We Don’t Know How Sick the President Really Is. That’s a Problem
It has been an alarming, distressing, exhausting few days. So let’s take a moment to pause, catch our breath, and take stock of where we are.
Here’s the situation: Donald J. Trump, the President of the United States and the single most powerful person on the planet, is sick with COVID-19. We do not know with any confidence how ill he truly is; both his physician and White House officials have been unclear, evasive or downright dishonest.
The official line is that Trump is relatively fine and may even be released today. But he’s receiving a battery of medicinal firepower, some of it experimental, that suggests either he’s sicker than we’re being led to believe, or that his doctors are being unusually aggressive with his treatment—a move that could be risky, or could be exactly the right strategy, as my colleague Alice Park reports. Either way, this virus is vicious, and even a person who seems to be doing well in their battle against it one hour can easily take a turn the next.
Journalists’ fascination with Trump’s health may seem disturbingly morbid. But the presidency confers enormous power—when Trump was helicoptered to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Friday, he was joined by a military aide carrying the so-called “nuclear football,” essentially a laptop from which he can trigger the end of the world, if he so chooses. That’s an extreme example, but it speaks to the importance that the President is of sound health and mind. If he is not, his powers ought to be transferred, at least temporarily, to the Vice President (the Constitution includes mechanisms for this to happen both voluntarily and otherwise). That the American public can’t be sure about the health of their President is thus a grave injustice, as Dr. Eric Topol, founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, wrote for TIME this weekend.
If President Trump’s health remains a mystery, his attitude and behavior do not. Shortly after posting a video claiming that he “gets it,” Trump—still potentially contagious—shortly left the hospital for a reckless joyride to greet supporters gathered nearby. In doing so, he put the members of his Secret Service detail at grave risk of contracting the virus themselves, despite their precautions, like wearing masks while in the car. “Every single person in the vehicle during that completely unnecessary presidential ‘drive-by’ just now has to be quarantined for 14 days,” said Dr. James P. Phillips, the chief of disaster and operational medicine at George Washington University Hospital and an attending physician at Walter Reed. “They might get sick. They may die. For political theater. Commanded by Trump to put their lives at risk for theater. This is insanity.” On top of that, the White House has failed in its duty to notify those who Trump and others in his orbit may have put at risk, and it’s struggling to keep safe even those who work there. Both Trump and the White House could have been models of effective outbreak response; both have squandered that opportunity.
It’s too early to say how COVID-19 will play out for Trump either medically or politically. The virus will work its course over the next few days; voters have a few more weeks. What is increasingly clear, however, is that Trump’s personal brush with a deadly pathogen that has killed nearly 210,000 Americans and infected more than 7.4 million is unlikely to change his behavior in any substantial way as a result of the doubtlessly harrowing experience.
TODAY'S CORONAVIRUS OUTLOOK
The Global Situation
More than 35 million people around the world had been sickened by COVID-19 as of 1 a.m. E.T. today, and more than 1 million people have died. Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
On Oct. 4, there were 176,505 new cases and 2,934 new deaths confirmed globally. Here's how the world as a whole is currently trending:
Here is every country with over 400,000 confirmed cases to date ("per cap" is number per 100,000 people):
While places like New Zealand are essentially COVID-free, many other countries and cities are headed or appear to be headed back towards major lockdowns amid new surges in viral spread. Paris is closing bars (but keeping restaurants open), officials in Moscow are ordering businesses to go at least partially remote-only, and a second lockdown in Israel is leading to confusion and street protests.
Pope Francis on Sunday urged the world to move past the “magic theories” of market-based capitalism, arguing that the pandemic has demonstrated the failures of current global political and economic systems. “Anyone who thinks that the only lesson to be learned was the need to improve what we were already doing, or to refine existing systems and regulations, is denying reality,” Francis wrote in a new encyclical. “It is imperative to have a proactive economic policy directed at promoting an economy that favours productive diversity and business creativity and makes it possible for jobs to be created, and not cut.”
Kenzo Takada, a celebrated French-Japanese fashion designer, died from complications related to COVID-19 in a hospital outside Paris on Sunday, the Associated Press reports. “For half a century, Mr. Takada has been an emblematic personality in the fashion industry—always infusing creativity and color into the world,” his company said in a statement.
The Situation in the U.S.
The U.S. had recorded more than 7.4 million coronavirus cases as of 1 a.m. E.T. today. Nearly 210,000 people have died. Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
On Oct. 4, there were 38,630 new cases and 410 new deaths confirmed in the U.S. Here's how the country as a whole is currently trending:
President Trump has been demanding to go back to the White House despite his COVID-19 treatment, CNN reports, citing two sources familiar with the situation. One of those sources said that Trump, who has often attacked political rivals over health concerns, is concerned his hospitalization makes him look “weak.” While the White House is well-equipped to handle some medical concerns, it does not have the same level of equipment or staff as a full-blown hospital like Walter Reed.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, longtime head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on CNN’s New Day this morning that he has “not been involved in the direct care of the President.” That’s not entirely shocking—Fauci’s focus during the pandemic has been on broad public health, not individual care. Furthermore, Trump has repeatedly criticized Fauci’s calls for Americans to follow public health guidance and his sobering assessments of the U.S. outbreak. Still, that the nation’s foremost COVID-19 expert hasn’t been asked to help with Trump’s treatment at all is at least a little surprising.
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany is the latest Trump staffer to test positive for the coronavirus. “After testing negative consistently, including every day since Thursday, I tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday morning while experiencing no symptoms,” she said in a statement posted on Twitter. McEnany’s result speaks to one key fault of testing: it can take several days after a person comes in contact with the virus for that person to test positive, meaning daily testing can't fully replace social distancing and mask-wearing. McEnany will now “begin the quarantine process,” she says.
In non-Trump domestic news, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has updated its "How COVID-19 Spreads" webpage with new information about airborne transmission, the agency said today. "Today’s update acknowledges the existence of some published reports showing limited, uncommon circumstances where people with COVID-19 infected others who were more than six feet away or shortly after the COVID-19-positive person left an area," reads a CDC statement. "In these instances, transmission occurred in poorly ventilated and enclosed spaces that often involved activities that caused heavier breathing, like singing or exercise." The new language is similar to material that was recently posted then quickly and mysteriously deleted.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has ordered schools in a number of New York City neighborhoods to close following an alarming uptick in cases in those areas, the AP reports. Cuomo's order came after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio asked the state for permission to make the move; de Blasio also wants to halt indoor dining and reintroduce other restrictions, but Cuomo has not yet gone that far.
A paper published today in the Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology is among the first to examine the rate of neurologic symptoms among U.S. COVID-19 patients, my colleague Jamie Ducharme reports. Out of 509 people admitted to Chicago-area hospitals for coronavirus care this spring, 82% had a neurologic symptom at some point, according to the paper, including muscle aches (45%), headaches (38%), dizziness (30%) and more.
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of October 5, 1 a.m. E.T. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
History Shows America Benefits From Transparency About the President's Health
Presidents have kept their health woes close to the chest since the early days of the American experiment, writes presidential scholar Barbara A. Perry. But history shows transparency is in the public’s best interest, she says. Read more here.
How Should We Feel About the Suffering of This Man?
Dan Kois, an editor and writer at Slate, is no fan of Trump—nor is he a fan of the ill thoughts he’s had about the President over the last several years. In reckoning with his darker impulses since Trump’s diagnosis, Kois comes to this conclusion: he wants the President to beat COVID-19 so voters have the chance to repudiate him at the polls. Read more here.
Did You Wake Anyone Up to Tell Them Trump Has COVID-19?
Why, when we read shocking news, do we feel the impulse to share it with whoever’s closest? Julie Beck, senior editor at The Atlantic, says it could simply be because “no one wants to face the future alone.” Read more here.
Thanks for reading. We hope you find the Coronavirus Brief newsletter to be a helpful tool to navigate this very complex situation, and welcome feedback at coronavirus.brief@time.com.
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Today's newsletter was written by Alex Fitzpatrick and edited by Jamie Ducharme.
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