[ad_1]
The White House said today that President Donald Trump remains “fatigued” after contracting Covid-19 and that he has been injected with a cocktail of experimental antibodies to the virus that has killed more than 205,000 Americans and has spread to the highest echelons. of the United States government.
Donald Trump. Source: Associated Press
Just a month before the presidential election, the revelation came in a tweet from Trump around 1 a.m. local time, after he returned from an afternoon political fundraiser. 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 have as well, raising concerns that the White House or even Trump himself may have further spread the virus.
Trump has spent much of the year downplaying the threat of the virus, rarely wearing a protective mask and urging states and cities to “reopen” and reduce or eliminate closure rules.
The president’s doctor said in a memo earlier today that Trump received a dose of an experimental antibody cocktail from Regeneron that is in clinical trials. Navy commander Dr. Sean Conley said Trump “remains fatigued but in good spirits” and that a team of experts was evaluating both the president and the first lady on next steps.
The first lady, who is 50, has a “mild cough and headache,” Conley reported, and the rest of the first family, including the Trumps’ son Barron, who lives in the White House, tested negative.
Your playlist will load after this announcement.
Positive partner tests occur after one of their helpers contracted the virus. Source: 1 NEWS
Both Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris tested negative, according to their campaign. Vice President Mike Pence tested negative for the virus today and “remains in good health,” his spokesman said.
Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was with him and many others on Sunday and has been in a Capitol meeting with lawmakers, also tested negative, the White House said.
Trump’s diagnosis is sure to have a destabilizing effect in Washington and around the world, raising questions about the extent to which the virus has spread to the highest levels of the US government. Hours before Trump announced that had contracted the virus, the White House said a senior aide who had traveled with him during the week had tested positive.
“Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately, “Trump tweeted just before 1am.” We will finish this TOGETHER! “
While House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows today tried to reassure the public that Trump was doing business as usual, even as he confirmed that the White House knew that Hope Hicks, the aide, had tested positive before Trump to attend a fundraiser in New Jersey on Friday.
“I can tell you in terms of Hope Hicks, we found out just as Marine One was taking off yesterday,” Meadows said. Several staff members were removed from the trip, but Trump did not cancel and there was no direct evidence that their illness was related to his.
Many senior White House and administration officials were undergoing testing today, but the full scale of the outbreak around the president may not be known for some time, as it can take days for an infection to be detectable by a test. Officials from the White House Medical Unit were tracking the president’s contacts.
Trump’s re-election campaign said it was suspending all events with Trump and members of his family, but that Pence would resume the campaign as he tested negative.
Trump was last seen by journalists returning to the White House yesterday and did not appear ill. He is 74 years old and clinically obese, putting him at higher risk for serious complications from a virus that has infected more than 7 million people nationwide.
Trump has been trying all year to convince the American public that the worst of the pandemic is over. In the best case scenario, if you have few symptoms, which can include fever, cough and respiratory problems, it will probably force you to leave the campaign and call into question your participation in the second presidential debate, scheduled for October 15 in Miami. . .
Trump’s handling of the pandemic has already been a major flash point in his run against Biden, who spent much of the summer off campaign and at his home in Delaware citing concerns about the virus. Since then, Biden has resumed a more active campaign program, but with small and socially distant crowds. He also regularly wears a mask in public, something Trump mocked him for in Wednesday’s debate.
“I don’t wear masks like him,” Trump said of Biden. “Every time you see him, he has a mask on. He could be talking 200 feet away from me, and he shows up wearing the largest mask I have ever seen.” viewed “.
Your playlist will load after this announcement.
The president of the United States asked why Biden would use one, when he had spent so much money on plastic surgery. Source: Associated Press
In a tweet today, Biden said that he and his wife “send our thoughts to President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump for a speedy recovery. We will continue to pray for the health and safety of the president and his family. “
World leaders offered the president and the first family their best wishes after his diagnosis, as governments used his case as a reminder for their citizens to wear masks and practice social distancing measures.
Trump’s announcement came hours after he confirmed that Hicks, one of his most trusted and veteran aides, had been diagnosed with the virus yesterday. Hicks began experiencing mild symptoms during the plane ride home from a rally in Minnesota on Thursday, according to an administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity to reveal private information. She was isolated from other passengers on board the plane, the person said.
Hicks had been with Trump and other senior personnel aboard Marine One and Air Force One en route to that rally and had accompanied the president to Tuesday’s presidential debate in Cleveland, along with members of the Trump family. The Trump contingent removed their masks during the debate, in violation of the rules of the place.
Several White House staff members have previously tested positive for the virus, including Pence’s press secretary Katie Miller, national security adviser Robert O’Brien and one of the president’s personal aides. An RNC official confirmed today that President Ronna McDaniel learned that he had tested positive on Thursday. She has been at her home in Michigan since last Sunday and did not attend the debate.
But Trump has always downplayed concerns about being personally vulnerable. For the most part, he has refused to adhere to basic public health guidelines, including those issued by his own administration, such as wearing face coverings in public and practicing social distancing. Instead, he has continued to hold campaign rallies that draw thousands of supporters, often without a mask.
“I didn’t feel any vulnerability,” he told reporters in May.
Regarding Trump’s attendance at Friday’s fundraiser, press secretary Kalleigh McEnany said: “He socially distanced himself. It was an outdoor event, and White House Operations deemed it safe for him to attend that event. “
McEnany and Trump’s director of social media Dan Scavino, who were originally scheduled to accompany him on the trip, were replaced at the last minute by other attendees. McEnany briefed the press on Friday and did not mention any suspicions of illness, raising new concerns about the White House’s transparency.
It’s unclear where the Trumps or Hicks may have contracted the virus, but in an interview with Fox, Trump appeared to suggest that it may have been spread by someone in the military or law enforcement in a salute.
The White House began instituting a daily testing regimen for the president’s top advisers after previous positive cases close to the president. Anyone close to the president or vice president is also tested every day, including journalists.
Trump is far from the first world leader to test positive for the virus, which previously infected Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who spent a week in hospital, including three nights in intensive care. Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was hospitalized last month while fighting what he called a “hellish” case of Covid-19.
