Tag: Trump COVID-19 diagnosis

‘Trump has abandoned them’: 1.3 million unemployment claims loom after the president shot down stimulus

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Just two days after President Donald Trump abruptly blew up bipartisan coronavirus relief talks, the Labor Department reported Thursday that around 1.3 million additional Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week as the U.S. economy continues to falter without the kind of stimulus that experts say is necessary to stem the crisis and relieve widespread hunger, housing insecurity, and joblessness.

“Terribly high numbers of jobless claims point to a slowing recovery, with over 25 million collecting benefits,” tweeted Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.). “Trump has abandoned them.”

The president’s sudden decision Tuesday to end coronavirus negotiations via Twitter a day after he departed Walter Reed National Military Medical Center imperiled the prospect that any additional stimulus checks, unemployment benefits, state and local aid, and rental assistance will be approved ahead of next month’s presidential election. Continue reading.

Biden to participate in ABC town hall Oct. 15 in lieu of Trump debate

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Democratic nominee Joe Biden will take part in a town hall forum hosted by ABC News on the night of what was supposed to be the second presidential debate.

The former vice president will instead participate in an event in Philadelphia moderated by ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos.

The announcement indicates that the second presidential debate will no longer take place as planned Oct. 15 after President Trump balked at the decision to make it a virtual event for safety reasons. Continue reading.

Here’s why it matters when Trump last tested negative for COVID-19

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White House officials and the president’s physician have refused to disclose when President Trump last tested negative for COVID-19, a key detail that has implications for how long the president could be infectious and who else he might have exposed to the highly contagious virus.

The White House has said Trump’s first positive test result came back Thursday. He is known to have shown symptoms Friday, including fatigue and fever, and required supplemental oxygen. But the timeline remains fuzzy beyond that.

“We’ve addressed this. We’re not asking to go back through a bunch of records and look backwards,” Brian Morgenstern, a deputy press secretary, told reporters Wednesday when asked when the president last tested negative. Continue reading.

Contradictory and confusing White House statements offer an incomplete picture of Trump’s health

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Information about President Trump’s condition has been incomplete, confusing and, at times, contradictory since early Friday morning when the commander in chief announced that he had tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

Trump’s medical team, led by White House physician Sean Conley, has been criticized for painting a rosy portrait of Trump’s conditionSaturday, without disclosing that the president had been given supplemental oxygen or put on a steroid that is usually reserved for severely ill coronavirus patients.

“I was trying to reflect the upbeat attitude that the team, the president, over his course of illness, has had,” Conley said. “I didn’t want to give any information that might steer the course of illness in another direction. And in doing so, you know, it came off that we were trying to hide something, which wasn’t necessarily true. … The fact of the matter is that he’s doing really well.” Continue reading.

How Trump’s coronavirus treatment may be affecting his behavior

Since he was released from the hospital on Monday night, Trump has been behaving erratically. Well, more erratically than usual. The President — who is being treated for COVID-19 — was prescribed a coronavirus medication cocktail that includes dexamethasone, a high octane steroid. Dexamethasone is known to cause reality-altering side effects in some patients, and people close to him are worried that the treatment might be affecting Trump’s behavior and his judgement.

A little about this steroid: Dexamethasone is a corticosteroid in the same family as more familiar medications like prednisone and hydrocortisone. Corticosteroids work by mimicking cortisol, which is a hormone your body produces naturally. The drugs reduce the body’s inflammatory response and are usually only used to help people with severe cases of COVID-19 who require ventilators. Dexamethasone is also widely known to have some pretty scary — but probably temporary — mental and emotional side effects, like mania, euphoria, and paranoia.

Most doctors think that only people with the most extreme cases of COVID-19 should be prescribed dexamethasone, and even then that it shouldn’t be taken early in treatment. The White House has frequently stated that Trump isn’t really that sick, so no one is exactly sure why he’s taking it. “We decided that in this case, the potential benefits early on in the course probably outweighed the risks,” White House physician Sean Conley told the Washington Post. Continue reading.

Pentagon scrambles to retrace steps after White House COVID-19 outbreak

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The Pentagon is retracing the steps of its top brass after a positive coronavirus case among senior officials forced Defense Department heads into quarantine.

News of Coast Guard Vice Commandant Adm. Charles Ray testing positive, which came after he attended a Sept. 27 White House event, broke after Ray had met with several other senior leaders at the Pentagon last week.

The Defense Department has since raced to conduct contact tracing, highlighting the stark difference between the Pentagon and White House, where administration officials have been reluctant to reveal key timeline details after President Trump and top aides tested positive. Continue reading.

Trump’s words — ‘Don’t be afraid of Covid’ — hurt those sickened, mourning

Trump’s tweet — ‘Don’t be afraid of COVID’ — strikes some as reckless, disrespectful. 

Kara Goucher couldn’t contain her frustration.

Her beloved grandfather lay in a Duluth hospital Monday, gravely ill with COVID-19 when President Donald Trump, returning to the White House from a three-day hospital stay after contracting the virus, tweeted to his followers:

“Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life. We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago!” Continue reading.

White House Has Lied For Months About COVID Testing Of Trump

Questions continue to swirl around the timeline of Donald Trump’s infection with the coronavirus. The White House continues to refuse to respond to questions about when Trump’s last negative coronavirus test was — information that could help with contact tracing and pinpointing the source of the outbreak that is still spreading among members of the Trump administration and other government and military officials.

But even if the White House did release the information, it would be hard to know whether it’s true, as the White House has lied about Trump’s coronavirus testing before.

Back in July, Kayleigh McEnany, Trump’s serially lying press secretary, said he was tested “multiple times a day” for the virus. Continue reading.

Trump says he won’t take part in virtual debate

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President Trump, who continues to battle a coronavirus infection, told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo on Thursday that he will not take part in a virtual second presidential debate, with his campaign later saying he would do two in person debates later on this month. 

What he’s saying: “I’m not going to waste my time on a virtual debate. It’s not what debating is all about. … It’s ridiculous,” the president said.

  • Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien, who also tested positive for coronavirus, said in a statement that the campaign will “pass on this sad excuse to bail out Joe Biden and do a rally instead.”
  • Stepien also claimed without evidence that Trump “will have posted multiple negative tests prior to the debate,” which has never been publicly confirmed by the president’s doctors.
  • Later in the day, Stepien again called the decision to move to a virtual format “extremely suspect,” but said Trump would be willing to push each debate by a week to Oct. 22 and Oct. 29.  Continue reading.

Trump’s determination to attend next week’s debate seen as part of pattern of recklessness

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President Trump’s tweet Tuesday that he looks forward to next week’s presidential debate alarmed some medical and public health experts, who warned that his coronavirus infection might still be contagious then and could endanger others.

A day after the president was discharged from a three-night hospital stay, during which he was put on an aggressive mix of treatments usually reserved for the most severe cases of covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, he continued to project an image of being fully in charge and able to conduct all of his regular activities.

Some outside health experts, however, said Trump’s determination to attend the Oct. 15 debate is part of a pattern of recklessness that has defined his response to the pandemic, with the president and his aides not wearing masks or observing social distancing. At least 19 people on his staff or his campaign, or who attended recent White House events, have tested positive for the virus in the past week. Continue reading.