The debate will air live on all major television stations, including ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, FOX and C-SPAN, as well as PBS Utah. ABC News, CBSN, C-SPAN and other networks will also offer live streams for viewers to watch online.
This week’s event just more than one week after President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden participated in the first presidential debate last Tuesday, held in Cleveland, Ohio. Trump announced he and first lady Melania Trump tested positive for the new coronavirus about two days later, amid a wave of confirmed virus cases among other Trump administration officials and Republican political figures. Pence and Harris have tested negative for COVID-19 since then.
Although White House physician Jesse Schonau said guidelines established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) did not indicate Pence should quarantine—Schonau said he is not considered a “close contact” of colleagues who tested positive in an announcement on Friday—the vice president’s proximity to GOP leaders who contracted the illness in recent weeks raised concerns about safety at Wednesday’s debate. To reduce the risk of further transmission, Pence and Harris will be positioned 12 feet apart during the event, which is still expected to take place in person. Both candidates will reportedly be separated by plexiglass dividers as an added precaution.
Long-standing CDC guidance advised people to maintain six feet of physical distance from others to protect against COVID-19 transmission, and it recommended individuals wear face masks in settings where social distancing is not practicable. However, the agency updated its guidelines on Monday with additional warnings about the potential for airborne transmission. Its “How COVID-19 Spreads” webpage now notes that, while the virus more commonly spreads through close contact with an infected person, transmission may occur from a wider distance under some circumstances.
“There is evidence that under certain conditions, people with COVID-19 seem to have infected others who were more than 6 feet away,” the updated guidance states. “These transmissions occurred within enclosed spaces that had inadequate ventilation.… The people who were infected were in the same space during the same time or shortly after the person with COVID-19 had left.”
