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The President of the United States, Donald Trump, has surprised his followers gathered outside the hospital where he is being treated for Covid-19 by passing in a caravan.
Wearing a mask, the president greeted inside a car moments after tweeting that he would be making a “surprise visit.”
Trump, who has been criticized for his handling of the pandemic, also said he had learned a lot about the virus.
Previously, his doctors said Trump continued to improve and that he could be discharged on Monday.
Dr. Sean Conley said the president’s oxygen level dropped twice since his diagnosis, and he started on a steroid called dexamethasone.
The president received extra oxygen at least once after testing positive, said Dr. Conley, who also tried to clear up the earlier confusion caused by conflicting statements about Trump’s condition.
In a tweet, the president, dressed in a suit jacket and shirt without a tie, said: “I learned a lot about Covid. I really learned it by going to school. This is the real school. This is not the school where we are going to read the books. I understand it and I understand it. It’s something very interesting, I’ll let you know. “
The president’s diagnosis, made public in a tweet early Friday, has changed his election campaign. Trump faces Democratic challenger Joe Biden on November 3.
What did the doctors say?
At a news conference at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center near Washington DC, Dr. Conley said Trump’s oxygen level had dropped twice since his positive test.
The first episode happened Friday morning at the White House, he said, when the president had a high fever and his oxygen level was below 94%; the level of a healthy person is 95% or more.
The president received supplemental oxygen “for about an hour,” the doctor said, and was flown to Walter Reed at night. The news had already been widely reported in the US media, and Dr. Conley’s confirmation came after he refused to answer several questions on the subject during Saturday’s briefing.
The second episode occurred on Saturday, when the level fell below 93%. When questioned, Dr. Conley did not say whether the president had received oxygen, but added that, if it had happened, “it was very limited.”
The team, Dr. Conley said, decided to give Trump dexamethasone, which studies have found improves survival for patients hospitalized with severe Covid-19.
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Steroids calm inflammation and the immune system and are already used in conditions such as arthritis and asthma, as well as some serious infections. The drugs are not believed to be helpful in the early stages of a coronavirus infection.
“Given the schedule where [Mr Trump] is in the course of the disease, we are trying to maximize all that we can do for him … We decided that, in this case, the potential benefits early in the course probably outweigh any risks at this point, “said Dr. Conley .
Dr. Conley also addressed a conflicting account of the president’s health that he gave shortly after his briefing on Saturday by the White House chief of staff. Mark Meadows said Trump’s vitals for the previous 24 hours had been “very worrying” and that the next 48 hours would be critical.
“I think his statement was misinterpreted,” said the doctor.
However, he acknowledged giving an overly optimistic description of Trump’s condition a day earlier: “I didn’t want to give any information that could direct the course of the disease in another direction. And in doing so, you know, it turned out that we were trying to hide something, which was not necessarily true. “
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The 74-year-old president is a man and someone classified as obese is in a higher risk category for Covid-19. On Friday he was given an experimental drug cocktail injection and started a five-day course of antiviral drug remdesivir.
Dr. Brian Garibaldi, who is also part of the team treating the president, said: “He feels good, he’s been up and around and our plan for today is for him to eat and drink, get out of bed as much as possible. “. be mobile. “
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Doctors said the president had not had a fever since Friday and that his liver and kidney functions had remained normal. But Dr. Conley declined to answer questions about whether the lung scans showed any damage.
It is not a drug for a ‘mild’ case
How important is it that dexamethasone was given to Donald Trump? The steroid saves lives by calming the immune system, which can become dangerously hyperactive in Covid, but must be used at the right time. If given too soon, the medicine could make things worse by affecting the body’s ability to fight the virus.
This is not a drug that you would normally give in the “mild” stage of the disease. The recovery trial, which took place in the UK, showed the benefit came at the time people need oxygen, which Trump did briefly. The World Health Organization translated those findings to recommend the use of the steroid in “severe and critical” cases.
Trump’s blood oxygen levels fell below 94%, which is one of the National Institutes of Health criteria for “serious illness.” However, those low oxygen levels were not sustained and the gap between someone in need of transient oxygen support and end-stage Covid-19 is huge.
We do not know all the details of Mr. Trump’s condition, but it is difficult to imagine that you or I would be discharged from the hospital while taking dexamethasone and remdesivir and after receiving experimental antibody therapy. However, we do not have the medical support available to the President of the United States.
Who else around the president has tested positive?
Several people close to the president tested positive, including first lady Melania Trump. Many of them attended a meeting at the White House last weekend that is being scrutinized as a possible “over-broadcast event.”
Other people who have tested positive around Trump include his close aide Hope Hicks, who is believed to be the first to show symptoms, campaign manager Bill Stepien and former White House adviser Kellyanne Conway.
Nicholas Luna, the last person to test positive, is a personal assistant or “body man” to the president and is in constant contact with Trump.
What about the political situation?
The president’s campaign team said Saturday it would move “full throttle” until Trump could return to the campaign. He’s calling on top “surrogates,” including Trump’s sons Donald Jr and Eric, and Vice President Mike Pence, to “run the campaign” for now.
Meanwhile, Pence is scheduled to hold a debate with Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris on Wednesday.
Joe Biden, who has continued his campaign, had no plans for in-person events or public appearances. It removed negative publicity about the president and on Saturday said the president’s response to the pandemic had been “inconceivable.”
In an interview for CBS’s Face the Nation, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, said that Republicans in Congress and the President had “for a long time … been unscientific” and that she hoped the Trump’s positive diagnosis will change his attitude toward the virus.
“I pray that, in addition to his health, the president’s heart is open to the millions of people who have been affected,” he said. “I hope it’s a sign that we really have to do better to prevent the spread of this virus.”
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