President Donald Trump will head back to the White House on Monday to
continue his coronavirus treatment there, despite mysteries surrounding
his health and the president‘s doctor warning that he may not be “out of
the woods yet.“
“I will be leaving the great Walter Reed Medical Center today at 6:30
P.M. Feeling really good!” he wrote in a tweet.
“Don’t be afraid of Covid,” Trump added of the virus that has infected
more than 7.4 million Americans and killed nearly 210,000. “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!”
Trump’s discharge comes as the White House faces accusations of a lack
of transparency about the severity of the president’s illness, and as
the president has sought to project some semblance of normalcy despite
contracting the virus.
It was a striking statement, even for a president who has repeatedly
played down the threat of the virus throughout the pandemic and worked
to project normalcy and portray himself as undaunted by it throughout
his stay in the hospital.
His administration, meanwhile, has been accused of failing to be
transparent about the severity of Trump‘s illness and panned for its
response to the pandemic more generally.
Trump was first transferred to Walter Reed on Friday evening out of what
the White House said was an “abundance of caution.” His aides have since
been eager to show that Trump is still carrying out the duties of the
office despite his hospitalization.
But Sean Conley, the president’s physician, appeared to confirm Sunday
that Trump’s condition is more serious than the White House had so far
acknowledged.
And in a news briefing on Monday afternoon, Conley conceded that the
president “may not be entirely out of the woods yet.”
But, he continued, “the team and I agree that all our evaluations — and
most importantly his clinical status — support the resident’s safe
return home, where he’ll be supported by world-class medical care 24/7.
Trump’s discharge comes at a potentially delicate time, as questions
persist about his health.
Some patients see sharp declines about seven to 10 days after infection,
and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that
Covid-positive patients continue to self-isolate for 10 days after
symptoms begin to emerge. Trump, whose age and weight increase his risk
of severe disease, announced his diagnosis early Friday — four days ago.
The drugs Trump is receiving, and some of the details revealed by
Trump’s medical team, suggest that the president has a moderate to
severe case of Covid-19.
Trump has received two experimental drugs, care that many of the
millions of Americans infected with the virus likely would not have had
access to, as well as one steroid generally reserved for patients with
severe or critical coronavirus cases.
Conley acknowledged on Monday that Trump was still at risk, telling
reporters that the president’s medical team remained “cautiously
optimistic and on guard,” in part because Trump was receiving a unique
level of care. “We‘re in a bit of uncharted territory when it comes to a
patient who received the therapies he has so early in the course,“ he
explained.
A day earlier, the president’s medical team also revealed that Trump had
received oxygen therapy twice for limited periods, and that his blood
oxygen levels had dipped below 94 percent — a worrisome threshold for
patients indicating a moderate or severe case of Covid-19.
On Monday, the physicians said that Trump‘s blood oxygen level had risen
to 97 percent, and that the president was not having respiratory issues.
He is also no longer running a fever, they said.
POLITICO