DONALD Trump’s aides feared he would die from Covid as they sought emergency clearance for him to take an experimental drug, according to a new book.
The former president was “gravely ill” and “at least two of those briefed feared he wouldn’t make it out of hospital” according to an excerpt in The Washington Post on Thursday.
“Nightmare Scenario: Inside the Trump Administration’s Response to the Pandemic That Changed History” details how Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff, “was consumed with fear that [the president] might die.”
That led to aides desperately scrambling to use experimental drugs, the books claims.
“Trump’s doctors threw everything they could at the virus all at once,” it adds.
The book – written by Post reporters Damian Paletta and Yasmeen Abutaleb – adds that virus caught “the White House unprepared.”
Aides had “not even briefed Vice President Mike Pence’s team on a plan to swear him in if Trump became incapacitated,” it claims.
Trump was rushed to the Walter Reed medical center in Maryland back on October 2 last year and discharged 72 hours later after contracting the deadly virus.
Trump’s aides are said to have appealed to Stephen Hahn, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration directly for the experimental monoclonal antibody, the new book claims.
It adds: “They kept pressing him to effectively cut corners.”
His diagnosis came as a slew of White House employees and guests also tested positive for the virus an event in the Rose Garden for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett turned out to be a super-spreader event.
Melania and Barron Trump, Kellyanne Conway, Chris Christie, Kayleigh McEnany, Hope Hicks, and several others, all contracted the virus in late September or early October.
Trump told a crowd in Arizona in November last year he “didn’t feel too great” after he was diagnosed with the virus.
He said that when you are in his position, “you have a million doctors” working to get you better.
Trump was one of a handful of people who were able to access the Regeneron one under “compassionate use” rules to treat coronavirus without enrolling in any study.
The drug is not a cure, but experimental antibody treatments like the one Trump was given are among the most promising therapies being tested for treating and preventing coronavirus infections.
The antibody drugs, which work to help the immune system clear the virus, are still in testing, and their safety and effectiveness aren’t yet known.
“For me it was a cure,” Trump said. “It wasn’t a therapeutic. It was a cure.”
He took regeneron in hospital, a cocktail of medications said to boost the immune system.
Trump said this treatment made him feel like “superman.”
Trump was also on life-saving drug dexamethasone, which is only be given to severe Covid-19 patients.
Trump’s arrival back at the White House was carefully coordinated for the cameras.
He walked out of Walter Reed and gestured with a thumbs-up before stepping into an SUV to take him to a waiting navy helicopter.
After landing back on the South Lawn, he climbed the staircase, took off his mask and saluted from the South Portico balcony.
He later shared a video of his dramatic arrival on social media complete with a Hollywood-style soundtrack.
Did you miss our previous article…
https://covidnineteen.wiki/united-kingdom/green-fungus-linked-to-delta-variant-triples-risk-of-death-scientists-warn/