Trump's Coronavirus Victory Lap Alarms Infectious Disease Experts

BETHESDA, MD — Perfectly choreographed to dominate Monday evening newscasts, President Donald Trump made a triumphant return to the White House after three days in the hospital for treatment of COVID-19, taking off his face mask and posing for reporters before entering the White House without it.

The president later tweeted a video telling Americans they shouldn't be afraid of the coronavirus and shouldn't let it dominate their lives. That alarmed infectious disease experts who said Trump is sending the wrong message with a cavalier attitude about the virus, which so far has killed more than 210,600 Americans and has the potential to take another 200,000 lives by January.

Trump was cleared by his doctors to leave Walter Reed Medical Center, where he had been hospitalized since Friday, but he "may not be entirely out of the woods yet," Dr. Sean Conley, one of his doctors, told reporters. The president's care was transferred to a White House medical suite described as a step below an intensive care unit.

The White House's West Wing is a ghost town, with staff members reportedly afraid of exposure. And the White House is now a treatment ward for not one but two COVID-19 patients, including a president who has long taken the threat of the virus lightly. Trump's decision to return home from a military hospital despite his continued illness is putting new focus on the people around him who could be further exposed if he doesn't abide by strict isolation protocols.

White House spokesman Judd Deere said the White House was “taking every precaution necessary” to protect not just the first family but “every staff member working on the complex" consistent with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and best practices. He added that physical access to the president would be significantly limited and that appropriate protective gear would be worn by those near him.

Elsewhere in the nation's capital, coronavirus quarantines are in effect at the Pentagon, where a number of top officials have been forced to work from home due to a positive test from a leading admiral at the Coast Guard, according to a CNN report.

It was Adm. Charles Ray who tested positive Monday, according to the report that cited Jonathan Hoffman, assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs.

Speaking at a Florida town hall, former Vice President Joe Biden blasted Trump's defiance of mask-wearing and cited research that near-universal mask-wearing would save 100,000 lives by the end of the year. He said he is glad the president appears to be recovering well, "but there’s a lot to be concerned about — 210,000 people have died. I hope no one walks away with the message that it’s not a problem.”

Biden said mask-wearing is a matter of patriotism, and said the president bears some responsibility for contracting the virus.

"Anybody who contracts the virus by essentially saying, 'masks don't matter, social distancing doesn't matter,' I think is responsible for what happens to them," he said.

"What is this macho thing, 'I'm not going to wear a mask'? What's the deal here? Big deal, does it hurt you? Be patriotic, for God's sake! Take care of yourself, but take care of your neighbors," the former vice president said.

Questions remained unanswered Tuesday about how sick the president was with COVID-19 and what his lung scans showed, when he became infected with the virus, and to what extent contact tracing and social distance measures to contain the virus will be followed.

Throughout the pandemic, White House custodians, ushers, kitchen staff and members of the U.S. Secret Service have continued to show up for work in what is now a coronavirus hot spot, with more than a dozen known cases this week alone.

Conley earlier said Trump has not had a high-grade fever in more than 72 hours and was no longer on oxygen, and that "there is no evidence of a live virus still present that he could transfer to others."

Video footage of Trump's return to the White House shows at least one administration photographer near Trump while he was unmasked. There are more than 100 employees on the White House residence staff alone, according to The Atlantic.

Any of those people could presumably be in close contact with Trump, who accounts for a confirmed positive coronavirus case.

Conley said the team of doctors will do "everything possible" to allow for Trump to continue serving in his capacity as president "at the White House, or wherever that may be."

Trump pushed his medical team to discharge him from the hospital just a day after he briefly left to salute supporters from a motorcade and said in a video that he now understands the severity of a virus he has spent the last nine months downplaying.

"We have developed, under the Trump administration, some really great drugs and knowledge," Trump tweeted Monday afternoon. "I feel better than I did 20 years ago!"

I will be leaving the great Walter Reed Medical Center today at 6:30 P.M. Feeling really good! 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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2020

More members of Trump's inner circle, including White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, announced they have tested positive for the coronavirus. She attended what is being called a "superspreader" event Sept. 26 where more than 150 people gathered in the Rose Garden to congratulate Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Judge Amy Coney Barrett. In all, about 13 people closely associated with Trump or the Rose Garden event have tested positive for the virus.

Trump's motorcade appearance Sunday outside Walter Reed on Sunday was met by scorn by the president's adversaries, who said it was political theater that showed his willingness to disregard basic precautions to contain the virus — including those recommended by his own coronavirus task force — that so far has killed nearly 210,000 people in the United States.

Secret Service agents assigned to protect Trump fumed to CNN that the impromptu parade was reckless, should never have been allowed and put their health at risk.

In addition, Dr. James P. Phillips, an attending physician at Walter Reed, called it "insanity."

“Every single person in the vehicle during that completely unnecessary presidential ‘drive-by’ just now has to be quarantined for 14 days," Phillips, who has often criticized Trump's handling of the pandemic, wrote on Twitter. "They might get sick. They may die.”

Weekend news conferences added more confusion about the health of the president, who has now spent three nights in the hospital after testing positive Thursday for the COVID-19 virus. His physician, Dr. Sean Conley, said Trump has "continued to improve" since he was given the steroid dexamethasone after his blood oxygen level dropped twice in recent days.

His blood oxygen level — a key marker in COVID-19 patients — dipped below 94 percent on Friday and then again on Saturday. On Sunday, his blood oxygen level was 98percent, physicians said. But when asked if the president's blood oxygen level had gone below 90 percent, Conley was evasive.

Along with the steroid, Trump's treatment plan so far has included two experimental drugs — a single dose of a drug that Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. is testing to supply antibodies to help his immune system fight the virus, and two doses of a five-day course of remdesivir, a Gilead Sciences drug currently used for moderately and severely ill patients.

But Trump's medical team was vague, refusing to answer many questions at a briefing Sunday and omitting potentially key information when they did answer. Conley made a point to say that Trump's heart, kidney and liver functions were normal, but declined to say what a lung scan showed and if there are signs of pneumonia or other damage.

Trump was busy on Twitter on Sunday and Monday, saying in a video Sunday night that he has learned a great deal about COVID-19 during his stay at Walter Reed.

"I learned it by going to school," he said. "This is the real school; this isn't the read-the-book school. I get it."

White House spokesman Judd Deere said Trump’s trip outside the hospital Sunday “was cleared by the medical team as safe to do.”

He added that precautions were taken, including using personal protective equipment, to protect Trump as well as White House officials and Secret Service agents.

This is a developing story. Refresh this page for updates. The Associated Press contributed reporting.