Trump’s condition may be severe, experts warn amid uncertainty

AS THE U.S. President Donald Trump has undergone COVID-19 treatment at a military hospital in Bethesda, Maryland since Friday, conflicting updates on Trump’s health have triggered both confusion and concern. As an overweight, elderly man, Trump is in a category that is more likely to develop severe complications or die from the disease. Doctors treating Trump said the president was improving, although they were monitoring the condition of his lungs after he received supplemental oxygen. They said he could be sent back to the White House. But Dr. Sean P. Conley said the president’s condition had been worse than he previously admitted. Conley said Trump’s blood oxygen levels had dropped in prior days and that he had run a high fever on Friday morning. Asked what tests had revealed about the condition of Trump’s lungs, Conley replied: “There’s some expected findings, but nothing of any major clinical concern.” Conley’s response suggested the X-rays revealed some signs of pneumonia, said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University. “The expected finding is that he has evidence of pneumonia in the X-ray. If it was normal, they would just say it is normal,” Adalja said. Trump is being given dexamethasone, a steroid used in severe COVID-19 cases, as well as the intravenous antiviral drug remdesivir and an experimental antibody treatment from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.

DOCTORS not involved in treating Trump for COVID-19 said the fact that he has been started on dexamethasone, a generic steroid widely used in other diseases to reduce inflammation, is the strongest evidence yet that his case may be severe.

Trump’s medical team on Sunday said the president started on the steroid after experiencing low oxygen levels, but his condition was improving and he could be discharged from the hospital on Monday.

“What I heard in the news conference description suggested the president has more severe illness than the generally upbeat picture painted,” said Dr. Daniel McQuillen, an infectious disease specialist at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center in Burlington, Massachusetts.

The Infectious Disease Society of America says dexamethasone is beneficial in people with critical or severe COVID-19 who require extra oxygen. But studies show that the drug is not helpful – and may even be harmful – in people with a milder case of the illness.

Given the patient is 74 years old, overweight and possibly at high risk of complications, “they were aggressive at the beginning,” said Dr. Stuart Cohen, chief of infectious disease at California’s UC Davis Health.

He and other doctors who have been treating COVID-19 patients for months said Trump, who surprised cheering supporters outside the hospital by riding past in a motorcade Sunday evening, could still be discharged from the hospital. Trump returned to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center after the short trip.

“He’s not going to go to a home where there’s no medical care. There’s basically a hospital in the White House,” said Dr. Walid Gellad, professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh.

A return to the White House might help Trump project a sense of normalcy as he faces a difficult reelection battle against Democrat Joe Biden.

A Reuters-Ipsos poll released on Sunday showed Trump trailing Biden by 10 percentage points. He was due to resume in-person campaigning yesterday in Florida, where opinion polls show a tight race in a crucial battleground for the Nov. 3 election. Trump also is pushing to install federal Judge Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court, which would lock in a conservative majority on the nation’s highest court for years to come.

About 65% of Americans said Trump would not have been infected had he taken the virus more seriously. Trump has consistently downplayed the risks of the pandemic since it first emerged this year, and he has repeatedly flouted social-distancing guidelines meant to curb its spread.