President Donald Trump pledged “to make China pay” for losses and harm caused by the Coronavirus Pandemic during his first arrival at the White House after receiving COVID-19 treatment. Analysts say that Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis means a tougher US line on China, where the first victim showed COVID-19 symptoms on December 1 in China’s Wuhan.
Over 210,000 deaths have been recorded in the US by COVID-19, making it the world’s highest death toll since the pandemic started. This figure has affected Trump’s position among US voters ahead of the general election slated November 3 and prompted him to denounce China for the pandemic.
The Republican president also labels the coronavirus as ‘China Plague’ or as “the Chinese Virus,” a language claimed to contribute to an uptick in anti-Asian discrimination in the US by rights advocates and policymakers. In Washington, the Chinese Embassy did not directly comment on these allegations when requested by the press to respond.
“I want to get to you what I got, and I’m going to make it free,” Trump said. It wasn’t your fault that this happened, it was China’s fault, and China is going to pay an enormous price [for] what they’ve done to this country. China’s going to pay an enormous price for what they’ve done to the world. This was China’s fault.”
Why US President Donald Trump Says His Contraction of COVID-19 is a Blessing
The doctors gave Trump the antibody cocktail after he suffered a fever and other symptoms linked to the COVID-19 infection while transferring him to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center last week. During the three days of his stay at the hospital, the physicians also gave him several antiviral Remdesivir and steroid dexamethasone doses, which are widely used in the treatment of inflammations in patients with extreme COVID-19 conditions.
A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT! pic.twitter.com/uhLIcknAjT
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 7, 2020
In a video taken just outside of the White House, US President Donald Trump called his illness “a blessing from God.” Communicating happily about the treatment that left him feeling “great”–specifically the groundbreaking antibody medicine identified as REGN-COV2 invented by the American biotechnology firm Regeneron–Trump said in a clip posted on social media that he wished to ramp up the supply of the medication to COVID-19 patients. This drug won’t be for sale, but it will be given freely.
Trump said: “I feel, like, perfect, so I think this was a blessing from God that I caught the virus. This was a blessing in disguise.”
Trump now believes he knows what to do to counteract the virus. He also promised to urge the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to grant an immediate drug permit for COVID-19 patients. Aruna Subramanian, a Stanford University infectious disease expert, said Trump’s push for FDA antimicrobial therapy clearance was “shocking,” noting that his praises to God for the virus infection “makes my stomach turn.” Subramanian said that Trump’s statement that his illness was God’s gift shocked her.
“He praised the Regeneron monoclonal antibodies today. We’re still doing trials on them,” she said in an interview. They seem safe, and they may be efficacious, but we don’t know in whom, and for what kinds of symptoms. Touting this as a cure and saying that the FDA should push it through, everybody should get it–it was very shocking. It makes my stomach turn,” she said. “So would he say that of the 210,000 Americans who died, they were cursed by God?”
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Stanford is among the 84 US medical research centers undertaking REGN-COV2 drug studies. According to a Tuesday study of The Stanford Daily, earlier findings from clinical tests that prescribe the medication to non-hospitalized patients of COVID-19 show that the medicine may benefit rehabilitation patients with moderate-to-severe symptoms.
