Tag: Trump botched COVID-19 response

The White House released photos of Trump at work, raising more questions about his health

Amid mixed messages on the president’s health, the White House released photos of Trump working that some critics say were staged.

President Donald Trump, who has been receiving treatment for the coronavirus at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center since Friday, released two photographs late Saturday meant to suggest that he is recuperating rapidly, but those images — which came following a peculiar press conference and mixed health assessments from White House staff — have been met with scrutiny, undercutting the message the president hoped to send.

In the first photo, Trump is dressed in a suit, seated at a round table inside the hospital’s designated presidential suite, appearing to review a document. In the other, he is dressed in a crisp white shirt, seated at the end of a long table inside a conference room, looking over folders of documents.

Both photos were taken by White House photographer Joyce N. Boghosian.

The photos began to draw criticism on social media shortly after their release, with many users pointing out that it is unclear what Trump is actually doing in the images. In the first, he appears to simply sign his name in the center of an otherwise blank piece of paper. In the second, the folders and a black binder appear to be empty. Continue reading.

Here’s a list of White House officials who’ve been exposed to Trump — and will need to quarantine

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President Donald Trump testing positive for coronavirus has caused quite a shake-up in the White House as several officials and staff members will now be forced to quarantine in an effort to mitigate the spread of the virus. 

As reports began circulating about Trump’s White House advisor Hope Hicks testing positive, concerns were raised about the president and all of the other people who could have possibly contracted coronavirus after being in close proximity with Hicks. Not long after Hicks’ results were made public, it was confirmed that Trump and First Lady Melania Trump had also tested positive.

On Tuesday, several members of Trump’s administration traveled with him and Hicks to Cleveland, Ohio for the first presidential debate. During the event, Hicks and multiple members of Trump’s family were seen in close proximity of each other without masks. Continue reading.

Trump to spend ‘a few days’ at Walter Reed after COVID-19 diagnosis

President is experiencing symptoms and taking an experimental antibody cocktail

President Donald Trump is heading to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for what the White House says is a precaution after he tested positive for COVID-19 and began experiencing symptoms.

“President Trump remains in good [spirits], has mild symptoms, and has been working throughout the day. Out of an abundance of caution, and at the recommendation of his physician and medical experts, the President will be working from the presidential offices at Walter Reed for the next few days,” White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement Friday.

Trump is traveling to the military medical complex aboard Marine One, which is the way presidents often travel to the facility in nearby Bethesda, Maryland. Continue reading.

Trump takes an experimental COVID drug as reports emerge about his true symptoms

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President Donald Trump has taken an experimental drug treatment for his newly diagnosed case of COVID-19, the White House announced Friday afternoon. 

Sean Conley, the president’s physician, explained in a memo that Trump has “received a single 8 gram dose of Regeneron’s polyclonal antibody cocktail.” Conley referred to this as a “precautionary measure.” He said the president took the dose “without incident,” and noted that the president is also taking “zinc, vitamin D, famotidine, melatonin, and a daily aspirin.”

He described the president as “fatigued but in good spirits,” while First Lady Melania Trump — also diagnosed with the disease caused by the coronavirus — “remains well with only a mild cough and headache.” No one else in the president’s family has tested positive for the virus. Continue reading.

Trump Tests Positive for the Coronavirus

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The president’s result came after he spent months playing down the severity of the outbreak that has killed more than 207,000 in the United States and hours after insisting that “the end of the pandemic is in sight.”

WASHINGTON — President Trump revealed early Friday morning that he and the first lady, Melania Trump, had tested positive for the coronavirus, throwing the nation’s leadership into uncertainty and escalating the crisis posed by a pandemic that has already killed more than 207,000 Americans and devastated the economy.

Mr. Trump, who for months has played down the seriousness of the virus and hours earlier on Thursday night told an audience that “the end of the pandemic is in sight,” will quarantine in the White House for an unspecified period of time, forcing him to withdraw at least temporarily from the campaign trail only 32 days before the election on Nov. 3.

The dramatic disclosure came in a Twitter message just before 1 a.m. after a suspenseful evening following reports that Mr. Trump’s close adviser Hope Hicks had tested positive. In her own tweet about 30 minutes later, Mrs. Trump wrote that the first couple were “feeling good,” but the White House did not say whether they were experiencing symptoms. The president’s physician said he could carry out his duties “without disruption” from the Executive Mansion. Continue reading.

‘It’s Not in My Head’: They Survived the Coronavirus, but They Never Got Well

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With seven million known cases of the coronavirus across the country, more people are suffering from symptoms that go on and on.

They caught the coronavirus months ago and survived it, but they are still stuck at home, gasping for breath. They are no longer contagious, but some feel so ill that they can barely walk around the block, and others grow dizzy trying to cook dinner. Month after month, they rush to the hospital with new symptoms, pleading with doctors for answers.

As the coronavirus has spread through the United States over seven months, infecting at least seven million people, some subset of them are now suffering from serious, debilitating and mysterious effects of Covid-19 that last far longer than a few days or weeks.

The patients wrestling with an array of alarming symptoms many months after first getting ill — they have come to call themselves “long-haulers” — are believed to number in the thousands. Their circumstances, still little understood by the medical community, may play a significant role in shaping the country’s ability to recover from the pandemic. Continue reading.

Why A Real Vaccine Won’t Arrive Before Election Day (Without A Miracle)

Despite President Donald Trump’s promises of a vaccine next month and pundits’ speculation about how an “October surprise” could upend the presidential campaign, any potential vaccine would have to clear a slew of scientific and bureaucratic hurdles in record time.

In short, it would take a miracle.

We talked to companies, regulators, scientific advisers and analysts and reviewed hundreds of pages of transcripts and study protocols to understand all the steps needed for a coronavirus vaccine to be scientifically validated and cleared for public use. As you’ll see, it’s a long shot in 38 days. Continue reading.

Trump, White House demand FDA justify tough standards for coronavirus vaccine, raising concerns of political interference

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Some worry the move is an attempt to speed a vaccine before Election Day, which the president has tied to his reelection prospects

On the same day President Trump blasted the Food and Drug Administration’s plan for tougher standards for a coronavirus vaccine as a “political move,” a top White House aide demanded detailed justifications from the agency in what some fear is an attempt to thwart or block the standards designed to boost public trust in a vaccine.

The White House’s involvement appears to go beyond the perfunctory review that agency officials had expected, and is likely to reinforce public concerns that a vaccine may be rushed to benefit the president’s reelection campaign. Polls show that the number of people who say they’re willing to take a coronavirus vaccine if it were available today has nosedived from 72 percent in May to 50 percent as of early this month, according to Pew Research Center, largely because of concerns that politics, rather than science, is driving the process.

Trump has repeatedly said a vaccine would be available by Election Day, or possibly sooner, worrying scientists that he might attempt to intervene in the review process. Companies will begin reporting safety and effectiveness data in coming weeks and months. And in conversations with some advisers, the president has directly tied the vaccine to his reelection chances, according to a senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations. Continue reading.

WHO warns 2 million deaths ‘not impossible’ as global fatalities approach 1 million

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NOTE: This article is provided free of charge by The Washington Post.

With the world fast approaching 1 million deaths officially related to covid-19, a doubling of that number is “certainly unimaginable, but it’s not impossible,” World Health Organization expert Mike Ryan said Friday at a news briefing.

“If we look at losing 1 million people in nine months and then we just look at the realities of getting vaccines out there in the next nine months, it’s a big task for everyone involved,” Ryan, the executive director of WHO’s health emergencies program, said. Continue reading.

How Trump is undermining his own vaccine race

Operation Warp Speed is the administration’s best attempt at fighting coronavirus, experts say, but White House meddling has caused public confidence to plummet.

FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn spent weeks preparing a proposal to set more stringent standards for emergency authorization of a coronavirus vaccine, hoping to boost public trust in the government’s biggest public health decision in decades. 

“Science will guide our decisions,” he pledged to a Senate panel on Wednesday. “FDA will not permit any pressure from anyone to change that.”

Hours later, President Donald Trump sought to do just that. Incensed over the prospect the new guidelines could slow the process, Trump blew up the FDA’s carefully laid plans – vowing to have final say over his administration’s procedures for authorizing a long-sought Covid-19 vaccine. The White House has since demanded that Hahn submit a fuller justification of his bid to set stricter standards, two administration officials said, a directive that could halt the proposal indefinitely. Continue reading.