Clip: Biden tests positive for COVID-19 as his approval rating reaches new low

Alcindor : According to the White House, his symptoms are mild and he is working in quarantine from residence. You see those pictures of him working form home essentially.

Still, he is a 79-year-old man. That means even though he is vaccinated and twice boosted, he is in a high-risk group for severe illness.

To talk more about this, we`re joined by Yasmeen Abutaleb, national reporter for "The Washington Post".

Yasmeen, as soon as I heard the president had COVID, I was like, please someone call Yasmeen, we need her on the show.

So, I`m just going to let you have it. Talk to us a little bit about how the president is feeling, what we know about sort of his -- the latest about his condition, but also sort of what you`ve been hearing from your sources, health sources, about the way forward for him?

Yasmeen Abutaleb, National Reporter, The Washington Post : So, it seems like, fortunately, the president is doing fairly well and seems to have a mild case of COVID. His doctor has put out two letters. The White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and the White House coronavirus response coordinator Ashish Jha have done two pretty extensive briefings about how he is doing and his symptoms.

So, so far, he seems to have a cough, a runny nose, some fatigue. His temperature went up a little bit but now seems to be normal. And importantly, his oxygen, his heart rate are all normal. And so, speaking with doctors, you know, they said the thing you would look for with someone like the president who is 79 or really anyone who develops COVID is whether they start developing shortness.

It doesn`t seem that`s happened to the president and the White House has gone to pretty extensive lengths to show that he`s fine and he`s working and he has continued to work through his infection. He had a bit of hoarse voice today when he appeared for a public event.

But, otherwise, you know, I think it`s not that surprising that he would have gotten COVID especially given his travel schedule recently, the number of public events he has done. He is a glad-handing politician with lots of back slabs and hugging.

And so, you know, the White House had been preparing for this for a matter of months.

Alcindor : Yasmeen, I would ask you something else which is as he is the most powerful man in America you could say, someone who is very protected, he is joining millions of other Americans who now have COVID. I wonder if you could talk about the overall threat to the country and what that means for the least among us, the most vulnerable, because that continues, at least based on my reading to be people of color, poor people, people who can`t work from home.

Abutaleb : Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that`s a great point, Yamiche. I mean, the president is the most protected person in the country. And, you know, the White House had pretty extensive safety protocols in place to protect him which included anyone who met with him indoors had to mask, very regular testing, and then, of course, they caught his infection early. So, he got access to the antiviral Paxlovid early, which definitely helps.

And I think it highlights that BA.5 has taken over the country. The reported cases are a little over 100,000, but experts think it`s up to 10 times, you know, a million or more cases a day, just given how it`s rampantly spreading right now. This is the most contagious and transmissible variant that we have seen.

And I think the fact that the president, with all of the protections he has in place, still getting COVID just reflects the challenge that we`re all facing right now. You know, most people have had it at this point. I think about 70 percent of the country has had a COVID infection at this point.

The majority of the country is vaccinated and still this variant has shown a remarkable ability to escape immunity that is afforded by vaccinations or previous infection. And so, I think it`s a reflection of how difficult it is for the country to get a handle on the virus, you know, 2-1/2 years in.

And like you said, you know, the president is likely to use the infection to say, look, we want everyone to have access to the tools the president has access that have kept his mild, boosters. They`re free and available, Paxlovid.

But the reality is in a lot of communities, communities of color and poor communities, its not as easy to get access to these tools especially the antivirals.

Alcindor : Such a good point.

And, Hallie, in the minute that we have left here, I want to come to you. There is a new poll this week, the most recent PBS NewsHour/Marist/NPR poll shows that President Biden`s approval rating has been at the lowest since his presidency. Obviously, the president wants to be out on the road, Hallie, wanting to be talking about his agenda, but now he is stuck indoors.

How might this just impact sort of politically where he wants to be?

Jackson : The White House hopes very little, Yamiche, because they have been talking now for weeks about the idea that once we hit this point of the summer, once he gets through these overseas trips, he would be out on the road, he`d be hustling ahead of the midterms, right? I mean, that was something that was previewed for a long time.

So, to have the president sort of isolated in the White House, they are trying to do as much as they came to show he is still working. They released photos. They`re talking about the calls he is making.

They`re trying, they say, to be transparent. I think that`s a question. I think that`s something that and a lot of reporters will be standing on top of, to make sure they`re getting information from the White House in a timely way.

But, this is not -- listen, it is the summer. This isn`t September. This isn`t October. So, it`s not like the window is closing. I think we often see that Americans engagement especially with the midterms picks up after Labor Day, for example.

So, I think if the White House is going to be eager to get him on the road, but they also understand that they need to make sure they are following the CDC guidelines because they have to not only talk the talk but walk the walk here as it relates to how that president is going to handle this. You`ve seen Dr. Biden, for example, staying in Wilmington, she`s staying in Delaware, I should say, out of the White House, out of the way of the president. They`re really trying to be modeling here, some behavior that they want to see the rest of the American states.

Alcindor : Yeah. And, Dana, in the last 30 seconds, its a lot different thinking about what Hallie is talking about, sort of the protocols that the Biden administration is taking versus what we saw under the Trump administration, different times because there were no vaccines.

But just talk a bit about that.

Balz : Well, I think that`s the major difference we see. When President Trump got COVID, there were no vaccinations. He was in quite bad shape as we later learned.

The White House is trying to use this as a teaching moment. That we have these tools available and we ought to begin to try to use them, and those who have not taken advantage ought to do so.

Alcindor : Well, I will say, I hope that President Biden has a safe and quick recovery. I know so many people that have dealt with COVID-19. So, I hope that he feels better.