/https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5f7a3edb67b18f569170968c/0x0.jpg?cropX1=0&cropX2=3000&cropY1=156&cropY2=1844&w=1200&resize=1200,675&ssl=1 "Trump ‘Briefly’ Leaves Hospital To Greet Well-Wishers Outside")
Topline
President Donald Trump left Walter Reed Medical Center, where he is being treated for coronavirus, Sunday and was driven by Secret Service agents past well-wishers who had lined up outside the medical facility, as part of a spontaneous makeshift parade that occurred just hours after doctors disclosed the president had been treated with oxygen and steroids.
In this handout provided by The White House, President Donald J. Trump works in the Presidential … [+]
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Key Facts
Reporters on the scene like Associated Press’ Phillip Crowther captured video and images of Trump waving to supporters from the inside of a Chevy Suburban in Bethesda, Maryland.
All passengers inside the car, including Trump, appeared to be wearing masks.
Online critics swiftly panned the president for the move, which they said was a publicity stunt that unnecessarily put the safety of Secret Service agents in danger.
Earlier today, Trump’s doctors revealed the president had experienced two drops in oxygen levels since his diagnosis and has been treated with Remdesivir and and the steroid dexamethasone.
A powerful anti-inflammatory, dexamethasone is known to cause confusion and quickly ease fever and pain, even if the underlying condition is not necessarily better, Bob Wachter, the head of University of California San Francisco’s medicine department said.
Chief Critic
James P. Phillips, an attending doctor at Walter Reed, called Trump’s trip “pure insanity,” saying “every single person in the vehicle during that completely unnecessary Presidential ‘drive-by’ just now has to be quarantined for 14 days. They might get sick. They may die. For political theater. Commanded by Trump to put their lives at risk for theater.”
Tangent
According to a poll released Sunday by ABC News/Ipsos, 72% of Americans said Trump did not take his chances of contracting the virus seriously enough, and did not take the right precautions to protect himself.
Key Background
Trump hinted at the outing in a video message posted on his Twitter shortly before. “I also think we’re going to pay a little surprise to some of the great patriots that we have out on the street,” Trump said in the video. They had been out there for “a long time, waving Trump flags,” the president said. In the video, Trump also referenced getting to meet “some of the soldiers and first responders, and what a group,” Trump said, apparently referring to other patients at the hospital, despite his diagnosis of the extremely contagious coronavirus.
Further Reading
Trump Experienced Two Episodes Of ‘Drops In Oxygen’ Since Coronavirus Diagnosis (Forbes)
How Sick Is Trump? White House Offers Conflicting Messages. (Forbes)
All The President’s Medicine (Forbes)
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