By Michael C. Bender 

President Trump's recovery from a Covid-19 infection continued to progress, the White House's top doctor said Wednesday, even as key details about the president's health and his potential return to the campaign trail remained unclear.

Mr. Trump had gone 24 hours without any coronavirus symptoms, Dr. Sean Conley said in a memo released by the White House. The president hadn't had a fever in four days, his oxygen saturation and respiratory rate were stable and in normal range, and blood work on Monday showed "detectable levels" of Covid-19 antibodies, Dr. Conley said.

But it could be several days before a broader prognosis on Mr. Trump's recovery is known, doctors have said. Mr. Trump returned to the Oval Office Wednesday, a White House spokesman said, having expressed eagerness to return there as well as the campaign trail and face off on Oct. 15 against Democrat Joe Biden in Miami. In the Oval Office he was briefed on stimulus talks and hurricane activity, the spokesman said.

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Dan Scavino, a senior adviser, were in the Oval Office with Mr. Trump on Wednesday, a White House official said. Mr. Trump entered the Oval Office from the outside in an attempt to limit his exposure to additional staff, the official said.

White House staff interacting with the president were required to wear masks and goggles, Mr. Meadows said earlier Wednesday. The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Mr. Trump wore a mask in the Oval Office.

In a White House-produced video posted on Twitter Wednesday, Mr. Trump said, "This was a blessing from God that I caught it." Mr. Trump said in the video that he felt great.

The president focused much of his video message on an experimental drug from Regeneron, which he described as the key to his recovery so far. He said the medicine was a therapeutic, but he viewed it as a cure.

In July, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. said it has received a $450 million federal contract to manufacture thousands of doses of its experimental Covid-19 treatment that the government will distribute at no cost to the public if the drug is authorized for use by regulators.

The president said he wanted to provide the drug to Americans for free, adding that he was seeking an emergency-use authorization for the drug. Mr. Trump said that the military will help deliver "hundreds of thousands of doses that are just about ready." A White House spokesman didn't immediately respond to a request for clarification on the Pentagon's involvement.

U.S. officials said earlier this week that the Defense Department is weeks away from crafting a plan for nationwide delivery of a Covid vaccine. The Pentagon didn't immediately respond Wednesday to a request for comment on Mr. Trump's remarks regarding troops also distributing treatment medicines.

Mr. Trump also has been taking remdesivir -- an antiviral treatment made by Gilead Sciences Inc. that is cleared for emergency use in hospitalized patients with Covid-19 -- and dexamethasone, a steroid.

"This is (CQ) things that nobody even thought of a few months ago," the president said.

Mr. Trump said a Covid-19 vaccine was unlikely before the election, saying in Wednesday's White House- produced video that "politics gets involved and that's OK."

"They want to play their games," the president said, without saying who he was speaking about. "It's going to be right after the election."

On Tuesday the White House agreed to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's guidelines for assessing whether a Covid-19 vaccine should be given to the public, after having previously objected to them.

Earlier on Wednesday, the president spoke by phone with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who has been leading the administration's stimulus negotiations with Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. However, there were no public signs they were closer to a deal. Mr. Trump called off negotiations on Tuesday but recanted after stocks fell sharply following his abrupt decision.

"The stimulus negotiations are off," Mr. Meadows told White House reporters on Wednesday. "We're looking at the potential for stand-alone bills. There are about 10 things we agree on, and if the speaker is willing to look at those things, on a piece-by-piece basis, then we're willing to look at it."

House Democrats last week attempted to pass separate aid for airlines, but it was blocked by Republicans, with both sides accusing each other of undermining the effort. Mrs. Pelosi and Mr. Mnuchin spoke briefly on Wednesday morning about renewing that effort, according to a spokesman for Mrs. Pelosi.

On the campaign trail, Mr. Trump has fallen further behind Mr. Biden since their first debate in Cleveland last week. Mr. Biden had a 14-point lead over Mr. Trump in a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll on Sunday, which compared with a 11-margin in the same poll in July, which was his largest of the campaign at that time.

Mr. Biden's campaign pulled down negative ads last week after Mr. Trump announced that he had been diagnosed with the coronavirus. But with the president back at the White House and airing criticism of the former vice president, Mr. Biden's campaign said Wednesday it was in the process of resuming its contrast and negative spots on television and digital.

"Our campaign has always been about making the positive case for Joe Biden, but there's a stark contrast between Vice President Biden and Donald Trump and their visions for our country. We're going to continue to make a full throated case for Vice President Biden and we will forcefully correct the record when Trump attacks and lies," said Biden campaign spokesman Michael Gwin.

The president's campaign aides have suggested that Mr. Trump's experience with coronavirus would help him take on Mr. Biden over that issue. Voters have long preferred Mr. Biden to handle the pandemic, according to polls. The poll on Sunday showed 52% of registered voters believed Mr. Biden would be better at handling the pandemic, compared with 35% who preferred Mr. Trump.

"The president now obviously going through this -- being impacted by this virus -- can talk firsthand about what he went through, being empathetic to those who are fighting this virus," Mercedes Schlapp, a senior Trump campaign adviser, said Wednesday on Fox News.

But Mr. Trump has shown little sign that he is willing to alter his message. "Don't be afraid of Covid. Don't let it dominate your life!" he posted on Twitter on Monday. On Wednesday, his 53 Twitter posts before 11 a.m. mostly focused on attacking the media, complaints about past federal investigations into Russian election meddling and accusations that Democrats have politicized coronavirus.

On Tuesday, he posted on Twitter that he planned to attend the debate in Miami next week, which would be exactly two weeks after he first tested positive. But it remained unclear whether he could participate.

A campaign spokesman said they would rely on a recommendation from Mr. Trump's medical team. People infected with Covid-19 can stop isolating 10 days after the onset of symptoms, as long as they haven't had a fever in 24 hours and their other symptoms are improving, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. For severe cases, the CDC says a person can be contagious for up to 20 days.

If the president makes it through the weekend without symptoms or a fever, he is likely in the clear, said William Lang, chief medical officer of concierge telemedicine company WorldClinic and director of the White House medical unit during George W. Bush's administration.

Some Covid-19 patients do get sicker on days seven and eight of their illness, Dr. Lang said, though those individuals have often continued to have some symptoms throughout their infection. The president and his medical team have indicated that his health has improved.

Fatigue is one of the most common long-term symptoms that patients recovering from Covid-19 experience, though others have reported developing arthritis and respiratory complications.

"The fact that he got the steroids and this aggressive treatment early on is going to decrease the likelihood that he develops these long-term symptoms," Dr. Lang added.

The president may continue to test positive for the virus even if he is no longer infectious, he added, and the chance he is currently infectious is "probably fairly low."

Sarah Krouse and Ken Thomas contributed to this article.

Write to Michael C. Bender at Mike.Bender@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 07, 2020 20:30 ET (00:30 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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