San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
MIXED MESSAGES ABOUT TRUMP’S HEALTH
White House says president is ‘doing very well’ but he’s ‘not yet out of the woods’
The White House on Saturday created confusion on the status of President Donald Trump’s health and precisely when he contracted COVID-19 — issuing a series of conflicting statements and injecting uncertainty into the nation’s understanding of the president’s well-being and who he and his associates may have exposed to the coronavirus.
At a news conference at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., Saturday morning, Trump’s medical team suggested that the president tested positive for the coronavirus earlier than initially disclosed by the president.
Trump’s physician, Sean P. Conley, later issued a “clarification” through the White House on that timeline, as well as the time frame in which the president was administered Regeneron, an antibody cocktail that is part of the complement of drugs Trump has taken to fend off the virus.
Conley also declined to answer
questions about the president’s health, including how high his fever grew in recent days, when he last tested negative for the virus and whether he was ever administered supplemental oxygen since being diagnosed. A senior administration official later confirmed that Trump was given supplemental oxygen at the White House Friday before going to Walter Reed.
The White House released a new update from Conley on the president’s health Saturday evening, saying that Trump has made “substantial progress since diagnosis.” He said Trump is off supplemental oxygen, despite earlier not directly addressing the issue, and “while not yet out of the woods, the team remains cautiously optimistic.”
The questions raised by the news conferences and subsequent comments from White House aides raised more questions about the president’s medical condition.
For his part, Trump tweeted that he was “feeling well” Saturday afternoon, his first comments of the day hours after his physicians told reporters that the president was in “exceptionally good spirits.” He went to Walter Reed Friday evening and the White House said he is expected to stay there several days while doctors monitor his health.
At the Saturday morning news conference, members of Trump’s medical team said the president is now fever-free and that they are “extremely happy” with the progress he has made. But Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, then pulled reporters at the event aside and told them privately that Trump went through a “very concerning” period over the last day. Meadows also said the next two days will be critical in terms of his health.
“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,” Meadows said. “We’re still not on a clear path to a full recovery.”
The statement led to confusion because it seemed to contradict what the presispecific dent’s doctors said minutes earlier.
Meadows, who had stayed with Trump overnight Friday at Walter Reed, did not respond to a request for comment.
The question of transparency surrounding Trump’s health focused on two issues: the public’s right to know about the condition of the commander in chief and to what degree Trump and his aides may have exposed others to the virus who should know so they can tend to their own health.
“Consistency and accuracy on messaging the president’s health condition is important,” said Tom Bossert, the president’s former homeland security adviser. “And we haven’t seen consistency. I can’t speak to accuracy, and neither can you.”
Trump and his aides attended gatherings, traveled frequently and came into contact with many people in the last week. Last Saturday, Trump hosted a gathering at the White House Rose Garden to introduce him nominee for the Supreme Court, and has since appeared with thousands at a rally in Minnesota, debated Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden onstage in Cleveland and, on Thursday, met with donors at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J. He has also interacted with numerous aides, lawmakers and political advisers at the White House and on the road.
These events are potentially venues where the infection could have been spread to others.
“The president should not have attended the fundraiser and placed negligently all the people in attendance at risk of contracting the disease,” Bossert said.
Saturday evening, Trump posted a four-minute video on his Twitter account updating the public on his condition, acknowledging that “we still have steps to go” in his recovery.
“I came here, wasn’t feeling so well, I feel much better now,” Trump said. “We’re working hard to get me all the way back. I have to be back because we still have to make America great again.”
Meadows’ assessment earlier Saturday of the president’s health was in direct contrast with the evaluation provided by Conley, who said that Trump was doing well, his condition was improving and that his fever had lifted. But the doctor wouldn’t provide specific answers about whether Trump has received oxygen, the timeline of the president’s coronavirus diagnosis or what a lung scan has shown.
Conley said the president is receiving daily ultrasounds and lab work, but when asked if scans of his lungs have shown damage, the doctor said he wouldn’t “go into specifics of what the findings are.” The physician also wouldn’t provide an estimated date for the president’s discharge from the hospital.
On a key issue important for determining how many others Trump could have potentially infected, Conley declined to say when the president last tested negative for the virus.
At the beginning of his remarks, Conley said Trump was “just 72 hours into the diagnosis now,” which could mean he was diagnosed as early as Wednesday morning — just 11 hours after he shared a debate stage with Biden, hours before he held a campaign rally in Minnesota and a day before a Thursday fundraiser in New Jersey. Trump revealed his diagnosis at 1 a.m. Eastern time on Friday only after it was made public that counselor to the president Hope Hicks had contracted the virus.
A “clarification” memo issued under Conley’s name later Saturday said he meant to say Trump was in “day three of his diagnosis,” rather than “72 hours.” Conley also revisited a statement made by another doctor at the Walter Reed news conference, saying the medical team meant “day two” rather than “48 hours” since the administration of a Regeneron antibody cocktail.
In the memo Conley said Trump was diagnosed with COVID-19 on the evening of Oct. 1 and received the antibody cocktail on Oct. 2.
The president is receiving remdesivir, an antiviral drug that has shown modest benefits for some people, as well as vitamin D, famotidine, melatonin and a daily aspirin.
The confusion flared as more people close to Trump confirmed over the past two days that they had tested positive for the coronavirus. The latest people infected include Bill Stepien, the president’s campaign manager, and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who was closely involved in preparing Trump for Tuesday night’s debate in Cleveland and was present at the White House last weekend. Christie said later Saturday that he checked himself in to a hospital in northern New Jersey.
Christie adds to the coterie of people known to be diagnosed with the virus who also attended the crowded, celebratory Rose Garden event on Sept. 26 announcing Amy Coney Barrett as Trump’s pick to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court. The others included Trump, first lady Melania Trump, Republican Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Mike Lee of Utah, former presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway, University of Notre Dame president John I. Jenkins, and an unidentified member of the White House press corps.
Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen, tested negative again Saturday for the coronavirus, according to an administration official.
Elsewhere in Trump’s administration and campaign, it appeared to be business as usual.
The Trump campaign announced that Pence would travel to Arizona, a state that Republicans are scrambling to keep in their column, on Thursday — the day after his debate against Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris in Utah.