Tag: Trump COVID-19 diagnosis

Covid-19 survivors see callousness, not compassion, in Trump’s bout with the virus

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Ken Holmes, a retired maintenance worker in Wisconsin, never had much in common with Donald Trump, or much affection for him.

But when the president caught a potentially lethal virus that had nearly killed Holmes this year, the 64-year-old saw a rare opportunity for connection. Trump, Holmes thought, might finally understand what he had come to learn through painful experience: The novel coronavirus is a monster that commands respect.

“He can still make this right,” Holmes thought.

But then Trump stood on the White House balcony Monday night, theatrically ripped offhis mask while gasping for breath, and proclaimed the virus was nothing to fear. Continue reading.

Rudy Giuliani can’t stop coughing through a Fox News interview while mocking Biden’s mask advocacy

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President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani repeatedly coughed throughout a Monday interview with Fox News as he attacked Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden for urging Americans to listen to scientific experts and wear masks amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Giuliani told Fox News host Martha MacCallum that he was awaiting his test results after working in close contact with Trump and other advisers on the president’s debate preparation team, who have since tested positive for COVID-19.

“I actually got one about two hours ago,” Giuliani said, adding that his first test was negative. “I haven’t gotten the results yet. I went to NYU. I got one of those all the way in the back of the nose tests.” Continue reading.

Trump campaign says president plans to participate in next debate in person despite uncertainty

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President Trump plans to participate in next week’s debate in person, his campaign said Tuesday, despite uncertainty around how he will recover from COVID-19.

“The President intends to participate in the debate in person,” the campaign’s communications director, Tim Murtaugh, said in a statement to The Hill.

But it’s unclear if the president will be healthy enough to attend the debate, or whether he would be exposing other attendees to a contagious virus that has killed roughly 210,000 people in the U.S. to date. Continue reading.

Trump was treated with dexamethasone. Here’s what we know about its risks and side effects.

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President Trump’s team of physicians revealed Sunday that he was being treated with dexamethasone, and health experts immediately voiced concern. The powerful steroid has shown promise for treating patients with severe covid-19 who are getting supplemental oxygen, as Trump was, but may cause harm for those with minor infections.

The use of dexamethasone, experts say, contrasts with White House physician Sean Conley’s rosy assessments of Trump’s battle with the virus. Typically used to treat inflammation, dexamethasone was credited with improving the survival for critically ill coronavirus patients in a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Trump’s doctors at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., cited the positive research when they disclosed that they prescribed the steroid after Trump’s oxygen levels concerningly dropped to 93 percent. Healthy blood oxygen levels range from 95 to 100 percent. Continue reading.

Here are the effects the steroid dexamethasone could be having on Trump

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The president was given the inexpensive steroid after experiencing a drop in his oxygen level.

On Sunday, President Trump’s team of physicians announced the president was treated with the steroid dexamethasone after his oxygen level dropped while he was hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center over the weekend. 

“In response to transient low oxygen levels … we did initiate dexamethasone therapy, and he received his first dose of that yesterday [Saturday],” Brian Garibaldi, a physician who is part of the president’s medical team, told reporters Sunday. 

Dexamethasone is a cheap and widely available corticosteroid that is used to head off an immune system overreaction and treat inflammation.  Continue reading.

‘People have a right to be upset’: White House refusal to contact trace stirs contempt

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Politicians, public health officials, and commentators are lambasting the White House’s failure to provide adequate contact tracing and guidance for thousands of people whose well-being was jeopardized last week after President Donald Trump traveled to multiple events around the country, at least one of which he participated in even after knowing that he had been exposed to the coronavirus. 

While the contradictory information shared by the Trump administration and medical team about the chronology and status of Trump’s illness has puzzled observers, critics said it is clear that the president chose to expose potentially thousands of people to Covid-19 last week—particularly by interacting with hundreds of guests at a fundraiser he hosted at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf course on Thursday evening—instead of quarantining immediately after the Thursday morning diagnosis of his adviser, Hope Hicks, as Common Dreams reported. 

“The scope of the damage here is unfathomable,” writer Rebecca Traister tweeted on Saturday. Continue reading.

The president cares about his image. That’s pretty much it.

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President Trump walked out of the double brass doors at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center wearing a disposable mask and surrounded by security. He paused for the cameras. He gave a thumbs-up for the benefit of the pictures. And he climbed aboard Marine One.

And when he arrived at the White House, he walked up the steps, stood in front of four American flags. And removed his mask. He removed his mask in a show of what? Ego. Recklessness. Selfishness.

He is still convalescing from covid-19, a highly unpredictable and deadly disease. He remains contagious. His doctor has noted that he may not be “entirely out of the woods.” And since he has been at Walter Reed, the White House has become a coronavirus hot spot. Press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Monday added her name to the list of staff, residents and recent visitors who have tested positive in the past week, which also includes the first lady. Continue reading.

Trump Returned To The White House And Took His Mask Off While Infected With COVID-19

The president’s doctors said he was well enough to leave the hospital on Monday evening, despite warning signs that suggest his COVID-19 case may be severe.

President Donald Trump returned to the White House on Monday, just hours after doctors admitted they are in “uncharted territory” because of the COVID-19 treatments he’s received.

Trump did not respond to questions from reporters as he exited the hospital and got into an SUV, saying only “thank you very much” while giving an occasional thumbs-up.

Marine One touched down on the White House’s South Lawn at around 6:54 p.m., after which Trump walked up the South Portico stairs, removed his face mask, and stood on the balcony overlooking the lawn for photos. Continue reading.

Use of Dexamethasone to Treat Trump Suggests Severe Covid-19, Experts Say

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Many of the measures cited by his doctors are reserved for patients severely affected by the coronavirus.

President Trump’s doctors offered rosy assessments of his condition on Sunday, but the few medical details they disclosed — including his fluctuating oxygen levels and a decision to begin treatment with a steroid drug — suggested to many infectious disease experts that he is suffering a more severe case of Covid-19 than the physicians acknowledged.

In photos and videos released by the White House, there is hardly any sign that Mr. Trump is sick. But at a news conference at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., Mr. Trump’s doctors said his oxygen levels had dropped to a level that can indicate that a patient’s lungs are compromised. The symptom is seen in many patients with severe Covid-19.

The president’s medical team also said that he had been prescribed dexamethasone on Saturday. The drug is a steroid used to head off an immune system overreaction that kills many Covid-19 patients. Continue reading.

5 big questions on the White House’s botched handling of Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis

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On Saturday, White House physician Sean Conley stepped forward ostensibly to provide some clarity on the condition of the coronavirus-stricken President Trump. As with the doctors who came before him, though, what we have gotten from him over the past 24 hours is decidedly not that.

Conley’s comments Saturday and at a follow-up briefing Sunday have combined with other conflicting signals to yet again provide a hazy and misleading picture of the president’s health. But unlike his predecessors, this time we get it at a particularly precarious juncture in his presidency, when it’s literally a matter of national security.

As with previous flaps over Trump’s health, there is clearly tension between projecting the kind of strength he likes to see and providing actual, sober-minded details — a tension that White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows seemed to acknowledge in his own updates on Trump’s situation. Continue reading.