WASHINGTON D.C. Unites States (Agencies) – A rebellious Donald Trump has decided to resume his public appearances as of today, Saturday, October 10, 2020, potentially putting lives at risk once again with an afternoon speech at the White House where hundreds of guests are expected. This after only nine days of his Covid-19 diagnosis.
In the United States, there is a rising trend in hospitalization rates, that did not stop Trump from inviting some 2,000 people for his speech from a White House balcony, which is just the latest sign of his staff and doctors acquiescing to his desires rather than following public health guidelines and common sense.
The large gathering follows Trump’s acknowledgment during a televised interview with Fox News Friday that he may have contracted the virus at one of the White House’s recent events. It’s unknown whether he’s still contagious, but Trump gave an incomprehensible answer about his latest coronavirus test results Friday.
“I haven’t even found out numbers or anything yet, but I’ve been retested, and I know I’m at either the bottom of the scale or free,” Trump told Fox News’ medical analyst, Dr. Marc Siegel, on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” “They test every couple of days, I guess, but it’s really at a level now that’s been great — great to see it disappear.”
The Fox interview was very unclear regarding Trump’s level of contagion. Sor far, Americans are in the dark about the date of Trump’s last negative test for Covid-19. As usual, he dismissed the seriousness of his illness when he acknowledged that scans of his lungs in the hospital had shown congestion and that he took the steroid dexamethasone because it keeps “the swelling down of the lungs.”
White House doctors have not spoken directly to the press since Trump left Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Monday. His doctor did not reveal his temperature in the latest statement on his vitals Thursday. Trump’s physician, Navy Cmdr. Dr. Sean Conley said in his Thursday statement that Saturday would be day ten since Trump’s diagnosis and based on unspecified tests that the team was conducting, “I fully anticipate the President’s safe return to public engagements at that time.”
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says on its website that patients with mild or moderate illness are infectious for up to 10 days, while those with “severe to critical illness” could remain infectious up until 20 days after the onset of symptoms. The medications that Trump received have suggested severe illness to many of the doctors interviewed by CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.
Still, the Trump’s illness does not appear to have changed the safety protocols adopted by the White House or Trump’s campaign, even though Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease specialist, said on Friday that it’s now clear that Trump’s Rose Garden ceremony for his Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, two weeks ago was a “superspreader event.”
“We had a super spreader event in the White House,” Fauci told CBS News Radio on Friday. “It was in a situation where people were crowded together, were not wearing masks. So the data speak for themselves.”
Trump announced a rally in Florida on Monday, even though at least nine people who attended Trump’s September 18 rally in Bemidji, Minnesota, tested positive to COVID-19, according to Kris Ehresmann, the state’s infectious disease director.
“Nine cases reported attending the rally. One case was known to be infectious,” Ehresmann said. “There were two hospitalizations that were associated with that. One who is in intensive care and no deaths at this point.”
That has not affected Trump’s desire to get back out on the trail to receive the worship from his fans at a time when he is trailing Democratic nominee Joe Biden by at least 10 points according to multiple polls.
It is quite apparent Trump doesn’t mind putting his supporters or those who protect him at risk. On Monday, as he returned from Walter Reed medical center, Trump implored Americans not to be afraid of the coronavirus or let it “dominate you” and said, “You’re gonna beat it.”
On Friday in the Fox interview, Trump acknowledged the thousands of people who died from Covid and that the pandemic has inflicted such an amount of pain in American families. Yet, he seems not to realize the lives he could be jeopardizing with his return to the presidential campaign.
