[ad_1]
Since Donald Trump announced to the US and the world that he had been infected by COVID-19, a period of doubt and uncertainty has continued, and still endures. Basically, a concrete answer to the question was missing: “After all, what is the clinical status of the President of the United States?” The doubts grew thicker since, the day after the infection was confirmed, Trump allowed 16 hours to pass from the last tweet until he wrote again on the favorite social network already hospitalized.
After that, he posted two videos. In the first, she said she felt better; in the second, she admitted to having learned “many new things” about the disease and, moments later, she broke the isolation and got in the car, along with several Secret Services agents, to greet her voters.
From Thursday, October 1, until the date of publication of this article, five days passed and during this period the White House insisted on the thesis that the president of the United States was “stable and healthy”, despite close sources and knowledgeable. situation denied the statement.
Currently, it is known unofficially, of course, that Donald Trump’s blood oxygen levels have dropped twice in a row and that this week will be crucial to understanding exactly how he is evolving.
But this detail alone is enough to conclude that Trump’s lungs were greatly affected, being a symptom registered in the patients most affected by the new coronavirus.
Falling oxygen levels as a strong indication of worsening
In addition, the medical team responsible for monitoring the case revealed to the press that the president was taking an aggressive steroid known to have caused the death of several COVID-19 infected patients. The use of the steroid, therefore, is limited only to those with a very reserved clinical picture, writes the American newspaper “The New York Times”.
But because, so far, the White House has not been transparent about the evolution of Trump’s status, the exact context that will have led to the administration of the steroid is not known. Was it because, in fact, Donald Trump’s health condition deteriorated suddenly or out of precaution? This, like many other questions, remains unanswered.
“The steroid they are giving you is the most difficult to demystify,” says Thomas McGinn, the doctor in charge of Nortwell Health Hospital, considered the largest provider of health care in New York, in the same newspaper.
The explanation, he says, has to do with the fact that this drug is only used in patients whose health is rapidly deteriorating. “Suddenly they are shooting at everything and that begs the question: is he sicker than we know or are the accompanying doctors too aggressive because he is the president of the United States?”
Or VIP syndrome
However, there are experts who do not deny the possibility that the president himself decides the course of his treatment. Who says it is Celine Gounder, Professor of Medicine and specialist in Infectious Diseases at the Grossman School of Medicine, USA, in the same publication, who says that there is a name to identify this approach: VIP syndrome.
“You think you are helping, but in reality you are not because we are dealing with a disease for which we have little data”, which makes it impossible to say with certainty that a certain experimental method is 100% right.
But given the symptoms registered and reported by Trump’s medical team to the press, the expert assures that it is most likely that it is a considerable worsening of the disease. To outline this scenario, Gounder focuses on the information that blood oxygen levels have experienced two declines in a short period of time.
The fact that Donald Trump has been forced to receive an oxygen boost and is now taking aggressive steroids contrasts with the positive outlook his communications team has painted, says The New York Times. “It would be very helpful to know exactly when the president needs oxygen and for how long,” says Rajesh Gandhi, an infectious disease specialist at the Massachusetts hospital. However, that information was never disclosed.
As for what could happen from here, experts do not doubt that there is a high probability that Donald Trump will be discharged at the end of this Monday, October 5, an attitude that they do not understand.
“If treatment is started with steroids because oxygen levels are dropping, it means it is important to be alert and have someone to monitor it. If there is concern that there is no specialized team in the White House to do that monitoring, when oxygen levels were still high, that is why it is important to be alert now ”, defends Sam Parnia, doctor and professor of medicine at New York University, who has been in contact with several patients infected by COVID-19.
[ad_2]
