10/03/2020
Saturday, October 3rd - With this presidency it is impossible to accept anything at face value. Every story, every event, every fact has been spun way past the most elastic possible version of the truth, always with the single purpose of benefitting Donald Trump.
So what are we to make of the announcement of his infection with Covid-19, and that of his wife Melania, and his hospitalization at Walter Reade. More than a few correspondents have been unable to contain their glee at the news. I can understand the desire to be rid of the hell he has brought to this nation, but cannot join with those who wish him ill. I hope Trump, and our battered country, survive.
Just how sick is he? At a New Jersey fundraiser Thursday evening, Trump was described as lethargic. It's important to note that he attended that fundraiser without precautions and with the full knowledge that one of his closest aides, Hope Hicks, with whom he had been in close contact throughout the previous week, had tested positive for Covid-19 earlier in the day. New Jersey Governor Murphy has urged all those who attended the fundraiser to get tested, and has initiated contact tracing procedures. Many of the big Republican donors in attendance are reportedly "furious" over the recklessness of the circumstances of their exposure to the virus.
By Friday, Trump was suffering from a low-grade fever, a cough and nasal congestion. The White House Chief of Staff said he had "mild symptoms." Trump was transferred to Walter Reade "out of an abundance of caution," according to his press secretary.
By the end of the day Friday, a raft of senior Republicans who have been in casual and unguarded contact with the president over the past week announced they had tested positive.
These included Bill Stepien, the campaign manager; Kellyanne Conway, former counselor to the president who attended the Rose Garden ceremony for Judge Amy Coney Barrett last Saturday, where guests were seated in close proximity to each other without masks and without attention to social distancing; Thom Tillis, the Senator from North Carolina who is locked in a tough fight for re-election and is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee that is expected at some point to consider Judge Barrett's nomination to the Supreme Court; Senator MIke Lee of Utah, who also sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee; and Ronna McDaniel, the Republican National Committee Chairwoman, who received her diagnosis on Wednesday but did not make an announcement until Friday. In addition, Rev. John Jenkins, the University of Notre Dame president, has also tested positive after attending the ceremony for Judge Barrett, herself a Notre Dame law professor.
News came this afternoon that Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey and a member of Trump's debate prep team, has tested positive. And a third Republican Senator, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, has tested positive and will be working in isolation. The uncertain health status of at least three Republican Senators - combined with the previously announced opposition on the part of Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine to an accelerated pre-election nomination process - has thrown the Republican plan to fast track Judge Barrett through the Senate into doubt.
In the dizzying pace of the news that is breaking around the penetration of the virus amid senior Republican circles, it is important not to overlook key questions of accountability - how careful were these individuals during a raging pandemic to limit the likelihood of exposure and infection, when did they learn of their positive test results, when did they announce them, and who during those intervals did they expose to the virus.
The news Friday also contained another important but under-examined item. According to White House physician Sean P. Conley, the president has been administered a single 8 gram dose of Regeneron's experimental polyclonal antibody cocktail, "as a precautionary measure."
So how sick is he? This is a drug that is still in clinical trials. According to a September 29 entry on the Regeneron website, at this stage of the process the antibody cocktail called REGN-COV2 has been administered to 275 non-hospitalized people. 92 of those tested received a "low" dose of 2.4 grams, and 92 received 8 grams, the "high" dose given to the president, and 91 received a placebo.
In short, the president of the United States has been given the "high" dose of an experimental drug still in the early stages of development that has only recently been tested on fewer than 95 human beings with conditions similar to the president.
There is growing outrage over the unconscionable risk-taking by Republicans bent on downplaying the known severity of virus. Their actions have exposed innocent people to a life-threatening disease. And as citizens we entitled to ask a chronically opaque administration how the decision was taken to give the president the experimental drug, who introduced the untested drug to the president's medical staff, and who decided it was safe to administer.
HF
