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But it’s not yet clear to what extent contracting COVID-19 confers immunity, with early studies suggesting a few months, while newer ones have indicated it could last longer.
FILE: US President Donald Trump speaks during the daily briefing on the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, at the White House on March 19, 2020, in Washington, DC. Image: AFP
WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump declared himself immune to COVID-19 and ready for a fight on Sunday as his run for the White House against emerging rival Joe Biden enters its critical final weeks.
Trump’s doctors gave him a clear Saturday to return to the election campaign after it was ruled that he was no longer a risk of coronavirus transmission, and on Sunday he said while calling a campaign event that he came back “totally negative.”
A full and complete farewell to the White House doctors yesterday. That means I can’t get it (immune) and I can’t manage it. Very good to know !!!
– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2020
But it has not yet been declared virus-free and its claim of immunity is unproven.
“It seems like I’m immune to, I don’t know, maybe for a long time and maybe for a short time, it could be a lifetime, nobody really knows, but I’m immune,” Trump told Fox News. Sunday morning futures.
“The word immunity means something, which really has a protective glow.
“So now you have a president who doesn’t have to hide in a basement like his opponent,” Trump added, in a blow to Democratic challenger Biden, who has taken a much more cautious approach to campaigning during the pandemic.
But it’s not yet clear to what extent contracting COVID-19 confers immunity, with early studies suggesting a few months, while newer ones have indicated it could last longer.
Twitter on Sunday covered up a tweet from Trump claiming he was immune, saying the post violated its rules on misleading and potentially harmful misinformation.
The tweet was still visible once users clicked on the warning.
MONITORING IN SURVEYS
Trump, 74, was treated with an experimental antibody cocktail made by Regeneron that can give immunity for a few months when taken as a treatment rather than as a vaccine.
“In some cases, vaccines can last for decades. (But) if you get it in the form of natural immunity, that’s not yet known,” Regeneron CEO Leonard Schleifer told CBS. Face the nation on Sunday.
“If you put it in our jar, if you want it, it will probably last for months,” he said.
Following Biden with just a few weeks until the Nov. 3 vote, Trump has been counting down the days until he can get back on track.
The Republican leader rallied hundreds of supporters for a comeback event at the White House on Saturday, and is planning back-to-back rallies this week, in Florida on Monday, then in Pennsylvania and Iowa, in a bid to salvage his struggling campaign.
During his phone interview on Fox News, Trump suggested that his rival in the White House might be ill.
“If you look at Joe, yesterday he was coughing horribly and grabbing his mask, coughing,” Trump said. “And I don’t know what that was all about, and it didn’t get a lot of press.”
‘NEVER APPROVED A CANDIDATE’
Biden’s campaign has been publishing daily coronavirus tests for its 77-year-old candidate since Trump tested positive on October 1, sending him to a military hospital for three nights and derailing his campaign.
There has been less transparency around Trump’s health status, and his medical team repeatedly refused to say when he last tested negative for the virus. That has fueled suspicion that he may not have been screened for several days before his diagnosis.
COVID-19 has killed more than 214,000 people in the United States, but the president has urged Americans not to fear the virus.
A re-election announcement praising Trump’s handling of the outbreak was criticized by top administration scientist Anthony Fauci, who said the clip was edited to appear to support the president’s response to the pandemic.
“In my nearly five decades of public service, I have never publicly endorsed any political candidate,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in a statement sent to AFP.
Trump defended the clip and his handling of the pandemic, and refuted the doctor’s criticism.
“In fact, these are Dr. Fauci’s own words. We have done a ‘phenomenal’ job, according to some governors,” the president wrote in a tweet.
Biden criticized Trump’s determination to rally large crowds during the pandemic, tweeting on Sunday: “There is no excuse for the reckless behavior of President Trump.”
Former Vice President Barack Obama is currently about 10 points ahead in national polls with a solid lead in some key states.
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