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WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump, said to be making progress in his recovery from Covid-19, tweeted his excitement about returning to the election campaign even as the outbreak that has killed more than 210,000 Americans increasingly reached the upper echelons. of the United States Government.
When Trump convalesced out of sight in the White House on Tuesday, the administration defended the protections it has put in place to protect the staff who work there to treat and support him. Trump again publicly downplayed the virus on Twitter after he returned from a three-day hospitalization, though even more attendees tested positive, including one of his closest advisers, Stephen Miller.
In a major national action against the coronavirus, Trump declared that no action would be taken before the election on economic stimulus legislation, an announcement that came shortly after the chairman of the Federal Reserve said that such aid was essential to the recovery with the nation reeling from the human and economic. cost of the pandemic. The shares fell on news from the White House.
As for Trump’s own recovery, his doctor, the commander of the Navy. Sean Conley said in a letter that the president had a “break” Monday night at the White House and is “reporting no symptoms.”
Meanwhile, Trump was grappling with the next political steps exactly four weeks after Election Day. Eager to project strength, Trump, who is still contagious with the virus, tweeted Tuesday that he planned to attend next week’s debate with Democrat Joe Biden in Miami and “It will be great!”
Biden, for his part, said he and Trump “shouldn’t have a debate” as long as the president remains positive for the coronavirus.
Biden told reporters in Pennsylvania that he was “looking forward to discussing it,” but said “we will have to follow very strict guidelines.”
In other parts of the government, the extent of the outbreak was still being discovered. On Tuesday, the nation’s top military leaders, including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, and Vice President, General John Hyten, were in quarantine after being exposed to Admiral Charles W. Ray, Vice Commander of The coast guard.
It was not known how Ray contracted the virus, but he attended an event for military families at the White House on September 27. The Coast Guard said in a statement that Ray felt mild symptoms over the weekend and was examined Monday.
Also tested positive Tuesday was Miller, a top Trump policy adviser and speechwriter who has been an architect of the president’s restrictive immigration measures. ”Miller’s wife, Katie Miller, who serves as the director of communications for the Vice President Mike Pence, had the virus earlier on Tuesday. She had been in Salt Lake City with Pence, where he is preparing to debate Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris, but left as soon as she learned of her husband’s diagnosis. authorities said, it tested negative Tuesday.
Trump made clear Monday that he has little intention of complying with best containment practices when he removed his mask before entering the White House after his discharge from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. The waiting attendants were visible when he entered the Blue Room without covering his face.
Trump’s attitude alarmed infectious disease experts. And he suggested that his own illness hadn’t caused him to reconsider his often arrogant attitude toward the illness, which has also infected the first lady and more than a dozen White House aides and associates.
Republican Senator Susan Collins said Tuesday: “When I saw him on the balcony of the White House, removing his mask, I couldn’t help but think that he sent the wrong signal, given that he is infected with COVID-19 and there are many people in his immediate circle who have the virus. “
Trump, for his part, 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 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate 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. On Tuesday, his office released a memorandum outlining the health and safety precautions that have been put in place at the executive residence, including the adoption of hospital-grade disinfection policies, the encouragement of “maximum teleworking” and the installation of additional systems of sterilization and filtration. The residence staff in direct contact with the first family is assessed daily and the support staff is tested every 48 hours. And ever since the President and Mrs. Trump tested positive, the staff have been wearing “full PPE.”
Despite Trump’s upbeat talk about the disease, his own treatment has been far from typical, as his doctors rushed him to experimental antiviral drugs and prescribed an aggressive course of steroids that would not be available to the average patient. . On Tuesday he was to receive his final dose of the antiviral drug remdesivir. It was not known if he was still on the powerful steroid dexamethasone, which he was prescribed on Saturday after he suffered a second drop in his blood oxygen levels in as many days.
Dr. Conley said Monday that because of Trump’s unusual level of treatment so soon after his illness was discovered, he was in “uncharted territory,” adding that Trump would not be completely “out of the woods” for a week. .
The coronavirus can be unpredictable and Conley has noted that it can become more dangerous as the body responds. Days seven to 10 may be “the most critical in determining the likely course of this disease,” he said over the weekend.
There were also lingering questions about the possible long-term effects for the president, and even when he first contracted the virus. Conley has repeatedly refused to share the results of Trump’s lung medical scans, saying she was not at liberty to discuss the information because Trump did not waive doctor-patient confidentiality on the matter. (AP)
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