COVID: Nothing To Sneeze At

I thought the very same thing after RFK, Jr. sneezed, and of course, nobody at the press conference was masked.

I still remember how terribly sick Trump was the first time he had COVID, so let's hope this joke remains just a joke, because COVID is no joke.

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From People magazine:

Trump Jokes About RFK Jr. Giving Him COVID During Oval Office Press Conference. The president was speaking to the press alongside prescription drug executives on Tuesday when he joked about germs
By Meredith Kile, Published on September 30, 2025 03:51PM EDT

"During a presidential press conference on Tuesday, Donald Trump took a moment to poke fun at his Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

"While answering a question about prescription drugs, Trump was interrupted by RFK sneezing. Pausing his remarks, he turned to the HHS head, saying, "God bless you, Bobby."

"After a moment, the president added, "I hope I didn't catch COVID just then!"

"Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla was also present for the press conference. Trump turned to the prescription executive and said, "He's got Paxlovid, give me a Paxlovid immediately!" referencing the antiviral medication used to treat COVID-19 symptoms. 

"Trump was president during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and first contracted the disease during a cluster outbreak at the White House that lasted from September 2020 and ended in January 2021.

"In a 2021 memoir by Mark Meadows, Trump's former Chief of Staff, Meadows claimed that the president tested positive for the disease three days before he faced Joe Biden in their first presidential debate on Sept. 29, 2020.

"Immediately following the positive results, which were not disclosed to the press or the public, Trump was quickly given another, more accurate test, according to Meadows, who wrote that after a "brief but tense wait" the results came back negative.

"While doctors told Trump's staff to treat him as if he were positive, Meadows wrote that the president interpreted the negative test as a clean slate and went on to meet with military families and appear at a rally in Pennsylvania before taking the debate stage.

"A few days after that, on Oct. 2, Trump announced that he and First Lady Melania Trump both had cases of COVID-19. They were treated at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and the president returned to public events on Oct. 10. 

"Kennedy has his own controversial history with the COVID-19 outbreak. In May 2025, he came under fire for removing the COVID vaccine from the recommended immunization schedule for healthy children and pregnant women as part of his and Trump's "Make America Healthy Again" agenda.

"The following month, HHS sent Congress a document supporting the decision that cited unpublished or disputed studies and misrepresented other findings, according to NPR and KFF Health News."