Der Tiger Beat auf dem Potomac (thanks Charlie, with an assist from MPS Patron Saint Watertiger) leads their morning email thing with the shocking news that the Trump-Virus is still with us —who knew?— as it has super-spread from the Junior Nerd-Prom:

There’s no denying it: Covid is rocking Washington right now. Days after Saturday’s annual Gridiron Club dinner, multiple attendees of the boujee 600-seat confab have come down with it — including Commerce Secretary GINA RAIMONDO, A.G. MERRICK GARLAND and Reps. ADAM SCHIFF (D-Calif.) and JOAQUIN CASTRO (D-Texas).

By Wednesday afternoon, another high-profile attendee — JAMAL SIMMONS, comms director to VP KAMALA HARRIS — revealed that he, too, tested positive. That test result came just a day after he shook former President BARACK OBAMA’s hand at the White House’s Obamacare party, where President JOE BIDEN and 200 other high-level officials hobnobbed maskless while celebrating the health care law.

Throughout the District on Wednesday, the possible superspreader event was seemingly all anyone could talk about, as NYT’s Katie Rogers writes. Reporters and pols alike found themselves trading text messages about who sat by whom and whether so-and-so who was feeling ill got a positive test result. The entire situation, she notes, is a reminder “that, even as officials seek to pivot away from strict restrictions and encourage Americans to learn to live with the coronavirus, the pandemic is not over.”

The Gridiron dinner isn’t the only likely superspreader event piercing the This Town bubble. As Eugene, Sam Stein and Steven Overly reported Wednesday, “a number of individuals who attended a prominent antitrust conference in Brussels last week also came down with Covid … Additionally, a number of reporters who attended a going-away party for National Security Council spokesperson EMILY HORNE have tested positive for Covid.”

And so what are they doing about the Trump Virus? Axios reports:

Congress may punt $10 billion COVID funding package

Congress may punt on a $10 billion COVID preparedness funding package until the end of this month due to a fight over immigration policy.

Why it matters: The Biden administration has warned that it’s running out of money for countermeasures to ward off future pandemics and COVID surges — and has already paused testing and treatment for the uninsured.

Driving the news: With a two-week recess looming, Republican senators are demanding a vote on an amendment to the funding package that would block the administration’s plans to halt a pandemic-inspired public health policy called Title 42, used to rapidly expel migrants at the southern border.

That’s not Congress, Axios, that the Republican Party putting a poison pill into policy because they don’t like brown people. Knock it off with the Both Sides crap.

But wait! There’s more (emphasis mine, this time):

• Some centrist Democratic senators support adding the Title 42 language to head off another border crisis — but that would make the underlying bill unacceptable to House progressives.

What’s next: The Senate could revisit the COVID funding package later this spring. But it is likely to remain stuck until Democrats resolve their internal differences over immigration and border policies.

Yup. Axios is blaming the Democrats for not accepting the Republicans racist amendment. It’s now the Dems fault.

UPDATE 1: