Vice President Kamala Harris with President Biden at the White House in May. Credit…Pete Marovich for The New York Times
Although Vice President Kamala Harris was infected with the coronavirus in April, it is not impossible that she could be infected again, a prospect raised by the fact that she was with President Biden just two days before he tested positive.
According to her schedule for the day, Ms. Harris received the president’s daily briefing in the Oval Office. She also met with Olena Zelenska, the first lady of Ukraine, with Mr. Biden and others at the White House.
The prospect of both Ms. Harris, 57, and Mr. Biden, 79, contracting the virus may be unsettling, but both are fully vaccinated and have received two booster shots that remain highly protective against severe illness. Ms. Harris received her second booster on April 1, and Mr. Biden on March 30.
Ms. Harris, who traveled to North Carolina on Thursday, said she had spoken to Mr. Biden by phone and that he was “in good spirits.”
Ms Harris tested negative on Thursday morning, according to a White House official. On the advice of the White House medical team, she will remain masked, but her schedule will continue as planned.
It may not be clean. To account for the incubation period of the virus, many experts recommend taking a rapid test two to four days after potential exposure and taking at least two rapid tests about a day apart.
Ms Harris previously tested positive for coronavirus on April 26. In announcing her positive test, her office said she was not experiencing symptoms and would self-isolate at home. By this time Mrs Harris was already fully vaccinated and had received two boosters. She was prescribed the antiviral treatment Paxlovid.
At the time of his infection, the vice president was not in close contact with Mr. Biden. She had spent several days in California and had not seen the president in person for eight days.
A month earlier, Doug Emhoff, Ms. Harris’ husband, tested positive for the virus. Ms. Harris was not infected at the time, but while she isolated herself and continued to test negative, Mr. Emhoff’s positive test forced her to cancel an appearance at an event with Mr. Biden.
It is possible that the vice president will contract the virus again. Antibodies that help protect against infection decline over time, and Omicron is more adept at avoiding these antibodies than previous variants.
Even a previous Omicron infection may not protect against a subsequent one. Although it is not clear what version of the virus Ms. Harris had in April, Omicron’s BA.2 subvariant was the dominant version in the United States at the time.
Now the BA.5 subvariant, which has spread even faster than previous versions, is causing a new surge of cases, including a wave of re-infections. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated last week that BA.5 accounts for nearly 80 percent of new infections in the US
“You can be infected before — even as recently as the last few months — and have a very high rate of re-infection,” Dr. Ashish K. Jha, Mr. Biden’s coronavirus response coordinator, said in an interview last week. .
A recent study from Qatar, which has not yet been reviewed by outside experts, suggests that BA.4 and BA.5 are better at evading antibodies from previous coronavirus infections than earlier versions of Omicron.
However, people who have been infected with an earlier version of Omicron should be better protected than those infected with other variants of the virus. According to the Qatar study, infection with a variant prior to Omicron was 28 percent effective in preventing subsequent infection with BA.4 or BA.5. However, prior infection with Omicron was 80 percent effective in preventing infection with BA.4 or BA.5.
— Carly Olsen and Emily Antes
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