While treating President Donald Trump after he was tested positive for the Covid-19, physicians confirmed he had dropped oxygen at least.
Contradictory reporting further added confusion regarding the exact condition of the president nearing the end to his first term, while seeking for the second. Trump’s physicians said that his oxygen levels had fallen twice in two days and that he was on treatment usually prescribed for severe cases of the coronavirus. Yet, they maintained that his health was improving and that they could release him as early as Monday.
The President’s doctor, Sean Conley, admitted having misled reporters at a press conference on Saturday, insisting that they had not given the president sufficient oxygen. He later announced that Trump had been placed on oxygen on Friday morning after alarming signs had appeared. Conley had not confirmed the events because he did not want to spoil the “upbeat” mindset of the President and his medical staff. The president’s doctor offered information that he had covered the day before.
“Late Friday morning, when I returned to his bedside, the President had an acute fever, and his oxygen saturation was drastically dipping below 94%. It did not drop in the low 80s,” Dr. Conley said on Sunday. “Given these two developments, I was concerned about a possible rapid advancement of the illness. I recommended the President we try some supplemental oxygen. The President was adamant and said that “I don’t need it.”
Doctors seemed to have persuaded President Trump to take the oxygen feed. Perhaps he remained on it for about an hour, and then it was removed. However, Trump never seemed to care to wear a mask in public and mocked his presidential opponent for being cautious.
Donald Trump Physician Interrogated
There was a medical briefing on Sunday, and the press inquired how Trump was fairing. During the briefing, it was confirmed that Trump’s blood oxygen levels dropped on Saturday for the second time, but the two events did not indicate how low it dropped. The severity of any Coronavirus infection is assessed by oxygen saturation. Typical values range between 95 percent and 100 percent, and any decrease below 90 percent is extreme. Trump’s doctor Sean Conley was skeptical about the details.
Later, Conley was asked why he had initially refuted that the President had been placed on oxygen.
Conley responded: “I was trying to reflect the optimistic attitude that the team, the President, the course of illness, has had. I didn’t want to give any details that might drive the course of illness in another direction, and in doing so, it came off that we were trying to hide something, which wasn’t noxiously true.”
Conley was also unclear about the President’s lung scan outcome, stating that he had displayed “anticipated results” without specifying what it meant. The medical staff finished the news conference and headed to the hospital while journalists called for further information.
How Severe Is Trump’s Coronavirus Case?
The White House contains specialized emergency services, but the possibility that Trump will return home after two hypoxia (low oxygen) and, with medications usually reserved for extreme cases, shocked many health practitioners.
Trump’s physicians confirmed that they had administered President Remdesivir, an antiviral prescription, and dexamethasone, a medication that the World Health Organization recommends for only “serious and urgent” COVID-19 instances. They have also issued Trump monoclonal antibodies (antibodies both formed from the same parent cell), an experimental therapy that has so far been administered for “compassionate use” to fewer than ten patients before completing the trials.
Nevertheless, Dr. Brian Garibaldi, another representative among the medical staff, said Trump was doing fine, and his health was progressing.
“If he continues to appear and feel as well as he does today, we hope that we can discharge him as early as tomorrow to the White House where he can continue his treatment course,” Garibaldi said.
Election Campaigns: Donald Trump Meets Supporters
Trump is clinically overweight and 74 years old, placing him at an increased risk of severe consequences. “It seems like an awful call,” said Robert Wachter, chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California in San Francisco.
Trump’s condition did not stop him to go out and wave to his supporters against his doctor’s directives. He reportedly left the hospital and went out to meet his supporters.
“It seems like Trump is stable, but remains at high risk, given the temporary hypoxemia, some findings on chest imaging,” Wachter posted on Twitter. “The cheerful talk and evasions are clearly in Trump’s direction, putting the docs in a terrible position. He is no way ready for discharge tomorrow.”
Trump’s Illness Threatens his Election Campaigns
Trump’s sickness has caused a temporary setback to his US presidential election slated for 3 November. His Democratic competitor, Joe Biden, took his advertisements off the air when Trump headed to the hospital. Together with the contradictory messages about the President’s physical well-being, there is still confusion about where and how he was affected, how long he’d suffered the illness, and how many individuals he had affected before becoming aware of the disease.
Along with a rounding discussion of supporters, Trump took part in two fundraiser events at Bedminster on Thursday. Ever since, guests have received emails from the Trump Organisation, urging them to see a doctor if they have begun to develop Coronavirus side effects.
The interaction-tracing campaign was based on a White House gathering on 26 September. It was to honor Trump’s appointment to the Supreme Court, Amy Coney Barrett, where over 150 senior White House officials and top Republicans attended. Unfortunately, they all interacted both within and outside with no masks, holding hands, grouping in small cliques, and embracing each other.
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The US President’s Close Dignitaries Tested Positive as well
The following attended the Barrett interaction and so tested positive as well. The current New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, the former White House advisor, Kellyanne Conway, Director of the University of Notre Dame, John Jenkins, and two Republican senators, Mike Lee of Utah and Thom Tillis.
The President’s campaign manager, Bill Stepien, the Republican National Committee leader, Ronna McDaniel, and Wisconsin’s Senator, Ron Johnson, are also infected. They raised the possibility that the White House and the Republican Party hosted one event that contributed to disseminating the virus within their highest ranks, though they did not attend.
Speaking to the press during the medical review, White House spokesperson Alyssa Farah did not respond to questions about when the President was first screened on Thursday. When asked why he had gone to his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, that day, even after his close advisor, Hope Hicks, had tested positive, he said this.
“It was a resolution made by White House operations because he wasn’t supposed to pose a threat.”
The New Jersey Health Department announced on Sunday that the White House had released the details of 206 people who attended Trump’s Thursday gathering in Bedminster. Farah was questioned about Conley’s original denial that the President had been placed on oxygen.
Farah said: “When you’re treating a patient, you want to project confidence, lift their spirits, and that was the intent.”
