Bad news: Biden has COVID. Good news: He's 'in a much better situation' than Trump was.

The White House announced Thursday that President Joe Biden has tested positive for COVID-19 and is experiencing "very mild symptoms," marking the second time a sitting president has come down with the virus.

A lot has happened since President Donald Trump was briefly hospitalized with the coronavirus in October 2020. To make sense of how Biden's situation compares with that of his predecessor, USA TODAY caught up with someone who has firsthand experience dealing with a commander in chief with COVID-19.

Dr. Jerome Adams, a USA TODAY Board of Contributors member who was U.S. surgeon general when Trump contracted the virus, offered his perspective on what Biden's diagnosis means and what we should expect moving forward. His interview with Editorial Board members Austin Bogues and Steven Porter has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Biden is vaccinated and double-boosted. How surprising is it that he caught COVID?

It's not a surprise that he got COVID. To be frank, what's more of a surprise is that he's been able to go this long before getting COVID.

We know that, particularly against new variants, protection against the spread of COVID for those who have been vaccinated is quite low. Really, you're getting vaccinated now to protect yourself against severe disease, against hospitalization and also against the development of long COVID.

Am I a schmuck? I got COVID (again). I'm staying home (again) Others seem less cautious.

There are other measures you can take to protect yourself against getting COVID, namely wearing masks. And we know that the White House has gotten a lot more liberal if you will, in terms of who's allowed to be around the president unmasked. He's been on many trips, he's been shaking hands and fist-bumping with other folks and people in crowds.

So it's not a surprise that he got it, but it is a blessing from my standpoint, as a citizen who wants the best for our leaders, that he is double-vaccinated and double-boosted and is on Paxlovid.

Biden is 79. How concerning is his age given his diagnosis?

We know age is a significant risk factor. We also know the president has other risk factors. He's got atrial fibrillation. He's on a number of different medications. And those are exactly the folks who we want to take the most precautions. That's why it's critical that those folks, in particular, are up to date on their vaccinations, fully vaccinated plus have gotten boosters, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Pop quiz! Treating HIV taught us about inclusive care. Now monkeypox is testing what we learned.

So, while we're very concerned about his age, we're reassured by the fact that he has taken all the possible precautions and he's taking a medication, Paxlovid, that has been shown to decrease your chance of hospitalization. And that's what we tell people, get your vaccine, get your booster. If you get symptoms, get tested promptly so that you can get very quickly put on a medication which will lower your chance of hospitalization.

What's the difference between Biden's diagnosis and Trump's?

We are in a very different place now with President Biden than we were with President Trump when he had his COVID diagnosis. Remember, we didn't have vaccines available when President Trump and the first lady at the time, Melania Trump, were diagnosed with COVID. We also didn't have Paxlovid.

So we now have a president who is vaccinated, who's received two booster shots – new studies came out showing that that second booster really does significantly lower your chances of having a severe course of disease. And again, we have the antiviral Paxlovid, so (Biden) is in a very different situation.

Literally anyone can catch COVID right now: 3 takeaways from Biden's diagnosis

Remember President Trump actually developed pneumonia, had to be admitted to Walter Reed hospital and had a very severe course. It remains to be seen what's going to happen with President Biden, but he is in a much better situation based on all the data we have available to come out of this with little to no harm in the long run.

Is this White House being transparent? What questions should we ask in the days ahead?

One of the things I want to clarify to folks is that it is challenging to get information because you do want to respect an individual's medical privacy, even if it is the president of the United States. So there's that fine line between HIPAA, what should be protected information for an individual, versus what America deserves to know about their leader's health status.

I would frequently be asked about President Trump's medical diagnosis. While I worked closely with the White House medical unit in several ways, I wasn't getting a blow-by-blow on the president's status because I am not the president's doctor. What I think we should be asking is who the president was exposed to. That is critical information so that we can protect other people.

It's time for a change. Black America suffering in Biden’s inflation nation.

Beyond that, I hope and expect that we will get regular updates, perhaps daily updates. But I thought it was unfair back when President Trump was diagnosed with COVID that people really expected a second-by-second minute-by-minute, blow-by-blow report. That's just not reasonable. It's unfair to the White House medical unit staff. And it doesn't respect an individual's right to medical privacy.

I think regular daily updates as to how the president is doing are reasonable and asking who else was exposed, what the protocols were, because we deserve to know what we're doing to protect our leaders and if any protocols are going to change in the future.

Commentary editor Austin Bogues and assistant Opinion editor Steven Porter are members of USA TODAY's Editorial Board. Follow them on Twitter: @AustinBogues and @reporterporter

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden tested positive for COVID. He's better off than Trump to beat it