Coronavirus: Donald Trump plays down Covid, plans for second debate

Donald Trump compares coronavirus with seasonal flu as he vows he’s ready to attend next week’s debate with Joe Biden.

President Trump plans to attend next week’s debate against Joe Biden in Miami, his campaign said Tuesday, a day after the president returned from three days of hospitalisation for COVID-19.

The debate is scheduled for October 15, which would be two weeks after the president first tested positive. People infected with COVID-19 can stop isolating after 10 days have passed since the onset of symptoms, as long as they haven’t had a fever in 24 hours and their other symptoms are improving, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. The president’s doctor, Sean Conley, said Monday it was possible the president would no longer be contagious before the 10-day period ends.

The president reported no symptoms on Tuesday, Dr Conley said in a memo, adding that Mr Trump’s vital signs remain stable.

Mr Trump, who continues to be treated with a range of therapies typically used for severe cases of COVID-19, has played down the severity of the virus in recent days, even as his doctors said Monday that he wasn’t entirely in the clear and would need close monitoring.

Flu season is coming up! Many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the Flu. Are we going to close down our Country? No, we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 6, 2020

In a tweet Tuesday morning, Mr Trump called COVID-19 “far less lethal” than the flu and said that, despite the death toll the flu brings, “we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid.” Late Monday, Mr Trump pointed to his own experience with the illness as he urged Americans not to fear COVID-19, in a video posted shortly after returning to the White House on Monday.

Twitter appended a notice to Mr Trump’s tweet comparing COVID-19 to the flu, saying it “violated the Twitter Rules about spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19.” Facebook removed the president’s post on its platform, a Facebook spokesman said, calling the post incorrect. The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment on the Twitter and Facebook moves.

pic.twitter.com/OxmRcZ5nUZ

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2020

Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh, asked whether the president’s attendance at next week’s debate was contingent on him testing negative before then, said the campaign would rely on the president’s medical team. The Commission on Presidential Debates didn’t immediately respond to a question on whether it would require the president to test negative before participating.

With a month to go before Election Day, Mr Trump is sharply trailing Mr Biden in most national polls — including a 14-point margin in the most recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey — and has indicated he is eager to get back on the road. On Monday, he tweeted he would “be back on the Campaign Trail soon!!!”

The White House on Tuesday continued to grapple with the rising number of positive tests among the president’s advisers. The Joint Chiefs of Staff, the senior military advisers to the president, have gone into quarantine after attending meetings at the Pentagon with a top Coast Guard commander who tested positive this week for COVID-19, defence officials said.

A day earlier, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said she had tested positive and was going into isolation. Two of her deputies have also tested positive, as have a series of others close to the president, including Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien, aide Hope Hicks, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former adviser Kellyanne Conway and director of Oval Office operations Nick Luna.

Donald Trump walks with White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany. Picture: AFP.

Researchers estimate COVID-19 is about six times as deadly as the seasonal flu. COVID-19 can also cause long-term health problems, such as lung damage. There is seasonal vaccine for the flu, which is partly effective, while COVID-19 vaccines remain in development. Health experts have been urging Americans to get their flu shot to reduce the number of cases this winter.

The CDC in preliminary estimates said 38 million Americans got the flu in the 2019-2020 season, and 22,000 died. In the particularly harsh 2017-2018 season, about 61,000 people died, according to CDC estimates. So far, more than 210,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 this year, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, even as most people have sharply restricted their movements and interactions.

Mr Trump has repeatedly pressed states and cities to ratchet back restrictions on businesses and to reopen schools, after closures related to the outbreak last spring pommeled the economy and up-ended education and child care. But continued new cases in much of the country have slowed the return to normalcy, with restaurants, retailers and other businesses struggling to remain viable.

The president has long minimised the threat of the virus — which medical experts say is very real, especially for older people and people with pre-existing health probleMs But his decision to continue dismissing a virus for which he was hospitalised for three days was particularly stark, and signalled he didn’t intend to change his message on the virus.

Donald Trump took off his mask before posing on a balcony at the White House. Picture: AFP.

When Mr Trump returned to the White House Monday, after receiving a level of care unavailable to most Americans, he took off his mask as he posed for pictures on a balcony.

The president is expected to isolate in the White House residence — not the West Wing, where many senior aides work. Aides have set up office space for him in the residence, but it isn’t known if the president will remain there. Doctors say his condition is improving but declined to detail additional measures put in place at the White House to protect staff. The White House hasn’t provided details about a possible update from his doctors as of midmorning Tuesday.

First lady Melania Trump, who was also infected, continues to rest and is doing well, an aide said.

On Tuesday, several aides in the West Wing and all East Wing staffers worked from home, giving the White House an eerily quiet atmosphere even after the president had returned to the residence, administration officials said.

In a briefing Monday, Dr Conley said that the president “may not entirely be out of the woods yet” but that the team agreed that “all our evaluations and most importantly his clinical status support the president’s safe return home where he’ll be surrounded by world-class medical care 24/7.”

Mr Biden said that he was glad Mr Trump “seems to be coming along pretty well” but that he hoped the president would “communicate the right lesson to the American people: Masks matter.”

Wear a mask. pic.twitter.com/TSuLuzAXEB

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 6, 2020

Vice President Mike Pence arrived in Salt Lake City on Monday ahead of the vice-presidential debate set for Wednesday. The debate has taken on new importance after Mr Trump’s hospitalisation forced officials to cancel rallies and elevated the vice president’s role in the campaign.

White House physician Jesse Schonau in a memo Tuesday said Mr Pence remained symptom-free and had tested negative for COVID-19, and was “encouraged to go about his normal activities and does not need to quarantine.”

While the White House has said Mr Pence remains healthy, some have raised concern about sending Mr Pence — who is next in line for the presidency — out to campaign before the president has fully recovered.

White House physician Sean Conley (C) answers questions surrounded by other doctors, during an update Mr Trump’s condition. Picture: AFP.

During his hospital stay, Mr Trump received a level of care at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center that is unavailable to many people in the US, including Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s experimental antibody drug cocktail. He is currently on a five-day course of the antiviral drug remdesivir, which has been authorised for treatment of hospitalised COVID-19 patients.

Mr Trump is continuing to take dexamethasone, a steroid that has been given to COVID-19 patients who are seriously ill, his doctors said.

Mr Trump’s physicians declined to answer several questions about the president’s case, including when he last received a negative COVID-19 test and whether his lung scans showed signs of pneumonia.

The White House has moved to tighten its prevention efforts since the president fell ill. Officials are now required to wear masks in the West Wing. Mask usage had been voluntary through the entirety of the pandemic, and many staffers didn’t wear masks at the office, believing that regular testing protected them.

However, officials have continued to depart from CDC guidelines. Ms McEnany, for example, hadn’t previously quarantined despite her recent contacts with Ms Hicks. Ms McEnany, following her positive test, said she would begin isolating.

The CDC advises people with close contact to someone with COVID-19 to stay home for 14 days and avoid other people if possible. The White House has declined to say how many staff have tested positive for the illness.

Asked if other staffers are quarantining, given Ms McEnany’s results, White House spokesman Judd Deere said, “Contact tracing is being done consistent with CDC guidelines, and appropriate recommendations are being made.”

The White House said its medical unit is conducting contact tracing to identify people who were in proximity to the president and others who have tested positive for COVID-19. The CDC has readied a team of investigators but hasn’t been asked by the White House to help track down related infections, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Wall St Journal