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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