Covid-19: Trump, back in the White House, compares coronavirus with seasonal flu

Still sick with Covid-19, US President Donald Trump has once again downplayed the illness that hospitalized him for three days and which has so far killed more than 210,000 Americans.

He compared it again to the seasonal flu and said he plans to return to the campaign soon.

Back in the White House after a dramatic helicopter return from the military hospital where he was receiving an unprecedented level of care for Covid-19, Trump’s attitude alarmed infectious disease experts, suggesting that his own illness It hadn’t made him rethink his often … arrogant attitude toward the disease, which has also infected the first lady and more than a dozen White House aides and associates.

Eager to project strength just four weeks before Election Day, Trump, who is still contagious with the virus, tweeted Tuesday morning (local time) that he plans to attend next week’s debate with Democrat Joe Biden in Miami. . “It will be great!” he said.

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Trump’s doctors have not provided an update on his condition since Monday afternoon, shortly before his departure from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

His doctor, Navy Commander Sean Conley, then offered that the president would not be completely “out of the woods” for another week.

Trump returned to the White House Monday night aboard Marine One, cautiously climbed the steps of the South Portico before removing his mask, and raised his thumb from the deck, where attendees had arranged the American flags for the occasion of the sunset.

He entered the White House, where assistants were seen walking around the Blue Room, without covering their faces.

In a video posted later, Trump offered a nonchalant view of the virus, contravening his own administration’s public health warnings that Americans take the threat seriously and should take precautions to avoid contracting and spreading the disease as they strike. cases continue to rise across the country.

“Don’t be afraid of him,” Trump said. “You are going to beat him. We have the best medical team, we have the best medicines ”. His comments were strong, but he was breathing more deeply than usual as he spoke them.

It was not said that the president’s experience with the disease has been far from typical, as his doctors rushed him to take experimental antiviral drugs and prescribed an aggressive course of steroids that would not be available to the average patient.

While most must deal with their symptoms, and the fear that they will get worse, at home and alone, Trump had stayed in the presidential suite of one of America’s best hospitals, and is now in the White House. where there is a team of doctors on call with 24-hour monitoring.

On Tuesday, Trump also reverted to his previous comparisons of Covid-19 to seasonal flu.

“Many people every year, sometimes more than 100,000, and despite the vaccine, die of the flu,” he tweeted. “Are we going to close our country? No, we have learned to live with it, just as we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations, much less lethal !!! “

In fact, Covid-19 has already been shown to be a more potent killer, particularly among older populations, than seasonal flu, and has shown signs of having long-term impacts on the health of the younger people it infects.

Just days earlier, Trump suggested that he had finally grasped the true nature of the virus, saying in a video, “I get it,” moments before he ventured out of the hospital while contagious to greet supporters cheering him on at a caravan, an exit that ignored precautions. intended to contain the virus.

Trump’s efforts to downplay the virus threat in hopes of propping up the economy ahead of the election have drawn bipartisan criticism.

Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas told the Houston Chronicle Editorial advice that Trump had “let his guard down” in his effort to show that the country was moving beyond the virus and had created “confusion” about how to stay safe.

“We have to be realistic on this: Covid is a total threat to the American population,” Dr. David Nace of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center said of Trump’s comment.

“Most people are not as lucky as the president,” with an in-house medical unit and access to experimental treatments, added Nace, an expert on infections in older adults.

“It’s an inconceivable message,” agreed Dr. Sadiya Khan of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “I would dare to say that it can precipitate or worsen the spread.”

Similarly, Biden, who spent more than 90 minutes on stage in the debate with Trump last week, said during an NBC town hall Monday night that he was glad Trump seemed to be on the mend, “but there’s a lot of what to worry about: 210,000 people “. Have they died. I hope nobody goes away with the message that it is not a problem. “

Biden tested negative for the virus on Sunday.

Biden said he would “listen to the science” before the next debates, adding that campaigns and the debate committee must be “very cautious” in making plans.

“If scientists say it’s safe, that distances are safe, then I think it’s okay,” he said. “I’ll do what the experts say.”

Conley said that because of Trump’s unusual level of treatment so soon after the discovery of his illness, he was in “uncharted territory.” But the doctor was also optimistic in an afternoon briefing, saying the president could resume his normal schedule once “there is no evidence of live virus still present.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people with mild to moderate symptoms of Covid-19 can be contagious for up to and should be isolated for at least 10 days.

Trump’s arrival in the White House raised new questions about how the administration was going to protect other officials from a disease that remains pervasive in the president’s body. Press secretary Kayleigh McEnany announced that she had tested positive for the virus on Monday morning and was entering self-quarantine.

There were also lingering questions about the possible long-term effects for the president, and even when he first contracted the virus.

Conley repeatedly refused to share the results of Trump’s lung medical scans and said he was not at liberty to discuss the information because Trump did not waive doctor-patient confidentiality on the matter.

Covid-19 is known to cause significant damage to the lungs of some patients.

Conley also declined to share the date of Trump’s most recent negative test for the virus, a tipping point for tracking contacts and understanding where Trump was in the course of the disease.

At the hospital, doctors revealed that her blood oxygen level had suddenly dropped twice in recent days and that they gave her a steroid normally only recommended for the very sick.

Trump left the hospital after receiving a fourth dose of the antiviral drug remdesivir on Monday night, Conley said. He will receive the fifth and final dose on Tuesday at the White House.

Vice President Mike Pence returned to the election campaign moments after Trump announced that he would soon be leaving the hospital. The vice president boarded Air Force Two to fly to Salt Lake City, where he will face Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris on Wednesday.