Less than half a week after he tested positive for the coronavirus – and just three days after he was hospitalized with attendant symptoms – U.S. president Donald Trump is headed back to the White House.
“I will be leaving the great Walter Reed Medical Center today at 6:30 p.m.,” Trump tweeted, adding that he was “feeling really good!”
Trump and his wife – first lady Melania Trump – tested positive for Covid-19 last Thursday. On Friday evening, the president was transferred to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland where he has remained under observation for the past 72 hours.
In announcing his impending departure from the hospital, the 74-year-old commander-in-chief had a message for the nation.
“Don’t be afraid of Covid,” he tweeted. “Don’t let it dominate your life. We have developed, under the Trump administration, some really great drugs and knowledge.”
“I feel better than I did twenty years ago!” Trump added.
Trump’s tweet drew praise from Alex Berenson, a former reporter with The New York Times who has been a staunch critic of mask mandates.
“Maybe the smartest thing (Trump) has ever said,” Berenson tweeted. “For too long we have let this virus – and the media’s hysteria around it – dominate us. We need to take back our lives, our schools, and our whole world.”
Not everyone embraced that message, however.
Liberal U.S. House speaker Nancy Pelosi fretted that Trump was setting a dangerous example by rushing to return to work.
“The president could be going back to the White House and become a long-hauler, someone who has consequences from this virus,” Pelosi said in an interview with MSNBC. “He should not be dealing with it politically to make it look like he overcame the virus because he’s had such good policies. Because in fact, he has been very destructive and dangerous to the country.”
Meanwhile, “reporters” Kevin Liptak and Maeve Reston of über-liberal CNN wrote that Trump “recklessly downplayed” his experience with the virus – calling his message “jarring not only because it was irresponsible but that it came from a current coronavirus patient who has experienced serious symptoms of the disease and whose recovery has included experimental treatments unavailable to most Americans.”
Speaking of those treatments, Trump will receive his fourth dose of Remdesivir on Monday. A fifth dose will follow on Tuesday.
Trump’s physician – Sean P. Conley – said the president had experienced no side effects from his drug regimen.
“He’s back,” Conley said, adding that Trump had “met or exceeded all hospital discharge criteria.”
“Though he may not be entirely out of the woods yet, the team and I agree that all of his 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,” Conley added. “If we can get through to Monday with him remaining the same or improving, then we will take this deep sigh of relief.”
(Click to view)
(Via: The White House)
Conley (above) told reporters advanced diagnostic techniques would be employed in an effort to determine when the last ‘live’ traces of the virus left the president’s body.
Trump was reportedly advised to stay a bit longer at the hospital, but demurred. And while there is obviously a political cacophony brewing regarding that decision, all the political spin in the world is unlikely to change the fundamental optics of the situation.
“If Trump leaves Walter Reed tonight and doesn’t return, his urging for Americans ‘not to fear COVID-19’ will be remembered, as he personally has demonstrated that the virus is not a ‘death sentence,’ even for older Americans,” the website Zero Hedge noted.
Indeed …
Moreover, Trump’s exhortation not to be afraid of Covid-19 could strike a powerful chord – as millions of Americans have been adversely impacted by the brutal economic consequences of the lockdowns associated with the virus.
Our view? This could very well be the make or break moment of Trump’s presidency …
-FITSNews
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