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The White House has insisted that US President Donald Trump would continue to lead the country from the hospital, as the president was transferred to Walter Reed Medical Center on Friday night after contracting coronavirus.
Trump was airlifted to the presidential suite at the military medical center just eight miles (13 kilometers) north of the White House, less than 24 hours after he confirmed he had tested positive for coronavirus.
The President of the United States was injected with a cocktail of experimental antibodies at the White House following his coronavirus diagnosis.
The White House said Trump’s expected stay of “a few days” in the hospital was a precaution and that he would continue to work from the hospital’s presidential suite.
Trump, 74, is in a high-risk category for Covid-19. Shortly before his departure to Walter Reed, White House physician Sean Conley said the president was being treated with an experimental cocktail of antibodies developed by the biotech company Regeneron, as well as various drugs, including famotidine and melatonin.
He left the White House Friday night wearing a mask and gave reporters a thumbs up, but did not speak before boarding Marine One.
Crew members, Secret Service agents and White House personnel covered their faces to protect themselves from the president aboard the helicopter.
United States President Donald Trump exits Marine One as he arrives at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Photograph: Oliver Contreras / EPA
In a video message recorded before leaving for Walter Reed, Trump said: “I think I’m doing very well, but we’re going to make sure things work out.”
“It’s going well, I think! Thank you all. LOVE !!! “she wrote in her first tweet from the hospital on Friday night.
Just a month before the presidential election, Trump’s revelation that he was positive for the virus came via a morning tweet after he returned from an afternoon political fundraiser.
Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through it TOGETHER!
– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 2, 2020
I am pleased to report that Jill and I have tested negative for COVID. Thank you all for your messages of concern. Hope this serves as a reminder for you: wear a mask, keep your social distance, and wash your hands.
– Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 2, 2020
This cannot be a partisan moment.
It must be an American moment.
We have to unite as a nation.
– Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 2, 2020
He had gone ahead, saying nothing to the crowd, even though he knew he had been exposed to an aide with the disease that has infected millions in the United States and killed more than a million people worldwide.
First lady Melania Trump also tested positive, the president said, and several others in the White House did as well, raising concerns that the White House or even Trump himself may have further spread the virus.
Other positive tests
Several administration officials pointed to the Rose Garden announcement of Trump’s nomination of Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court as the possible connection between the cases that swept through Washington on Friday.
Former White House aide Kellyanne Conway, president of the University of Notre Dame, and at least two Republican senators who were also present at the event, Mike Lee and Thom Tillis, announced Friday that they had tested positive and were isolating.
Former advisor to the president of the United States, Kellyanne Conway, tested positive for Covid-19. Photograph: Eric Baradat / AFP
Trump’s campaign manager Bill Stepien also tested positive for the coronavirus and is experiencing “mild flu-like symptoms.”
All of Trump’s immediate campaign events were canceled, and his next debate with Democrat Joe Biden, scheduled for Oct. 15, is now in doubt.
The president’s physician, Sean Conley, said Trump received an experimental antibody combination that is currently in clinical trials before entering the hospital.
He added that the president “is still fatigued but in good spirits” and that a team of experts was evaluating both the president and the first lady regarding next steps.
Late on Friday, Dr. Conley posted an update saying that Trump “is doing very well” and “does not need supplemental oxygen.”
But he said that, “in consultation with specialists, we have chosen to start Remdesivir therapy,” an antiviral drug.
The 50-year-old first lady has a “mild cough and headache,” Dr. Conley reported, and the rest of the first family, including the Trumps’ son Barron, who lives in the White House, gave negative.
Experimental drug
Trump’s doctor said he was being treated with an experimental drug intended to supply antibodies to help fight his coronavirus infection.
Antibodies are proteins that the body makes when an infection occurs. They stick to a virus and help eliminate it, but it can take weeks to form. The drugs are purified versions of what seemed to work best in laboratory and animal tests.
Trump is receiving a two-antibody combination drug that is currently in late-stage studies from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.
The company previously developed a successful treatment for Ebola using a similar approach.
It is given as a single treatment intravenously. Trump’s physician, Dr. Sean Conley, said the drug was being administered “as a precautionary measure” and that the president was also taking zinc, vitamin D, an antacid called famotidine, melatonin and aspirin.
None of them have proven to be effective against Covid-19. Trump appears to be not receiving hydroxychloroquine, a drug that he widely promoted and has been shown in many studies to be ineffective in preventing or treating Covid-19.
– Additional AP reports
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