Donald Trump drives past supporters outside Walter Reed hospital
US President Trump has been driven past supporters and media outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center where he is being treated for the coronavirus.
Trump drives by the press and supporters outside Walter Reed hospital. pic.twitter.com/3phtKthqTH
— Philip Crowther (@PhilipinDC) October 4, 2020
The drive-past came shortly after he released a video saying he had a “surprise” for people outside the facility and that he had “learned a lot about Covid”.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 4, 2020
“I learned it by really going to school, this is the real school, this isn’t the lets read the book school. And I get it, and I understand it, and it’s a very interesting thing and I’m going to be letting you know about it,” he said in the video.
Earlier, doctors leading his treatment said Trump had oxygen level drops on Friday and Saturday but is doing well and could return to the White House in the next day.
Doctors provided Trump supplemental oxygen twice during his battle with the lung disease, on Thursday and Friday, and have also given him dexamethasone, they told reporters the day after a series of contradictory messages from the White House caused widespread confusion about Trump’s condition.
Dexamethasone is shown in studies to improve survival for patients hospitalized with critical Covid-19 who need extra oxygen. But it should not be given in mild cases since it can limit the body’s own ability to combat the virus, according to guidelines from the Infectious Disease Society of America.
“The fact of the matter is that he’s doing really well,” Dr. Sean P. Conley told reporters at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where Trump has been receiving treatment since Friday.
Doctors said Trump has not run a fever since Friday and that his liver and kidney function remained normal after the second dose in a five-day course of Remdesivir, an intravenous antiviral drug sold by Gilead Sciences Inc that has been shown to shorten hospital stays.
Dr Brian Garibaldi said Trump was given dexamethasone in response to “transient low oxygen levels.”
“He received his first dose of that yesterday and our plan is to continue that for the time being,” Garibaldi said.
Trump is also being given an experimental treatment, Regeneron’s REGN-COV2, as well as zinc, Vitamin D, famotidine, melatonin and aspirin, his doctors have said.
– RNZ / Reuters
