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President Donald Trump remains out of sight for a second day recovering from Covid-19, but he has returned to work in the Oval Office and has been making his presence known on social media, tweeting broadside against Democrats, floating false figures on diseases and lobbying legislators. accept fragmented financial aid proposals after rejecting negotiations on a broader aid package.
It was Trump’s first visit to the Oval Office since he was discharged from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Wednesday (local time). While there, he was briefed on Hurricane Delta, looming off the US Gulf Coast, and on the prospects for economic stimulus.
Alex Brandon / AP
President Donald Trump stands on the balcony outside the Blue Room as he returns to the White House.
White House spokesman Brian Morgenstern said of the return to the Oval Office that “there are certainly ways to do it without compromising anyone.”
White House officials said they have put additional safeguards in place to protect personnel who may interact with the president, including the requirement for full personal protective equipment.
READ MORE:
* Covid-19: Trump reports that ‘there are no symptoms’, again downplays the virus
* Covid-19: White House signals greater precautions against coronavirus, but Trump continues to resist
* Covid-19: Trump, back in the White House, compares the coronavirus to the seasonal flu
Trump’s doctor reported Wednesday that the president continued to make progress in his recovery.
Dr. Sean Conley, the White House physician, said Trump had stated, “I feel great!”
Conley added in a memo that Trump had been symptom-free for more than 24 hours and that his oxygen saturation level and respiratory rate were normal. The memo also said that a blood test showed Trump had antibodies to the coronavirus, substances that fight infection, but had been given an experimental drug that contained them.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc says it is not possible for this type of blood test to distinguish between the antibodies that Trump’s body may be producing and those supplied by the company’s drug. Those detected in the test are most likely from the drug, the company said.
Susan Walsh / AP
Dr. Sean Conley, physician to the President of the United States, Donald Trump, briefs reporters at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that people can break isolation 10 days after symptoms appear. While reports of reinfection are rare, the CDC recommends that even people recovering from Covid-19 continue to wear a mask, stay away, and follow other precautions.
Aides were ordered to take extensive precautions to avoid contracting the president’s coronavirus. And while attendees say he is working, White House officials have offered scant details of what he is doing beyond noting that he has spoken with Republican leaders and worked with high-level advisers in recent days.
Morgenstern said Trump “wants to speak to the American people and will do so soon.” But he said he had no specific details on when Trump could make a public appearance.
Amid the national public health crisis, a personal one, and flashes of warning from leading economists that the virus-scarred economy is in dire need of stimulus, Trump released more than four dozen tweets at noon praising supporters and gutting his opponents.
He again downplayed the virus publicly on Twitter after his return from a three-day hospitalization, though even more attendees tested positive, including one of his closest advisers, Stephen Miller. In all, more than a dozen White House employees tested positive.
Even as the White House has been turned into a ghost complex this week due to illness, Trump released a video of South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem talking about her decision to resist Covid-19 restrictions in her state and thanked a supporter who tweeted that he would “wade through a sea of Covid-infested water to vote for President Trump on November 3.”
In a major national action against the coronavirus, Trump declared that no action would be taken ahead of the elections on economic stimulus legislation, shortly after the chairman of the Federal Reserve said such aid was essential to recovery with the nation reeling. because of the human and economic cost of the pandemic. .
The shares fell on the news from the White House, but were rebounding Wednesday after he raised the partial aid idea. Trump later tweeted his support for a series of stimulus proposals that appear to be a political failure before Election Day.
Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin spoke briefly about the possibilities of an independent airline bailout, Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill tweeted. Pelosi led Mnuchin to a measure she had tried to pass on Friday on short notice with fast-track procedures, but only after Democrats made a series of changes Republicans didn’t like.
Meanwhile, Trump was grappling with the next political steps exactly four weeks after Election Day. Eager to project force, Trump, who is still contagious with the virus, tweeted that he planned to attend next week’s debate with Democrat Joe Biden in Miami.
Jacquelyn Martin / AP
Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi of California speaks during a weekly press conference.
Biden, for his part, said he and Trump “shouldn’t have a debate” as long as the president remains positive on Covid. Biden told reporters in Pennsylvania that he was “looking forward to discussing it,” but said “we will have to follow very strict guidelines.”
Trump falsely suggested that the virus was similar to the 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. The CDC estimates that influenza has caused far fewer deaths annually than Trump said – between 12,000 and 61,000 a year since 2010.
Trump was working out of a makeshift office space on the ground floor of the White House residence, very close to the White House Medical Unit office suite, with only a few attendees being granted an audience. face to face. The west wing was largely vacant, as several of Trump’s aides were ill or in quarantine after exposure to people infected with the virus, or working remotely as a precaution.
First lady Melania Trump was isolated upstairs in the White House.
