President Biden contracted COVID. Here’s why that’s no longer devastating news

When it was announced last week that President Joe Biden had contracted COVID-19, the news was not meet with alarm.

Why?

First, Biden isn’t the first U.S. president to contract COVID-19. His predecessor, former president Donald Trump also tested positive for COVID-19.

The second reason why the news about Biden was not met with alarm is that this time, things are different.

Biden is fully vaccinated and boosted. When Trump tested positive in fall 2020, vaccines weren’t available and treatment options were limited.

Trump was given an experimental antibody treatment and steroids after his blood oxygen levels fell dangerously low. He was hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for three days.

Biden is 79. Due to his age, he is at an increased risk for a more severe case of Covid-19, although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says older adults being fully vaccinated and boosted significantly reduces their risk of hospitalization and death.

Biden is experiencing mild symptoms and is taking Paxlovid, an at-home antiviral therapy that has been available since December for patients who are 12 and older and are at higher risk for severe illness from COVID-19.

Biden continued to work while in isolation at the White House despite his mild symptoms. 

Trump had to be admitted to the hospital.

Trump acknowledged in a video he tweeted out after being released from the hospital that he was “very sick” when he was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center after being diagnosed with COVID-19.

“I went into the hospital a week ago. I was very sick,” the president said in the video, which was recorded.

Although many Americans are still testing positive for COVID-19, Biden and the nation are now in much better circumstances since than the fall of 2020 when Trump tested positive for the coronavirus.

Death rates have fallen sharply since Trump contracted the virus, primarily because of the arrival of vaccines and advances in treatments. More than 1 million Americans have died from the virus, which is still killing an average of 353 people in the U.S. every day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The unvaccinated are at far greater risk, over two times more likely to test positive and nine times more likely to die from the virus than those who have received at least a primary dose of vaccine, according to the public health agency.

Biden likely contracted a highly contagious variant of the coronavirus that is spreading rapidly through the United States.

The variant, known as BA.5 is an offshoot of the omicron strain that emerged late last year, and it’s believed to be responsible for the vast majority of the coronavirus in the country.

CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky, M.D., M.P.H., recommended that Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine, which will be available in the coming weeks, be used as another option for adults ages 18 years and older.

In a statement released last week, Walensky said: “Today, we have expanded the options available to adults in the U.S. by recommending another safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine. If you have been waiting for a COVID-19 vaccine built on a different technology than those previously available, now is the time to join the millions of Americans who have been vaccinated. With COVID-19 cases on the rise again across parts of the country, vaccination is critical to help protect against the complications of severe COVID-19 disease.”

According to the Mayo Clinic, if you haven’t had the COVID vaccine, you can take many steps to reduce your risk of infection including: Wear a face mask properly when indoors, get a flu shot, wash your hands frequently, clean and disinfect surfaces.

“If you're fully vaccinated, you may be able to travel, visit restaurants and public places, and enjoy safe outdoor activities. If you're not vaccinated, outdoor activities pose a lower risk than indoor activities do.”

Irv Randolph is the managing editor of the Philadelphia Tribune, the nation’s oldest continuously published African American newspaper in the nation and co-founder of The Randolph Report, a newsletter on politics, culture and career and professional news relevant to Black Americans.