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WASHINGTON: Defying critics, US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday (October 6) that Americans were learning to live with COVID-19, a day after returning to the White House for further intensive treatment. after being hospitalized with the coronavirus.
Trump, who returned Monday night after nearly four days at Walter Reed Medical Center outside Washington, was due to receive a fifth transfusion of the antiviral drug remdesivir while he was being treated with the steroid dexamethasone, which is normally used only in the most serious cases.
Republican President, running against Democrat Joe Biden in an election four weeks away, has repeatedly downplayed the disease, which has killed more than 1 million people worldwide. The United States has the highest death toll from the pandemic in the world, with more than 209,000 deaths.
READ: ‘Don’t be afraid’: Trump urges Americans to ‘get out’ after returning from hospital
“Many people every year, sometimes more than 100,000, and despite the vaccine, die of the flu. 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 the Most populations are much less lethal !!! “Trump tweeted Tuesday.
An estimated 22,000 people will die of influenza in the 2019-2020 season, according to US government statistics.Even before contracting COVID-19, Trump acknowledged in recorded conversations with a journalist that the disease was more deadly than the flu. .
White House physician Dr. Sean P Conley emphasized that the Republican President, who is running for re-election against Democrat Joe Biden in the November 3 election, would have world-class medical care available around the clock.
“Don’t let it dominate you. Don’t be afraid,” Trump said in a video after his return Monday night.
“I’m better, and maybe I’m immune, I don’t know,” he added, flanked by American flags and with the Washington Monument in the background. “Get out there. Be careful.”
He returned to the White House in a made-for-television show, descending from his Marine One helicopter wearing a white surgical mask, only to remove it as he posed, waving and waving, on the mansion’s south portico.
READ: White House COVID-19 tests not enough to protect Trump
Trump has repeatedly circumvented social distancing guidelines meant to slow the spread of the virus and ignored his own medical advisers. He mocked Biden in the presidential debate last Tuesday for wearing a mask when campaigning.
“I was horrified when he said COVID is not to be feared,” said William Schaffner, professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.
“This is a disease that is killing about a thousand people a day, it has torpedoed the economy, it has put people out of work. It is a virus that must be respected and feared.”
Democrats also weighed in. “This is a tragic leadership failure,” tweeted Democratic Senator Chris Coons.
But Trump described himself as a man who overcame the disease and emerged stronger.
“If the president returns to the election campaign, he will be an invincible hero, who not only survived every dirty trick that the Democrats threw at him, but also the Chinese virus,” he wrote on Twitter.
A Twitter post from Biden showed images of himself donning a mask and Trump removing his. “Masks matter. They save lives,” read the legend.
White House spokesman Judd Deere said every precaution was being taken to protect the president and his family. Physical access to Trump would be limited and those close to him would wear appropriate protective gear.
Questions continue to swirl about Trump’s true state of health after a weekend in which his doctors offered conflicting or opaque assessments of his condition.
His oxygen saturation dropped enough to require supplemental oxygen on Friday and Saturday and he will receive his last intravenous dose of the antiviral drug, remdesivir, at the White House on Tuesday, his doctors said.
READ: Britain rations remdesivir as COVID-19 hospitalizations rise
US President Donald Trump returns to the White House after being hospitalized at Walter Reed Medical Center for COVID-19. (Photo: Reuters)
KICKBACK POSSIBLE
Many aides and confidants have been diagnosed with the disease since Trump’s announcement last week that he had tested positive, intensifying scrutiny and criticism of the administration’s handling of the pandemic.
Trump had no public events listed for Tuesday, and it was unclear when a full program could resume.
“I’m sure it will rest for the next two days. And it will go live as soon as they say it’s okay,” Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani told Fox News on Tuesday, adding that Trump would still make the light. they work like making phone calls.
“You never know with this disease, but it seems like he is recovering very fast and strong. And certainly his spirit has returned. He is eager to go,” Giuliani said.
Republican Senator Thom Tillis, who also tested positive for COVID-19 after a visit to the White House on Sept. 26, said on Twitter that Trump called him Monday night and said he was “feeling great and working. Lasted”.
After recent opinion polls showed that Trump was lagging further behind Biden, early voting data indicated that nearly 4 million Americans already voted four weeks before Election Day, suggesting there may be a record participation.
LEE: Trump’s COVID-19 case may be severe, experts say
The severity of Trump’s illness has been the subject of intense speculation, with some experts pointing out that as an overweight elderly man, he was in a high-risk category.
#GaspingForAir started trending on Twitter after a video showed Trump appeared to take several deep breaths while standing on the balcony of the White House.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN that Trump looked fine when he left the hospital, but noted that patients sometimes have a setback five days after falling ill.
“Sometimes when you have five days, you are going to have a reversal … It is unlikely to happen, but you have to be vigilant,” Fauci said.
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