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The Latest On Donald Trump’s Covid-19 Diagnosis

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***Last Updated 10/5/2020 at 11:00 a.m.***

This past Friday President Donald Trump was hospitalized at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland after announcing that he had tested positive for Covid-19. Dr. Brian Garibaldi is a leader on Trump’s medical team who recently updated media outlets claiming that the president could be discharged from the medical center as early as Monday afternoon. 

On Saturday, Garibaldi claimed that Trump completed his second dose of redesivir and was feeling better by Sunday. Now, Trump is hoping to be discharged to complete his treatment in the White House. White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, recently claimed that the president could be released from the medical center after he consults with his doctors later Monday afternoon; which is also when his discharge decision will be made public. 

Trump received scrutiny on Sunday, however, after leaving the medical center with his security team so he could ride in an SUV past his supporters who were cheering him on outside the hospital. 

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The White House claims all “appropriate precautions” were taken before Trump went on the SUV ride, however Dr. James Phillips, an attending physician at Walter Reed, criticized the decision as something that could further endanger the lives of the Secret Service agents who accompanied the president, claiming that his “irresponsibility is astounding.”

On Sunday it was reported that the president’s oxygen levels had dropped for a second time since his diagnosis last Friday. Trump had also been receiving supplemental oxygen due to these dips, and was also given the corticosteroid drug dexamethasone. Dexamethasone is a widely available steroid that’s been used throughout this pandemic for patients on supplemental oxygen/ventilated individuals. 

When it comes to the president’s official release from the hospital, Rudy Giuliana claims that he will be waiting until his doctors actually give him the stamp of approval to do so. 

“He wants to get out. He sounds perfect. I just cautioned him to listen to his doctors. I said I hope that’s not your decision, it’s the doctors, He said ‘no no, these guys are great. I’ll do what they tell me.’”

After Trump’s brief trip out of the hospital to greet supporters, Giuliani admitted that the Secret Service would be at a greater risk protecting the president in the coming weeks, however, he also supported the decision on the basis that all parties involved were wearing masks at the time. 

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First lady Melania Trump also contracted the virus but has no plans of leaving the White House to continue out her treatments. Since her diagnosis Melania has quarantined in the Executive Residence in the White House and will be remaining there until it’s deemed safe for her to be around others again. The first lady has been relatively precautious when it comes to following Covid-19 procedures and has already cut back on all of her traveling plans/public appearances. 

When it comes to the pandemic in general, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, claims that there has never been a global health crisis to this degree before; for reference Fauci has worked on a number of other viral outbreaks in the past such as the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Ebola, and Zika virus. 

“We’re living in such a very divisive society right now that’s very charged politically. You always have a degree of that when you have outbreaks as we’ve been in the past but nothing to the intensity that we’re experiencing now with Covid-19.”

With one month left before the 2020 election, Trump and his team are also scrambling to manage catching up to Biden in the polls and maintaining a strong media presence despite the president’s now lack of ability to be around others. Ballots are currently already out in 35 states and with voting beginning in the swing states next week, there’s no way the president’s diagnosis mixed with his downplaying of the virus that has killed over 200,000 Americans won’t have an impact on voters. 

Since the announcement of Trump’s diagnosis Mike Pence and Joe Biden have both tested negative for the virus, however, both will have to continue to be tested daily along with a whole slew of other US political leaders who have been working with/around Trump and his team within the past few weeks. As of right now at least 10 people within Trump’s family, the US Government, and Trump’s circle of advisors have tested positive while 23 others within his inner circle have continued to test negative.

Coronavirus Spreads around World

The World Health Organization Offers Positive Update On Covid-19 Treatments

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The World Health Organization (WHO) announced this week that some Covid-19 treatments that are currently in the works have been successfully limiting the severity and length of the virus in infected individuals. They claim that there’s currently four to five treatments that are looking really promising, and they’re focusing a majority of their attention and resources on those. 

The WHO has been leading the entire world in developing safe vaccines, tests, and drugs to prevent, diagnose, and most importantly, treat Covid-19. So far over 4 million individuals have been infected worldwide, and while the WHO’s main goal is a 100% effective vaccine that successfully protects and kills the virus, as of right now treating those who are sick is the top priority. 

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“We do have some treatments that seem to be in very early studies limiting the severity or the length of the illness but we do not have anything that can kill or stop the virus. We do have potentially positive data coming out but we need to see more data to be 100% confident that we can say this treatment over that one, more research is needed and planned,” WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said.

Pharmaceutical company, Gilead Science Inc., recently announced the successful use of the drug remdesivir as a treatment to combat the coronavirus. Based on the data that Gilead released, the drug treatment seems like one of the most effective and feasible treatments that’s been used so far. 

In Hong Kong, a trial that involved 127 patients showed that a triple drug combination of antiviral medicines helped relieve symptoms in the patients; all of which had relatively mild/moderate cases. The drug combination consisted of antiviral medications that are typically used to combat diseases such as HIV, hepatitis, and multiple sclerosis. Specifically the medications involved in the cocktail were lopinavir-ritonavir (HIV), ribavirin (hepatitis), and interferon beta (MS); the control group for the experiment just received the HIV drug. 

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The WHO is continuing to emphasize to the public that while they do have all of their resources working on a vaccine, Covid-19 is a complex virus that we’re still learning new things about, so there’s no real way to determine if a vaccine will be ready by next month, next year, or in two years. However, more than 100 potential vaccines are currently undergoing trial periods right now worldwide, so there’s still plenty of hope. The WHO generally predicts a vaccine will be released to the public in a year. 

“Around the world we have seen that the warnings we put out right from the start, very, very early on, were not seen as warnings about a very serious, lethal disease. The WHO, which has come under criticism especially from the United States for its handling of the pandemic, will be conducting an after-action review that would include a free and frank discussion on its performance,” Harris said. 

Many Americans are claiming that the president is more focused on reopening the US’ economy than actual human lives, especially after he continuously focuses on efforts to reopen despite multiple health experts warning him to proceed with extreme caution. Considering the US is the most infected country with the most Covid-19-related deaths out of any other country in the world, Americans want one thing, a vaccine. So for now, we must continue to listen to our healthcare professionals and remain indoors until we know more about how to combat this virus.