The president’s physician has issued a statement noting that Trump had been taking Abbott Pharmaceutical’s rapid tests and received negative results “on consecutive days”. As has been characteristic in recent weeks, Dr Sean Conley left out key information – including which days and how many. He also offered that the rapid tests – which are less accurate than PCR tests processed in labs – were not used “in isolation for the determination of the president’s negative status” and cited “additional clinical and laboratory data”*, leaving many details of Trump’s condition vague.
Obfuscation seems to be Conley’s favoured informational delivery technique …
A study conducted by Cleveland Clinic in April showed the test detected the virus in around 85% of cases, lower than many other COVID-19 tests. Other studies, including one by New York University, raised similar concerns.
The FDA said it had received 302 “adverse event” reports as of Sept. 30, including numerous accounts of false negatives - results showing people were not infected when they actually were.
Barron, 14, tested positive after both of his parents contracted the virus, Mrs Trump said in a personal post on the White House website.
In the post, entitled My Personal Experience With COVID-19, she said: “Recovering from an illness gives you a lot of time to reflect.”
She said that after she and her husband were diagnosed with the virus, her mind “went immediately to our son”.
"To our great relief he tested negative, but again, as so many parents have thought over the past several months, I couldn’t help but think ‘what about tomorrow or the next day?’.
“My fear came true when he was tested again and it came up positive. Luckily he is a strong teenager and exhibited no symptoms.”
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Trump administration ally, has urged Americans to take coronavirus “seriously” after spending days in intensive care with Covid-19.
He was one of several virus cases confirmed at the same time as President Donald Trump in early October. The infections have been linked to a “superspreader event” at the White House. 18 cases have been traced to the Rose Garden event on 26 September.
Mr Christie said he attended the event believing he had “entered a safe zone”. “I was wrong,” Mr Christie, who is in a high-risk category for Covid-19 because of his weight and asthma, said in a statement. I was wrong to not wear a mask at the Amy Coney Barrett announcement and I was wrong not to wear a mask at my multiple debate prep sessions with the President and the rest of the team."
Mr Christie said he hoped his experience would encourage Americans to follow virus guidelines “in public no matter where you are and wear a mask to protect yourself and others”.
Obviously, a man who has learned from his experience, unlike drug-addled Donald “Immune” Trump … :!:
In a war, the number of deaths would be equivalent, in US terms, to over 2 field armies … the US forces Commander-in-Chief is, of course, Donald Trump … with the casualties he’s accumulating it’s a good job he’s not fighting a war - he’d have lost it by now … :!:
Melania CANCELS tonight’s trip to Pennsylvania rally with Donald because of ‘lingering cough’ after COVID diagnosis
Tuesday’s campaign rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, was to be her first public appearance since her bout with coronavirus.
Unlike the president, Melania Trump didn’t check into the hospital after her diagnosis with COVID. She said she had minimal symptoms but admitted it hit her like a ‘roller coaster.’
Melania is the most dutiful of wives so missing an important rally must mean that she really is not well …
Coronavirus cases continued their grim climb in the United States on Sunday with Midwestern states experiencing record hospitalizations, as increasingly bitter rhetoric kept the virus front and center of campaigning two days before the presidential election.
Nearly 87,000 cases were reported on Saturday, with 909 deaths and record hospitalizations for the sixth straight day in the Midwest, according to a Reuters tally.
Yet still there are mugs who will vote to give Trump an opportunity to kill more Americans …
Coronavirus: Record 100,000 new Covid cases reported in US
There were more than 100,000 new cases of coronavirus in the US on Wednesday - a record one-day increase.
The figure, reported by the Covid Tracking Project, is accompanied by a steep rise in hospital admissions - suggesting that it is not solely due to increased testing.
More than 1,100 deaths linked to coronavirus were recorded on Wednesday.
The Covid crisis is being overshadowed by tensions over vote counting in the fraught aftermath of the US election.
Adding to Trump’s woes, it was reported on Friday night that White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, 61, had tested positive for coronavirus.
The US reported a third straight daily record for new coronavirus cases on Friday, according to Johns Hopkins University.
More than 127,000 infections were reported in 24 hours, as well as 1,149 deaths.
Inevitably, after all Trump’s (mostly unmasked) election rallies and recent supporter demonstrations there are going to be hundreds of thousands (maybe millions) more infections and tens of thousands more deaths …
Trump’s Housing Secretary Ben Carson has tested positive for Covid-19. A spokesman confirmed the diagnosis on Monday.
Carson was among those who attended the president’s election night party at the White House. So too did Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, who tested positive last week.
There have been a series of outbreaks in the West Wing since the president’s own diagnosis last month.
Another White House official who attended the president’s election night event has reportedly tested positive for coronavirus.
White House political director Brian Jack is the latest addition to the list, according to the New York Times. He was said to have tested positive over the weekend.
Hundreds were seen in the White House to watch the election results, and many were not wearing masks.
Healy Baumgardner, a former Trump campaign aide, who was at the White House on election night * as a guest of Rudy Giuliani tested positive for COVID
At least 12 people in President Trump’s orbit have tested positive since White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows did last week, according to a count by ABC News.
Millionaire Trump donors contract Covid-19 after downplaying risks
Two of Donald Trump’s billionaire donors have contracted Covid-19 months after downplaying the risk of the disease to their employees.
Richard and Liz Uihlein, conservative megadonors who own the Uline packaging company based in Wisconsin and are two of the Republican party’s most significant financial backers, told employees on Wednesday that they had contracted the disease after being “around people with Covid”.
It is not clear where the Uihleins might have been infected. A spokesman for the family said the pair had not attended a White House election night party last week for the president’s financial donors.
Uline has been criticized in the past for not taking the pandemic seriously enough. In a brief interview in April, Liz Uihlein – who with her husband has been called the “powerful conservative couple you’ve never heard of” – said the pandemic had been “overhyped”.
