Meadows (R) watches as US President Donald Trump walks off Marine
One while arriving at Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda,
Maryland on October 2, 2020. Brendan Smialowski / AFP
Donald Trump is doing “very well” in his
hospital treatment for Covid-19, his medics said Saturday, but a
source with knowledge of the US president’s condition said his
vital signs had been worrying, with the next 48 hours
critical.
Trump is up and walking, has been fever free for 24 hours
and his cough, nasal congestion and fatigue are improving,
physician Sean Conley said during the first medical update on his
status since the president was admitted to Walter Reed military
medical center Friday.
Trump is not receiving extra oxygen, he added, and is
“doing very well.”
“We have monitored his cardiac function, his kidney function,
liver function. All of those are normal,” another member of the
medical team, Sean Dooley said.
But a source familiar with the president’s health gave a much
more worrying assessment.
“The president’s vitals over the last 24 hours were very
concerning and the next 48 hours will be critical in terms of his
care,” the source said. “We’re still not on a clear path to a
full recovery.”
Conley, with medical staff, gives an update on the condition of US
President Donald Trump, on October 3, 2020, at Walter Reed Medical
Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Trump was hospitalized on October 2
due to a Covid-19 diagnosis. Brendan Smialowski / AFP
The White House has not commented on the assessment.
Conley was evasive when asked whether Trump had
received supplementary oxygen at any point since falling ill, only
confirming that he hadn’t received any at the hospital or on
Thursday — the day he had his test.
This leaves the possibility that he was on oxygen at the White
House on Friday before being admitted to Walter Reed, and there
were reports in US media, unconfirmed by AFP, that this was the
case.
Soon after Trump arrived at hospital, Conley said in a
memo that the president was starting a course of therapeutic drug
remdesivir and had received an eight-gram dose of an experimental
polyclonal antibody cocktail.
Conley would not put a “hard date” on Trump’s discharge
from hospital or disclose the president’s temperature.
Amid the rosy assessment from the White House, more people close
to the president disclosed they have tested positive for the
coronavirus.
Trump trailing
The latest is campaign advisor Chris Christie, who was among
several aides that helped Trump prepare for the first
presidential debate that have since announced positive tests.
Three senators as well as Trump’s campaign manager and
other senior aides are among a growing list from the president’s
orbit to have contracted the virus, with at least seven confirmed
cases tied to an event in the White House Rose Garden last
weekend.
trailing in pre-election polls.
With Trump, who is trailing in the polls, knocked off the
campaign trail for treatment Walter Reed army medical center
outside Washington — and possibly for many days after — his
campaign plans were in disarray ahead of a potentially messy
election on November 3.
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Among the unknowns were the prospects for two remaining
presidential debates and whether the president will have to yield
power temporarily to Vice President Mike Pence if his condition
worsens.
“Going well, I think! Thank you to all.
Love!!!” Trump said in his first tweet from the hospital
late Friday.
He had walked out of the White House under his own steam — and
wearing a mask, which is rare for the world’s most prominent
pandemic skeptic — to be taken to the hospital.
The president — a prolific tweeter — stayed off social media
almost all day Friday.
Heightening the sense of crisis at the heart of power in
America, a third Republican senator, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin,
announced on Saturday that he had tested positive.
Uncharted waters
Former White House top aide Kellyanne Conway and Trump’s
campaign manager, 42-year-old Bill Stepien, have contracted the
novel coronavirus. So have two other Republican senators — Thom
Tillis of North Carolina and Mike Lee of Utah.
The latter two sit on the chamber’s Judiciary Committee, which
is slated to hold hearings for Amy Coney Barrett, Trump’s
conservative nominee to fill a vacant seat on the Supreme
Court.
Public health experts have expressed alarm at the number of
cases that appear linked to a celebration of Barrett’s nomination
at the Rose Garden on September 26.
At least seven people who attended have now tested positive,
including Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Conway,
Tillis, Lee and University of Notre Dame President John
Jenkins.
These are uncharted waters for the US election
with Trump — who is well behind his Democratic opponent
Joe Biden in the polls — having to freeze much of his campaign.
Biden now finds himself alone on the campaign trail — and able
to argue that his more cautious approach to Covid-19 has been
vindicated.
Biden has made Trump’s frequent downplaying of the pandemic
and mixed messaging on mask-wearing a central campaign theme,
while Trump has tried to shift the narrative to areas
where he feels stronger, like the economy.
The former vice president, who stood on a stage
with Trump for 90 minutes during their ill-tempered first
debate Tuesday, announced that he and his wife Jill tested negative
Friday.
Underlining his sudden advantage in the bitter race, Biden, 77,
traveled to Grand Rapids, Michigan on Friday, going ahead with a
previously scheduled campaign stop.
However, Biden also reminded voters that he has pushed
consistently for a serious approach to the coronavirus, which has
killed more than 208,000 Americans, unlike his opponent who has
mocked the Democrat for his rigorous use of masks.
AFP