Trump departs hospital
Doctors ‘on guard’ as care continues at White House
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump returned to the White House on Monday night after three days in the hospital with the coronavirus.
On the same day that his press secretary and twomore aides tested positive, making the White House the leading coronavirus hot spot in the nation’s capital, Trump again dismissed the pandemic that has killed 210,000 in the United States, telling Americans “don’t be afraid of COVID” and not to “let it dominate your life.”
Trump pressured his doctors to release him from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in suburban Maryland, but his return home did not indicate that he had escaped jeopardy, only that he could be treated at the White House, where he has 24hour medical care. Dr. Sean P. Conley, the White House physician, acknowledged that the president “may not entirely be out of the woods yet,” adding that itwould be another week until doctors could feel confident that he had passed the danger point.
“We all remain cautiously optimistic and on guard because we’re in a bit of uncharted territory when it comes to a patient that received the therapies he has so early in the course,” Conley told
“Don’t be afraid of COVID. Don’t let it dominate your life.” President Donald Trump
reporters outside Walter Reed. “So we’re looking to this weekend. Ifwe can get through to Monday with him remaining the same or improving, better yet, then we will all take that final deep sigh of relief.”
Doctors said the president had gone 72 hours without a fever and had normal blood oxygen readings after two earlier bouts of falling levels that led to him being given supplemental oxygen. But they refused to discuss scans of the president’s lungs, which independent medical experts said could mean he has pneumonia, and would not disclose when he had his last negative test.
Trump emerged from Walter Reed around 6:30 p.m. and boarded Marine One for the short flight back to the White House. After landing on the South Lawn, the president climbed the steps to the balcony over the Diplomatic Entrance, took off his mask, flashed two thumbs-up and saluted twice.
He then entered the building without immediately putting his mask back on even though staff members were nearby and he could still be contagious, according to medical studies of the virus timeline.
With the election 29 days away and polls showing him trailing former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee, Trump appeared eager to be back at the White House and dispel any questions about his capacity in light of
his illness.
“Feeling really good!” he wrote on Twitter hours before his departure from Walter Reed. “Don’t be afraid of COVID. Don’t let it dominate your life. We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago!”
The president’s dismissal of a virus that in recent weeks has been killing another 700 people each day in the United States set off alarm bells among health specialists who worried that it would send the wrong message to the public.
“I was glad to see the president speaking and recording videos over the weekend,” Biden said in a speech in Miami, wearing a mask. “Now that he’s busy tweeting campaign messages, I would ask him to do this: Listen to the scientists. Support masks. Sup-port a mask mandate nationwide.”
He added, “I hope the president’s recovery is swift and successful, but our nation’s coronavirus crisis is far, far from over.”
Kristin Urquiza, who addressed the Democratic National Convention after her father died of the coronavirus, responded on Twitter to the president’s admonishment to Americans not to be afraid of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. “At this point the only thing we should be afraid of is you,” she wrote.
At the White House, some staff members fretted that Trump was being allowed to leave too soon, and by late Monday afternoon, advisers had not been given guidance about what to expect when he returned. A preliminary plan called for confining Trump to the White House residence until he is no longer contagious and keeping him away from the West Wing, where the Oval Office is.
But advisers said Trump wanted to demonstrate from the Oval Office that he was back and healthy, and they were unsure they would be able to keep him from doing that.
While not as equipped as Walter Reed, the White House has a medical office fully staffed by military doctors and assistants around the clock and capable of providing care to the president. With private examination rooms, a supply of medicine and a crash cart for emergency resuscitation, it has been described by one former White House physician as “like a mini urgent-care center.”
The outbreak in the West Wing continued to spread Monday as Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, and two of her deputies tested positive for the virus, heightening fears that more cases were still to come.
McEnany said she had tested negative several times, “including every day since Thursday,” but health experts said she may have been infectious for days— including when she spoke briefly to reporters without a mask outside the White House on Sunday.
Two more members of the press team, Karoline Leavitt and Chad Gilmartin, who is McEnany’s relative, also tested positive but learned about their statuses before McEnany, according to two people familiar with the diagnoses.
The three infected aides join a growing list of people around the president who have tested positive, including Melania Trump, the first lady; Hope Hicks, a senior adviser; Nicholas Luna, director of Oval Office Operations; Bill Stepien, the president’s campaign manager; Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee; Kellyanne Conway, the president’s former counselor; former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, the president’s debate coach; and at least three White House reporters and two members of the residence staff.
Vice President Mike Pence, who tested negative Sunday, was scheduled to travel to Utah ahead of Wednesday night’s vice presidential debate. Pence also plans to attend campaign events in Arizona and Florida thisweek before stopping in his home state, Indiana, to vote early.
Attorney General William Barr, who had attended an event at the White House on Sept. 26 linked to the outbreak, quarantined himself over the weekend and was at home Monday with no symptoms, but he planned to return to work this week in defiance of Justice Department guidance that employees exposed to people with the virus should stay away for 14 days.
Dr. Abraar Karan of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, said even if he was feeling better, Trump needed “extremely close monitoring as these next few days are critical.” He said the second week is often the most worrisome, “as we have seen that patients recover briefly and then either continue improving or have amore sudden and abrupt decline.”