[NFA] Doctors treating President Donald Trump for COVID-19 are monitoring the condition of his lungs after he received supplemental oxygen, they told reporters on Sunday, adding that he has taken the steroid dexamethasone, which is used in severe cases.
This report produced by Chris Dignam.
The medical team treating President Donald Trump for COVID-19 said he was feeling well on Sunday and that they're monitoring the condition of his lungs, after receiving supplemental oxygen on Friday.
CONLEY: "Over the course of his illness, the president has experienced two episodes of transient drops in his oxygen saturation." Dr. Sean Conley acknowledged that Trump's blood oxygen levels had dropped in previous days, admitting that the president's condition had been worse than previously disclosed, a day after contradictory messages from White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows caused widespread confusion about Trump's health.
REPORTER: "Why were you so reluctant until today to disclose that the president had been administered oxygen?" CONLEY: "It's a good question." REPORTER: "Thank you." CONLEY: "I was trying to reflect an upbeat attitude of the team and the president about the course his illness has had.
I didn't want to give any information that might steer the course of illness in another direction and, in doing so, it came off that we were trying to hide something, which isn't necessarily true.
He is... the fact of the matter is that he's doing really well." The 74-year-old was flown to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Friday and has since has taken two doses of the antiviral drug Remdesivir, as well as the steroid dexamethasone, which is used in critical cases.
Despite that, Dr. Brian Garibaldi of Johns Hopkins Hospital said Trump could be back at the White House as soon as Monday.
GARIBALDI: "If he continues to look and feel as well as he does today, our hope is that we can plan for discharge as early as tomorrow to the White House, where he can continue his treatment course." TRUMP: "I'm starting to feel good." The day before, Trump released a four-minute video, saying the "real test" of his condition will come over the next few days.
Officials in New Jersey said on Sunday that the White House gave them the names of more than 200 people who attended events around Trump's fundraising trip to Bedminster last week.
Several members of Trump's inner circle have tested positive for the virus, as well as three Republican senators and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who said he was checking himself into a hospital as a precautionary measure.
Trump's illness has upended his re-election campaign as it seeks to fend off Democratic challenger Joe Biden.
His campaign is using the president's positive test to underscore a consistent message: that Biden would handle the pandemic better than Trump.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll taken Oct.
2-3, after the president tested positive for the virus, found Biden leading Trump by 10 percentage points nationally and that nearly two-thirds of Americans thought that Trump probably would not have been infected if he had taken the virus more seriously.
Doctor Anthony Fauci recently sat down for a lengthy interview with “60 Minutes”, which aired on Sunday.
