President Donald Trump Taken To Walter Reed Medical Center, Being Treated For COVID-19 With Experimental Antibody Cocktail
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- President Donald Trump has been taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for evaluation on Friday night and will be there for the next few days. He is being treated for COVID-19 with an experimental antibody cocktail and Remdesivir.
Dr. Sean Conley, the White House doctor, says the president is doing "very well" and is resting comfortably.
The memo says, as a precautionary measure, the president received a single 8-gram dose of Regeneron's polyclonal antibody cocktail, an IV given to boost the immune system.
President Trump was also given zinc, vitamin D, famotidine -- an antacid -- and also melatonin and aspirin.
Also on Friday night, Kellyanne Conway, former senior advisor to the president, announced she too has tested positive for the virus.
Trump sounded congested in a phone interview with Fox News on Thursday night, hours before announcing his positive COVID-19 test results.
The 74-year-old president is at-risk for complications because of his age and being obese.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, eight out of ten COVID-19 related deaths in the United States have been among adults 65 and older.
"Most people who have a serious infection tend to be older, but most older people still recover completely from this infection," Philadelphia Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley said.
The White House says the president and first lady have mild symptoms, for which there are no treatments.
"There's no reason he couldn't take phone calls or conduct virtual meetings," said Dr. Eric Sachinwalla, an infectious disease expert at Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia.
Sachinwalla says a fever and difficulty breathing are indications the virus is becoming more dangerous and a threat to the lungs.
"We usually see that within the first week," Sachinwalla said.
The White House is doing contact tracing, especially for people who were on Air Force One, because the virus is more easily spread by people without masks who are in close contact for a period of time.
"From the time when they're exposed to the time they develop symptoms, it's about four to six days," Farley said.
The virus can be spread before symptoms appear, even when tests are negative.
So what about the supporters who were with the president in Bedminster, New Jersey for an event on Thursday and in Harrisburg on Saturday?
"I think the people that were at those events need to potentially be evaluated," Sachinwalla said.
Anyone who has direct contact with someone with tests positive for COVID-19 is supposed to self-quarantine for 14 days.
