hispanic, or “other” non-white ethnicities than among whites. A plexiglass divider will separate Mike Pence and Kamala Harris during Wednesday night’s vice presidential debate, Politico reports. The addition of a physical barrier is the latest change in safety protocol for the debate, following the major outbreak of Covid-19 among members of the Trump administration and campaign. Pence and Harris will also be positioned further apart – 13 feet rather than the seven feet that were initially planned. In keeping with the Trump campaign’s dedication to undermining common sense safety precautions amid a global pandemic that has killed more than 1m people globally and 210,000 people in the US, a spokeswoman for Pence, Katie Miller, snarked: “If Sen Harris wants to use a fortress around herself, have at it.” Still, there are some “safety” rules that Pence does take seriously. The 61-year-old vice president reportedly does not allow himself to eat meals alone with women who are not his wife. Hello everyone, this is Julia Carrie Wong in Oakland, California, picking up the politics blog for the rest of the afternoon. While all eyes are on Walter Reed Medical Center and Donald Trump’s scheduled departure at 6:30pm Eastern, we have breaking news here in Oakland, where district attorney Nancy O’Malley has just announced that her office will reopen the investigation into the 2009 police killing of Oscar Grant. Here is the full statement from O’Malley: Grant was a 22-year-old Black man who was shot and killed by Bay Area Rapid Transit (Bart) police on the platform of Oakland’s Fruitvale station on New Years Day 2009. Grant was unarmed, and had been pinned to the ground with his arms behind his back when officer Johannes Mehserle shot him in the back, killing him. The killing was captured on cellphone video, which quickly went viral, touching off protests across the Bay Area. Mehserle was charged with second-degree murder but a Los Angeles jury found him guilty only of involuntary manslaughter. The Ryan Coogler film Fruitvale Station, starring Michael B Jordon as Grant, portrayed the last day of Grant’s life. Family members of Grant as well as community activists had gathered today at Fruitvale Station to demand the reopening of the case and draw attention to the role of Anthony Pirone, the Bart officer who pinned Grant to the ground.