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Donald Trump’s White House doctor says the US President tested negative for Covid-19 on consecutive days using a newer rapid test from Abbott Labs.
The Navy Commander Sean Conley’s assessment came as Trump was traveling to Florida, leading his first campaign rally since becoming infected with the coronavirus.
Alex Brandon / AP
President Donald Trump removes his mask to speak from the White House Blue Room Balcony to a crowd of supporters Saturday.
Conley had said in a written memo released over the weekend that Trump was no longer at risk of passing the virus on to others.
Conley said in a new update published Monday (local time) that Trump tested negative for Covid-19 on consecutive days using a more recent 15-minute test. He did not say when Trump was tested.
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Conley said the tests, in conjunction with other data, including viral load, had led him to conclude that Trump was not contagious.
Trump announced on October 2 that he had tested positive for the illness caused by the coronavirus. He was admitted to Walter Reed Military Hospital that night and released on October 5.
Over the weekend, Trump addressed dozens of supporters who crowded onto the White House lawn from a balcony.
Trump holds rally in Florida
“It’s great to be back in my home state of Florida to make my official campaign return,” Trump declared in front of a crowd of thousands of supporters, standing shoulder to shoulder, mostly without masks, despite the continuing pandemic.
“I am so energized by your prayers and humbled by your support,” he said.
Trump was pushing to correct a stubborn deficit in national and state polls on the battlefield. His rally in Sanford on Monday night was his first stop in a busy week that would include events in Pennsylvania, Iowa, North Carolina and Wisconsin.
The solid schedule underscores the work Trump must do as he tries to win over voters just three weeks before Election Day. And it came amid unanswered questions about the impact that so many trips so soon could have on the 74-year-old president’s health. The progression of Covid-19 was often unpredictable and there could be long-term complications.
Trump, eager to get back into the campaign, said he was now “immune” to the virus, a claim that was impossible to prove given the limitations in what scientists know about the coronavirus.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, America’s leading infectious disease expert, said on CNN that those who recovered from Covid-19 would likely be immune for a limited period of time, but cases emerged of people being reinfected weeks or months later. .
Fauci, speaking as Trump prepared to leave the White House for Florida, questioned the advisability of holding such an event. He noted that test positivity rates were increasing in parts of the sunbelt.
“We know that’s asking for trouble when you do that,” Fauci said.
Some medical experts have also expressed skepticism that Trump could be declared contagion-free so soon. And it was unclear what additional precautions and security measures, if any, the campaign planned to take to prevent the trip from further spreading a virus that has already infected so many of the president’s aides and closest allies, including his manager of campaign and the head of the Republican Party.
Florida was considered critical to Trump’s reelection chances. Trump narrowly beat his 2016 rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton, in the state by just over 112,000 votes. Some recent polls have suggested a close race in the state, while others have put Democrat Joe Biden ahead.
Trump’s decision to return so quickly to the campaign drew criticism from Biden and other Democrats.
“President Trump comes to Sanford today bringing nothing but reckless behavior, divisive rhetoric and sowing fear,” Biden said in a statement. “But, equally dangerous is what it does not bring: no plan to contract this virus that has claimed its life.” of more than 15,000 Floridians under control ”.
Florida State Representative Shevrin Jones, a Democrat who is running for the state Senate and recently recovered from his own Covid-19 infection, said in a conference call with reporters that Trump should not come to Florida.
“He’s reckless and irresponsible,” Jones said.
Florida attorney Dan Uhfelder, who dressed up as the Grim Reaper on the beaches to highlight the threat of coronavirus, filed a lawsuit Monday to prevent Trump from holding his rally in Sanford. He sought to have the event classified as a public nuisance.
Trump, for his part, was eager to show the world that he was no longer sidelined by a virus that he has always downplayed and that has killed 215,000 people across the United States.
Since his release from a military hospital after three days of 24-hour care that included access to experimental antibody treatments that were not available to the public, Trump had used his personal experience to try to convince the public that he was right since the beginning.
He repeatedly told Americans who contracted the virus that “they will get better very fast,” even though hundreds of people in the United States die from the virus every day.
Trump held his first public event since his diagnosis Saturday, addressing a crowd of hundreds on the South Lawn from a White House balcony. Appearing without a mask and with bandages still visible on his hands, likely from intravenous injections, Trump spoke for just 18 minutes, far less than his usual campaign rallies, which can last more than 90 minutes.
He told the crowd that the virus is “disappearing” even as cases have been on the rise.
