News conferences are normally held to clear the air, to supply clarity and transparency to a situation which may be obscured by rumors and speculation. So when President Donald Trump's physician Sean Conley held his press conference outside Reed center on Saturday morning to offer the planet an update on Trump's condition, many folks were trying to find clarity. Conley said: "As reported yesterday [Friday], in consultation with this group, I recommended we bring the president up to Reed as a precautionary measure to supply state-of-the-art monitoring and any care that he may have . Just 72 hours into the diagnosis now, the primary week of Covid, and especially days seven to 10, are the foremost critical in determining the likely course of this illness."
A second doctor from the medical pool, lung specialist Brian Garibaldi then mentioned the president's scheduled medical treatment, saying: "About 48 hours ago, the president received a special antibody therapy directed against the coronavirus. And we're working very closely with the corporate to watch him in terms of that outcome. Yesterday evening, he received his first dose of IV Remdesivir and our plan is to continue a five day treatment course for Remdesivir" (via NPR).
Conley's comments provided no clarity
While it all sounds simple enough, Conley's original timeline of "72 hours into the diagnosis" meant that the president would have known he had tested positive midday Wednesday. Garibaldi's comment that Trump had received the experimental antibody about "48 hours ago" would have meant he had begun treatment on Thursday, which suggests a full day and a half would have passed before the White House admitted to beginning COVID treatments on Friday (via The ny Times). These revelations were later raised by reporters like CNN's Abby Phillip, who said: "The White House must clarify the timeline ASAP. If, supported the timeline provided by Dr. Conley, the president was symptomatic on Thursday and had tested positive for COVID-19 72 hours ago and yet carried on together with his normal schedule, that might be shocking."
Two hours later, Conley issued a clarification through the White House, saying, "This morning while summarizing the president's health, I incorrectly used the term '72 hours' rather than 'Day 3' and '48 hours' rather than 'Day 2' with regards to his diagnosis and therefore the administration of the polyclonal antibody therapy." He further clarified that Trump had first been diagnosed with the virus on Thursday evening and given the experimental antibody on Friday.
Conley's clarification only confused us more
While the walk back puts the timeline back to the order as we all know it, Conley's slips suggested that the president knew he was ill before the knowledge was made public. As CNN public health expert and professor of medicine at Oregon Health and Science University Esther Choo acknowledged (via Twitter): "if we count backward, he [Trump] began to have symptoms by Thursday into Friday. And since we all know typically coronavirus symptoms begin 4-5 days into the disease, if you count backward it's likely that he had the disease and was presumably infectious on the highest of that week. That takes us into the time of travel, the talk, many private meetings after the debates and fundraisers. It leaves open an entire world of possibility for every single person who crossed his path, and people who caught it at equivalent events."
Trump's vital signs are a cause for concern: Mark Meadows
Other matters arose that made clarity an extra challenge. The president's chief of staff Mark Meadows told reporters after the medical briefing that Trump's vital signs were causes for concern which the subsequent two days would determine the result of the illness. "The president's vitals over the last 24 hours were very concerning, and therefore the next 48 hours are going to be critical in terms of his care We're still not on a transparent path to a full recovery," Meadows said, originally under the request of anonymity (via The NY Times). The comments were said to possess made the president very angry and prompted him to release a four-minute "proof of life" video on Twitter which has picked up over 600,000 likes.
Since then, Sean Conley released a memo saying, "President Trump continues to try to well, having made substantial progress since diagnosis. tonight he completed his second dose of Remdesivir without complication... While not yet out of the woods, the team remains cautiously optimistic. The plan for tomorrow is to continue observation in between doses of Remdesivir, closely monitoring his clinical status while fully supporting his conduct of Presidential duties" (via Twitter).
Past presidents have fudged their health problems, too
To be fair, past administrations have played it fast and loose when it came to reports about the president's health. Wilson played down the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic and decreased with it himself, though never publicized it. Cleveland and Lyndon B Johnson underwent secret surgical procedures. Franklin D Roosevelt's health problems, which include a high vital sign, a heart condition, and acute bronchitis (among other things) were downplayed during the elections — he died months later of a stroke. John F Kennedy suffered pain and illness and took the maximum amount of eight different medicines each day. Dwight D Eisenhower had an attack and hospitalized for 6 weeks.
University of Chicago professor of yank politics William Howell is unsure about how transparent this White House is going to be. "He is clearly getting to be wanting to revisit onto the campaign trail. He has all types of incentives to signal strength and to urge back to the combination. He's getting to want to." But, Howell adds: "This may be a president who's been but straightforward over the course of his presidency about all manner of factual issues. And so, [whether] is he to be believed may be a good explanation for real concern" (via AP).
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