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US President Trump was transported to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Friday evening after announcing he had tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Trump is struggling with a low-grade fever, a cough and nasal congestion, among other symptoms, said two officials familiar with his condition who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the president’s health.
Multiple people who were at Trump’s Saturday announcement of Amy Coney Barrett as his Supreme Court nominee have tested positive for the coronavirus, including first lady Melania Trump, former White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Mike Lee of Utah, Notre Dame President John I. Jenkins and a journalist.
Trump receiving remdesivir at Walter Reed, his doctor says
The president is receiving remdesivir, an antiviral drug that has shown modest benefits for some people, at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center after testing positive for the coronavirus and has “completed his first dose and is resting comfortably,” according to a late Friday news release from his doctor.
Remdesivir was developed in partnership with government agencies and at least $70 million from US taxpayers. For doctors and researchers, clinical studies have reinforced questions about the effectiveness of the drug and who is best suited to receive it. The most conclusive evidence shows it reduces hospital stays from 15 to 11 days but does not significantly reduce the odds of dying of the coronavirus.
In the afternoon, his physician had said he Trump had received an “antibody cocktail” and was “fatigued but in good spirits." That update came just minutes before administration officials told The Post that the president was preparing to check in to Walter Reed “out of an abundance of caution.”
The “antibody cocktail” is an experimental treatment made by the pharmaceutical company Regeneron and is one of the most promising known. Experts say it could be the best bet for fighting the virus.
“Following PCR-confirmation of the president’s diagnosis, as a precautionary measure he received a single 8 gram dose of Regeneron’s polyclonal antibody cocktail,” White House physician Sean Conley said in a statement.
He said the president completed his treatment “without incident,” and that Trump is also taking zinc, vitamin D, famotidine, melatonin and a daily aspirin. A team of experts is evaluating and advising the president, Conley said.
Regeneron manufactures the drug, a cocktail of two monoclonal antibodies, from hamster ovary cells. It’s meant to reduce the virus’s lethality by boosting a patient’s immune defense. Early data from the drug’s trials are encouraging but preliminary. When it works, it can prevent an illness from progressing to the point where a person may need to be hospitalized or put on a ventilator.
In a statement, Regeneron confirmed that it provided the president with the treatment after his physicians filed a “compassionate use” request, a rare exception to the drug’s use, which at this point is mainly confined to clinical trials.
“In addition to the clinical trial supply and product being manufactured under an agreement with the U.S. government,” the statement read, “there is limited product available for compassionate use requests that have been approved under rare, exceptional circumstances on a case-by-case basis.”
Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien tests positive for coronavirus
Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, according to a campaign official, becoming the latest person in the president’s orbit to receive a diagnosis. The news was first reported by Politico.
Stepien, 42, became campaign manager in July, replacing Brad Parscale. He was the field director for the 2016 campaign and has worked for the president since the election.
(Source: Washington Post)
