Donald Trump and Covid: what we know so far
The White House’s medical team said Donald Trump “has continued to improve” since Saturday and could be released as early as Monday. The team confirmed the president had lowered oxygen levels at one point and refused to answer questions about whether the president has suffered lung damage.
Trump made an impromptu appearance outside of the hospital on Sunday afternoon, waving from inside an SUV to a crowd of supporters who gathered outside the hospital. Concerns were raised about the other people who were in the car with Trump, who was wearing a mask.
An attending physician at Walter Reed Medical Center condemned Trump’s drive, calling it “insanity”. Dr James Phillips, a full-time emergency medical physician at Walter Reed, wrote on Twitter: “Every single person in the vehicle during that completely unnecessary Presidential ‘drive-by’ just now has to be quarantined for 14 days. They might get sick. They may die. For political theater. Commanded by Trump to put their lives at risk for theater. This is insanity.” In a second tweet Phillips said, “the irresponsibility is astounding”.
Trump has no public events listed for Monday on White House schedule. Trump’s schedule for Monday 5 October says: “The President has no public events scheduled.”
NBC reported that Melania Trump would not leave her residence to visit her husband because it would put agents and staff at risk. A White House official told NBC that Melania would not leave the White House because
“That would expose the agents who would drive her there and the medical staff who would walk her up to him.”
A Reuters/Ipsos pollindicated a majority – 65% – of Americans believe Trump would not have been infected with the virus if he took it more seriously. A separate poll showed the widest lead in a month for Joe Biden over Trump. The poll, taken on Friday and Saturday, showed Biden with a 10point lead.
Joe Biden tested negative for Covid-19. Biden’s second test since it became public that Donald Trump had contracted Covid-19 was negative. Biden’s campaign said on Sunday night it would release the result of every Covid-19 test the candidate takes in future.
The Wall Street Journal reports Trump had a positive Covid-19 rapid test on Thursday and did not disclose it. Trump told Fox News that night that he was waiting for test results and then tweeted later that night that he had the virus.
State health officials in New Jersey have contacted more than 200 people who attended a campaign fundraiser at the Trump National Golf Course in Bedminster on Thursday, hours before the president announced he had Covid-19, as they try to contain the spread of the deadly virus. Somerset County officials are meanwhile contacting employees who worked the event, most of whom live in the county.
White House refuses to release number of officials with Covid-19. Kayleigh McEnany, White House press secretary, refused to commit to releasing to the public how many White House officials have tested positive for Covid-19 when questioned by reporters at a press briefing.
A report from the Washington Post said Sean Conley, the White House physician, told co-workers in the spring that he was feeling intense personal stress in his current job – before the president contracted Covid-19. Conley, a 40-year-old Navy commander, joined the White House medical staff in December 2016 after serving as a Navy emergency physician and serving in a trauma unit in Afghanistan. The Post reports that those who have worked with Conley believe that the public statements he has given appear to be dictated by politics. “Every statement he is giving appears to be political, dictated by the White House or the president,” one anonymous source who has worked with Conley told the Post.
The White House sent its first allstaff email since Trump’s diagnosis. The White House management office on Sunday for the first time since Trump’s diagnosis sent an all-staff email advising staffers on whether to come to work or stay home.
White House releases photo of Trump on conference call with chief of staff present in room. The White House has released a photograph of Trump inside Walter Reed, allegedly participating in a conference call with the vice president, secretary of state and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. The caption also indicated that White House chief of staff Mark Meadows was physically present in the room, despite CDC guidelines stating that individuals who have Covid-19 should “stay home and away from other people.”
Mary Trump has said the US is “in the horrible place we’re in” because members of the family, including the president, see illness as “a display of unforgivable weakness”, whether it is in themselves or others. Speaking on NPR’s Fresh Air, Mary Trump, who recently published the tell-all book Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man, said: “That’s why we’re in the horrible place we’re in, because he cannot admit to the weakness of being ill or of other people being ill.”