President Trump and First Lady have tested positive for Virus (Update: Trump to undergo televised ‘medical exam’ Friday night) (1 Viewer)

Looks like the original delay is because he got a positive result, but then wanted to get a second test before announcing.

President Trump hid the results of his first positive COVID-19 test on Thursday while awaiting the results of a second test that would later also come back positive, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

People familiar with the president's health told the newspaper that a rapid COVID-19 test returned a positive result before President Trump called in to Fox News for an interview with Sean Hannity on Thursday evening. During the interview, Trump addressed the diagnosis of his aide Hope Hicks with coronavirus but did not reveal that he had apparently already tested positive.

In a tweet hours later, just before 1 a.m. Friday, Trump announced his own diagnosis after a second test performed using a deeper nasal swap also returned positive results.

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Who has and hasn't tested positive, that has been announced. I'm sure dozens of staffers are at risk.

zztop said:

And this is why, even if not elected for a second term, he had damaged the perception to such a degree that in my opinion, it will probably take decades to get back to some level of trust

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I never trusted him to begin with, long before he ever talked about becoming President. It's part of why I was baffled that as a country, we'd elected him President. Some level of trust for Trump makes me lol.

Lapaz said:

Do we know whether the limo drivers had masks on? If they had N95 masks on, then there is practically no risk.

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That’s...not quite true.

N95 provides a greater level of protection but best case application only puts it at 95%.

My other half missed the first 6 months of our nephews life because she was occasionally helping float into the overflow covid ward despite N95 usage. Reason being because it is specifically not some bulletproof mechanism. It provides a significantly greater level of protection, but if you are trapped in a hermetically sealed car for an extended period of time, with only an N95 mask, that’s not going to immunize you.

DaveXA said:

I never trusted him to begin with, long before he ever talked about becoming President. It's part of why I was baffled that as a country, we'd elected him President. Some level of trust for Trump makes me lol.

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I feel like it warrants repeating. He lost the popular vote by almost 3 million. And at no point has a majority of the country supported him.

In a more democratic society this man never steps foot in the Oval Office.

N.O.Bronco said:

I feel like it warrants repeating. He lost the popular vote by almost 3 million. And at no point has a majority of the country supported him.

In a more democratic society this man never steps foot in the Oval Office.

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Maybe. But...if it were more of a democracy, his election strategy would almost certainly have been different. Would that have been enough to make a difference, I don't know, but I think that 3 million vote gap would have been smaller. I suspect a lot of people stay home in statea that aren't in play.

It's probably an interesting thought experiment.

wardorican said:

My take is that he's doing ok. He has a mild case, so it probably wipes him out, but he's not doing awful. However, they are doing a lot of things preventatively, since he's so old and in poor health.

I think he just wants the message to be that he's fit, fine, etc. He's desperate for that image, so he wants to be single handedly beating the virus.

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I think what we're seeing is what you inevitably get when you have the type of people running things whose immediate response to contracting covid-19 is, "How do we make the most of this?" (rather than, "Oh no, we'll have to isolate and make sure everyone we've been in contact with recently knows.")

From that point of view, they'd want to create uncertainty about his condition. If he's doing OK, they'd want to suggest that maybe it's worse. That uncertainty keeps him in the headlines, while also garnering sympathy for him (in as much as that's possible given, y'know, everything). At the same time, they want to project strength, so staged images, videos, idiotic ride-alongs. They want his followers to be worrying for him and simultaneously admiring him.

More generally, they just want people talking about him. Put it this way, if he was just doing what he should be doing right now - nothing - and clear and accurate information was being released, he wouldn't be dominating the news cycle continuously right now, and people might be talking about his taxes, or his debt, or Biden.

In reality he's probably just doing OK with a relatively mild case so far, not terrible, not great. That's what the reports of needing some supplemental oxygen, and the use of dexamethasone suggest, as far as I understand it. But assuming it goes OK for him, by the time he's clear, it'll be, "They said on the first day I had one of the worst cases they'd ever seen. But I told them, I said, 'You need to give me Regeneron.' Amazing stuff by the way, they'd never heard of it, they said, 'Sir, how do you know so much about this?' I guess I have a natural ability for it, that's what they tell me anyway. By the second day they were saying, 'Sir, we've never seen a recovery like this, no-one has ever done this before.'" Etc., etc.

Dexamethasone isn’t used for mild cases. He must have some lung involvement, some Covid pneumonia. It would be medical malpractice, from what I understand, to use it on a mild case. In fact, from what I have read, it’s contraindicated in mild cases. It can cause actual harm.

His publicity stunt with the car was evidently a decision made to placate him. It was an unnecessary risk to all who participated. He was apparently only wearing a cloth mask. A physician said that the car is sealed up to ward off chemical attack, so the ventilation is in question. And the risk may be statistically low, but it’s not zero, so it’s totally legitimate to question the president‘s judgement in demanding such a stunt.

We are also getting some clues that the statements of his doctor are being driven by his own preoccupation with appearances and his own personal interests rather than any consideration of what is best for the country or any obligation felt to provide accurate information. Which is entirely on brand.

Lastly, the President is most likely much farther along in the disease than they have let on. The press secretary refused yesterday (I think it was yesterday) to say when his last negative test was before the positive test on Thursday. We have been told the President is tested daily. People are now hearing that was a lie. If he ever was tested daily, that has apparently not been done for some time. The whole testing protocol, at least as far as it applied to the president, has been a lie. He didn't want to be tested, so he just quit doing it, apparently. He participated in the debate “on the honor system” by saying he had been tested at the WH, but it isn’t clear right now that he had been tested just before the debate. I read that 13 people involved in site preparation and who worked the debate have tested positive since the debate.

There just couldn’t be a clearer picture of a man who is totally indifferent to anyone but himself. Who doesn’t care about anything but his own situation, who has poor impulse control, who has zero relationship with truth. Who is amoral, who has no honor. In short, someone who is manifestly unfit to hold office.

DaveXA said:

Maybe. But...if it were more of a democracy, his election strategy would almost certainly have been different. Would that have been enough to make a difference, I don't know, but I think that 3 million vote gap would have been smaller. I suspect a lot of people stay home in statea that aren't in play.

It's probably an interesting thought experiment.

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Given the lack of popular support, seems unlikely he would be able to have changed that outcome unless he basically changed who he is, which I think at this point it is fair to say he is not capable of doing.

N.O.Bronco said:

Given the lack of popular support, seems unlikely he would be able to have changed that outcome unless he basically changed who he is, which I think at this point it is fair to say he is not capable of doing.

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Yeah, possibly. I tend to think he doesn't get nominated as the Republican candidate if it was a popular election. He never had a broad enough base of support to win a majority of the overall population. But elections are won with the electoral college, not the popular vote. Maybe that's not how it should be, but that how it's set up.

Secret Service agents not happy about the photo op
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Current and former Secret Service agents and medical professionals were aghast Sunday night at President Trump’s trip outside the hospital where he is being treated for the coronavirus, saying the president endangered those inside his SUV for a publicity stunt.

As the backlash grew, multiple aides who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations also called Trump’s evening outing an unnecessary risk — but said it was not surprising. Trump had said he was bored in the hospital, advisers said. He wanted to show strength after his chief of staff offered a grimmer assessment of his health than doctors, according to campaign and White House officials.

A growing number of Secret Service agents have been concerned about the president’s seeming indifference to the health risks they face when traveling with him in public, and a few reacted with outrage to the trip, asking how Trump’s desire to be seen outside his hospital suite justified the jeopardy to agents protecting him.

Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis has already brought new scrutiny to his lax approach to social distancing, as public health officials scramble to trace those he may have exposed at large in-person events.

“He’s not even pretending to care now,” one agent said after the president’s jaunt outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to wave at supportive crowds.

“Where are the adults?” said a former Secret Service member.

They spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution...................

DaveXA said:

Yeah, possibly. I tend to think he doesn't get nominated as the Republican candidate if it was a popular election. He never had a broad enough base of support to win a majority of the overall population. But elections are won with the electoral college, not the popular vote. Maybe that's not how it should be, but that how it's set up.

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I believe in the EC. I also believe opponents make valid points. The 2000 election was a great history lesson and showed why our founding
fathers created it. The controversy and drama came from Florida,but Florida would have been moot if Gore had won his own state of Tennessee.

DaveXA said:

Yeah, possibly. I tend to think he doesn't get nominated as the Republican candidate if it was a popular election. He never had a broad enough base of support to win a majority of the overall population. But elections are won with the electoral college, not the popular vote. Maybe that's not how it should be, but that how it's set up.

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The primaries don't use the electoral college, so he'd have gotten the nomination regardless.

If we had true proportional representation in the EC, I'm fairly sure he'd have lost, but not positive.

MT15 said:

MT15 said:

Dexamethasone isn’t used for mild cases. He must have some lung involvement, some Covid pneumonia. It would be medical malpractice, from what I understand, to use it on a mild case. In fact, from what I have read, it’s contraindicated in mild cases. It can cause actual harm.

His publicity stunt with the car was evidently a decision made to placate him. It was an unnecessary risk to all who participated. He was apparently only wearing a cloth mask. A physician said that the car is sealed up to ward off chemical attack, so the ventilation is in question. And the risk may be statistically low, but it’s not zero, so it’s totally legitimate to question the president‘s judgement in demanding such a stunt.

We are also getting some clues that the statements of his doctor are being driven by his own preoccupation with appearances and his own personal interests rather than any consideration of what is best for the country or any obligation felt to provide accurate information. Which is entirely on brand.

Lastly, the President is most likely much farther along in the disease than they have let on. The press secretary refused yesterday (I think it was yesterday) to say when his last negative test was before the positive test on Thursday. We have been told the President is tested daily. People are now hearing that was a lie. If he ever was tested daily, that has apparently not been done for some time. The whole testing protocol, at least as far as it applied to the president, has been a lie. He didn't want to be tested, so he just quit doing it, apparently. He participated in the debate “on the honor system” by saying he had been tested at the WH, but it isn’t clear right now that he had been tested just before the debate. I read that 13 people involved in site preparation and who worked the debate have tested positive since the debate.

There just couldn’t be a clearer picture of a man who is totally indifferent to anyone but himself. Who doesn’t care about anything but his own situation, who has poor impulse control, who has zero relationship with truth. Who is amoral, who has no honor. In short, someone who is manifestly unfit to hold office.

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.

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I think the fair question is when was his last negative test, since neither campaign took the 'official' one from Cleveland Clinic. But when were both of their last negative tests? Kinda moot for Biden, since he has a negative since then

MT15 said:

Dexamethasone isn’t used for mild cases. He must have some lung involvement, some Covid pneumonia. It would be medical malpractice, from what I understand, to use it on a mild case. In fact, from what I have read, it’s contraindicated in mild cases. It can cause actual harm.

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I hear people keep saying this all over the news and online about this drug and Remdesver, but we need to remember that we're talking about Donald Trump here. If there is any thing he could take that was presented to him that he thought was going to help him beat back Covid-19, he was going to force and compel the doctor to give it to him. Especially if his condition worsened rapidly temporary and he thought he was in serious danger.

What I'm trying to say is that he is going to take any advantage he can as he plays for the cameras. And we already know that with his unyielding personality and the force of the presidency behind him, he's going to get what he wants. A doctors ethics or training is not going to matter beyond a recommendation. I could easily see him seeing his health worsen initially and him being so consumed with his quickly failing short term health and the optics of that publicly and maybe fear of dying, that he orders/pushes his doctors to give him every advanced and experimental treatment available so that his short term health improves and he makes a miraculous recovery. That is certainly not beyond Trump.

So I don't know that we can read so much into that as people keep saying. Now having said that, I don't think he's out of the clear by any stretch. I think it probably is a serious case and the therapeutics have helped early on. His rapidly declining early health probably spooked him and he pushed his doctors to be very aggressive with treatment, much more so than they would have been for other patients with Covid-19. But I think that given what we know about how this virus works, his condition could easily worsen over the next few weeks regardless of how it appears how he's doing now (which I also don't think we really know).

DaveXA said:

I never trusted him to begin with, long before he ever talked about becoming President. It's part of why I was baffled that as a country, we'd elected him President. Some level of trust for Trump makes me lol.

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I think there is a slight misunderstanding. I was talking about the damage he has done to the office of the presidency, by way of all the shirt he has said and done the past 4 years etc. I know there are some that are like "I never trusted the government to being with" but I always viewed those as a small %... now enters trump: and I bet that number has exploded to a vastly larger number. So its not about him, but the lasting damage he has done to anyone else elected after him

I thought this pretty well distilled the WR conversation. Lol.

MT15 said:

I thought this pretty well distilled the WR conversation. Lol.

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I’m guessing most of yall know this , but for those who dont- that reporter (Laura’s) dad is a longtime member of SR.. not sure if he’s here on the MAP or not though.. just for whatever that’s worth.