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WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump posted a video on Wednesday addressing the nation, calling his coronavirus infection “a blessing from God,” calling an unapproved drug a “cure” and saying it would provide hundreds of thousands of doses of drugs for free that have yet to go through all stages of testing for Americans.
– I think it was a blessing from God that he received it, – Trump said in the nearly five-minute video, posted after nearly two days out of public view and just over three hours before Vice President Mike Pence began the debate. with Democratic vice presidential candidate, Senator Kamala Harris of California.
In the video, Trump explained that he considered it a “blessing” to have been ill with a virus that killed more than a million people, including more than 211,000 Americans, because he ended up taking an experimental antibody cocktail, still in clinical trials, which is produced by Regeneron.
– For me it was not therapeutic; it just made me better, right? I call it a priest, ”said Trump, whose skin seemed darkened by makeup and sometimes gave the impression of having trouble breathing.
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Then the president said that everyone should have “free” access to the drug that has not yet been approved and that he would make sure it was in all hospitals as soon as possible. He claimed to have personally chosen the drug as part of his treatment.
– I feel great. I feel perfect, ”Trump declared.
It was the first time that Trump acknowledged receiving care that is not available to any member of the general public, as he said last Friday that he had tested positive for the virus.
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Trump did not provide details on how he would speed up drug distribution, except referring to the military and saying they could help. Regeneron received more than $ 500 million from the federal government to develop and manufacture his experimental treatment as part of Operation Warp Speed, a federal effort to create viable vaccines and treatments for the virus.
– They are great professionals, they did a fantastic job – he said about the health professionals who cared for him.
That includes Sean Conley, the White House physician, who said at a press conference two days ago that it was unclear whether Trump would be “out of the woods” for another week, given the typical course of the disease.
He began the video by saying “You may recognize me, you are your favorite president,” and ended by saying “Good luck.”
The video was released the day after advisers rejected a possible Trump live television speech to show him firmly in charge after he returned to the White House at Walter Reed National Medical Center, where he received treatment for Covid-19. .
The president is desperate to announce some kind of definitive treatment, or a vaccine, before the Nov. 3 election, in which nearly all research shows he is behind Biden nationally and in key states.
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The Regeneron antibody cocktail is not the only drug prescribed for Trump. You are also taking the antiviral Remdesivir, as well as dexamethasone, a corticosteroid that the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) recommend only for people suffering from severe or critical cases of Covid-19. . .
Doctors declined to say what other drugs Trump is taking while fighting the virus.
It is impossible to know if the treatment cured the president or even overcame the disease. Most people with Covid-19 end up recovering, and medical experts also said that Trump is probably still fighting the infection. Dexamethasone, which Trump first received on Saturday, is known to create a sense of well-being and euphoria in many people who take it, as well as bursts of energy, although experts heard by GLOBE said this side effect is dose dependent. and duration of treatment.
Medical experts outside the White House said next week would be crucial because many patients get worse in the second week after symptoms appear.
With federal help, Regeneron said it can produce up to 300,000 doses of the treatment, which should be provided to Americans for free. This is one of several antibody therapies, another being developed by Eli Lilly, which aims to provide people with powerful antibodies in hopes of boosting their immune response to the coronavirus.
Although both companies have reported promising initial results, clinical trials are still ongoing and have not been completed. Although Trump credits the Regeneron treatment with improving his disease, there is no way of knowing if a drug is safe and if it works without testing it in large groups of people – some receive the drug and others receive a placebo.
Regeneron and Eli Lilly said the therapies may be available before the end of the year. Some medical experts have seen the therapies as a kind of bridge until vaccines are available: the antibody infusion could be given to people who have been exposed to the virus to prevent infection, as well as people who are still at the onset of the illness.
In his video, Rump suggested that the treatments could soon be authorized for emergency use, a potentially risky move because it could allow the treatments to be widely used before they are shown to work. Wider access to medicines could make it difficult to enroll in clinical trials, because people may be reluctant to participate if there is a possibility of receiving a placebo.
Similar concerns were raised after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA, Anvisa American) created a broad access program for a similar therapy, known as convalescent plasma. Enrollment for plasma testing was stopped in part because doctors and hospitals were able to access treatment through the FDA program. As a result, it is unclear whether convalescent plasma is effective in treating Covid-19, although the FDA approved it for emergency use after Trump pressured the agency to do so.
Monoclonal antibodies like the ones Regeneron is developing are difficult and expensive to make, and some have raised questions about whether companies will be able to produce enough to meet global demand if they are shown to work. In August, the company announced that it would partner with a larger company, Roche, to increase production.
Authorized Voter Fraud Investigations
The Justice Department lifted the ban on voter fraud investigations in the last few months before an election, which existed out of fear it could slow voter turnout or undermine confidence in the results.
The action comes as Trump and Attorney General William Barr promote a false narrative that voter fraud is overwhelming and potentially undermines the faith of Americans in elections.
An attorney for the Justice Department in Washington said in a memorandum to prosecutors Friday that they could investigate suspicions of voter fraud before the votes were tabulated. This reversed a decades-long policy that largely prohibited aggressive conduct of such investigations during campaigns to prevent their existence from being made public and possibly “inhibit legitimate voting and campaign activities” or “intervene in the investigation itself as a problem ”for voters.
The memorandum creates “an exception to general non-interference in electoral politics” for suspected electoral fraud, in particular for misconduct by federal government officials, including postal or military officials. The exception allows investigators to take explicit investigative measures, such as questioning witnesses, that were previously prohibited in such investigations until the election results were certified.
