United States President Donald Trump could be released from Walter Reed Military Hospital as early as Monday. This comes as the president and his doctors push a rosy narrative that he is well on the mend.
Trump, who was admitted last Friday under the care of a multi-disciplinary team of doctors, has since produced two videos, presumably from inside the hospital facility, in a show of strength; including breaking quarantine protocols for a drive by his supporters gathered outside the hospital, which flies in the face of all COVID-19 isolation protocols.
President Donald Trump says the next few days will be the “real test” of his treatment for COVID-19:
The president broke quarantine protocols on Sunday, in a sealed SUV with Secret Service agents in tow, promoting serious concerns for the health of his security detail.
A tweet from Dr James Phillips, an attending physician at Walter Reed, called the move astoundingly irresponsible as the president’s SUV is hermetically sealed against a chemical attack making the risk of COVID-19 transmission high.
The latest polling shows Democratic rival Joe Biden with a 14-point lead nationally one month out from Election Day.
Before he broke quarantine, Trump said he is getting great reports from doctors.
“We’re getting great reports from the doctors. This is an incredible hospital, Walter Reed. The work they do is just absolutely amazing. And I want to thank them all, the nurses, the doctors, everybody here. I’ve also gotten to meet some of the soldiers and the first responders and what a group.”
This followed a briefing given by his medical team that confirmed reports that the president received supplemental oxygen twice and remained on a cocktail of experimental anti-viral therapy, including the steroid dexamethasone used for severe or critical COVID cases.
Dr Brian Garibaldi is part of the president’s medical team. He said Trump completed a second dose of remdesivir.
“The president yesterday evening completed a second dose of remdesivir. He has tolerated that infusion well. We’ve been monitoring for any potential side effects and he has had none that we can tell his liver and kidney function have remained normal and we continue to plan to use a five-day course of remdesivir. In response to transient low oxygen levels, as Dr Conley has discussed, we did initiate dexamethasone therapy and he received his first dose of that yesterday and our plan is to continue that for the time being. Today, he feels well. He’s been up and around. Our plan for today is to have him to eat and drink, be up out of bed as much as possible to be mobile and if he continues to look and feel as well as he does today, our hope is that we can plan for discharge as early as tomorrow to the White House, where he can continue his treatment course.”
President Donald Trump’s doctor gives an update on his health:
Underlying conditions
Doctors have warned that days 7-10 in the course of this treatment are usually the most important days for patients in the high-risk category as Trump is, given his age and underlying conditions. But it’s a show of strength that appears to be the main preoccupation for the White House.
When asked by a reporter why there has been reluctance to disclose that Trump has been administered oxygen, the president’s Physician, Dr Sean Conley, said that he did not want to give out any information that might steer the course of the illness in another direction.
“That’s a good question. So, I was trying to reflect the upbeat attitude that the team, the president that the course of illness has had. I didn’t want to give any information that might steer the course of illness in another direction and in doing so, you know, it came off that we’re trying to hide something, which wasn’t necessarily true. And so, the fact of the matter is that he’s doing really well. He is responding and as the team said, if everything continues to go well, we’re going to start discharge planning back to the White House.”
With just 29 days until the election, a new NBC-Wall Street Journal Poll shows Joe Biden’s lead nearly doubling since last Tuesday’s debate, he’s now enjoying a 14-point lead among registered voters, the largest lead in this poll to date, with voters saying by 2-to-1 that the Democrat has the better temperament to be president.
