Category: Covid-19

In January 2020, a man who would become known as the first documented Covid-19 patient in the United States arrived at an urgent care clinic.

Two of his symptoms, a cough and a fever, were among those that would become known as the telltale symptoms of Covid. But the patient had also experienced two days of nausea and vomiting.

Many of us associate Covid with respiratory issues. But some people who get sick with the virus never experience a sore throat, coughing or body aches, said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. Certain people end up feeling more like they have food poisoning than anything else.

Thats because coronavirus is like throwing a bomb in your body, said Dr. Ken Cadwell, a professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania who studies how Covid affects the gut. Youre going to feel that in multiple different organs, not just the lungs.

With Covid cases climbing, and the so-called FLiRT variants fueling yet another summer spread, heres how to spot, and address, the lesser-known gastrointestinal symptoms.

In some people, gastrointestinal symptoms hit during the first few days of an infection, before they develop a fever and cough. But many people who only experience stomach symptoms never think of it as Covid, Dr. Chin-Hong said.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit andlog intoyour Times account, orsubscribefor all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?Log in.

Want all of The Times?Subscribe.

Continued here:

Stomach Pain, Diarrhea and More Overlooked Covid Symptoms - The New York Times

Specialty

Please choose I'm not a medical professional. Allergy and Immunology Anatomy Anesthesiology Biostatistics Cardiac/Thoracic/Vascular Surgery Cardiology Critical Care Dentistry Dermatology Diabetes and Endocrinology Emergency Medicine Epidemiology and Public Health Family Medicine Forensic Medicine Gastroenterology General Practice Genetics Geriatrics Health Policy Hematology HIV/AIDS Hospital-based Medicine I'm not a medical professional. Infectious Disease Integrative/Complementary Medicine Internal Medicine Internal Medicine-Pediatrics Medical Education and Simulation Medical Physics Medical Student Nephrology Neurological Surgery Neurology Nuclear Medicine Nutrition Obstetrics and Gynecology Occupational Health Oncology Ophthalmology Optometry Oral Medicine Orthopaedics Osteopathic Medicine Otolaryngology Pain Management Palliative Care Pathology Pediatrics Pediatric Surgery Pharmacology Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Plastic Surgery Podiatry Preventive Medicine Psychiatry Psychology Pulmonology Radiation Oncology Radiology Rheumatology Substance Use and Addiction Surgery Therapeutics Trauma Urology Miscellaneous

Link:

Transient Hyperglycemia in a Patient With Type 2 Diabetes After COVID-19 Messenger RNA Vaccination: A Case Report - Cureus

As part of wide-ranging job cuts, Oregon Health & Science University this week cut a telehealth nursing unit set up during the COVID-19 pandemic that was featured on the OHSU Foundation website for its service to people across the state.

OHSU started the Connected Care Center on March 30, 2020, just as the pandemic began. It was open only to OHSU patients before opening to the public shortly afterward. Nurses worked from home, taking calls about testing locations, quarantining, and care for the disease, according to a June 2021 write-up by OHSU.

Since the pandemic, the 16 nurses in the unit had been supporting OHSUs clinics and triaging patient calls, according to an employee who wished to remain anonymous.

OHSU is in the midst of cutting some 500 positions, including nurses, as part of a strategic alignment despite repeated vows from management to spare most patient-facing employees.

Cutting nurses is confirmation that OHSU executives will not limit their layoffs to non-patient-facing positions, said Duncan Zevetski, a registered nurse and vice president at the Oregon Nurses Association, which represents 4,500 OHSU employees. Their cuts will reduce Oregonians access to care and ultimately make it harder for more people to get the care they need when they need it.

OHSU has cut a total of 22 nurses in recent days, the union said.

The layoffs come as OHSU pursues a merger with Legacy Health, another hospital system that is struggling with high costs for salaries and supplies.

The strategic alignment work aims to shift OHSUs overall strategy to its core, state-mandated missions, including improving access to the complex specialty and subspecialty services that no other health system in the region can provide, university spokeswoman Sarah Hottman said in an email. As a result, while planned reductions in force are largely administrative roles, other programs may be impacted as well.

Excerpt from:

OHSU Fires Group of Telehealth Nurses It Lauded During COVID-19 - Willamette Week

DALLAS Medical City Healthcare is warning North Texans ahead of Fourth of July gatherings that cases of COVID-19 have been on the rise in recent weeks.

According to Medical City Healthcare, positive cases have doubled in the past month and despite low hospitalization rates, the community must remain vigilant to the virus.

"Our community is experiencing a rise in COVID-19 cases," Chief Medical Officer Dr. Joseph Parra said. "While hospitalizations remain low, we are seeing notable increases in respiratory virus indicators, particularly at our CareNow clinics, which provide rapid testing for non-emergency cases."

Medical City says the Texas Department of State Health Services reported a 19.4% increase in cases in week 24 statewide.

Parra encourages everyone to take the following preventative measures:

Medical City says patients with underlying medical conditions are at higher risk of having a severe COVID-19 infection that may include symptoms like trouble breathing, persistent chest pain, confusion, and pale grey skin and lips.

To learn more about COVID-19, vaccinations and more, visit here.

Follow this link:

COVID-19 cases on the rise in North Texas - WFAA.com

ALIOUI Mohammed Elamine/ iStock

People who have long COVID symptomsthose that linger well after the initial SARS-CoV-2 infectioncan display signs of abnormal immune-cell activation in many of their organs and tissues, as well as leftover SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the gut, for more than 2 years after infection, according toa small study this week in Science Translational Medicine.

University of California, San Francisco researchers analyzed data on 24 people after their initial COVID-19 illness who underwent whole-body positron emission tomography (PET) imagingat time points ranging from 27 to 910 days (about 2 and a half years) after their acute COVID-19 cases. Eighteen of the patients had long COVID.

The team used a tracer during PET imaging that selectively tags activated T cells and found that people with long COVID had certain tissues that were enriched for activated T cells in comparison with never-infected people who did not have long COVID (prepandemic controls).

Furthermore, this T-cell activation correlated with symptoms of long COVID. For example, people who reported persistent lung problems had stronger signs of T-cell immune activation in their lungs.

In addition, because the gut was one of the sites of activated T-cell enrichment, the scientists analyzed colorectal biopsies from five of the patients with long COVID. All five of these samples contained SARS-CoV-2 RNA.

The authors wrote, "In this first-in-human T cell activation PET imaging study of individuals after SARS-CoV-2 infection, we found evidence of persistent T cell activation in a variety of tissues. In some individuals, this activity may persist for years after initial COVID-19 onset and be associated with systemic changes in immune activation as well as the presence of [long COVID] symptoms."

"Overall, these observations challenge the paradigm that COVID-19 is a transient acute infection, building on recent observations in blood," the authors concluded.

Original post:

Study shows abnormal immune-cell activity with long COVID - University of Minnesota Twin Cities

Throughout the pandemic, one of the key questions on everyones mind was why some people avoided getting COVID while others caught the virus multiple times.

Through a collaboration between University College London, the Wellcome Sanger Institute, and Imperial College London in the UK, we set out to answer this question using the worlds first controlled challenge trial for COVID where volunteers were deliberately exposed to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID so that it could be studied in great detail.

Unvaccinated healthy volunteers with no prior history of COVID-19 were exposed via a nasal spray to an extremely low dose of the original strain of SARS-CoV-2. The volunteers were then closely monitored in a quarantine unit, with regular tests and samples taken to study their response to the virus in a highly controlled and safe environment.

For our recent study, published in Nature, we collected samples from tissue located midway between the nose and the throat as well as blood samples from 16 volunteers. These samples were taken before the participants were exposed to the virus, to give us a baseline measurement, and afterwards at regular intervals.

The samples were then processed and analyzed using single-cell sequencing technology, which allowed us to extract and sequence the genetic material of individual cells. Using this cutting-edge technology, we could track the evolution of the disease in unprecedented detail, from pre-infection to recovery.

To our surprise, we found that, despite all the volunteers being carefully exposed to the exact same dose of the virus in the same manner, not everyone ended up testing positive for COVID.

In fact, we were able to divide the volunteers into three distinct infection groups (see illustration). Six out of the 16 volunteers developed typical mild COVID, testing positive for several days with cold-like symptoms. We referred to this group as the sustained infection group.

Out of the ten volunteers who did not develop a sustained infection, suggesting that they were able to fight off the virus early on, three went on to develop an intermediate infection with intermittent single positive viral tests and limited symptoms. We called them the transient infection group.

The final seven volunteers remained negative on testing and did not develop any symptoms. This was the abortive infection group. This is the first confirmation of abortive infections, which were previously unproven. Despite differences in infection outcomes, participants in all groups shared some specific novel immune responses, including those whose immune systems prevented the infection.

When we compared the timings of the cellular response between the three infection groups, we saw distinct patterns. For example, in the transiently infected volunteers where the virus was only briefly detected, we saw a strong and immediate accumulation of immune cells in the nose one day after infection.

This contrasted with the sustained infection group, where a more delayed response was seen, starting five days after infection and potentially enabling the virus to take hold in these volunteers.

In these people, we were able to identify cells stimulated by a key antiviral defense response in both the nose and the blood. This response called the interferon response, is one of the ways our bodies signal to our immune system to help fight off viruses and other infections. We were surprised to find that this response was detected in the blood before it was detected in the nose, suggesting that the immune response spreads from the nose very quickly.

Lastly, we identified a specific gene called HLA-DQA2, which was expressed (activated to produce a protein) at a much higher level in the volunteers who did not go on to develop a sustained infection and could hence be used as a marker of protection. Therefore, we might be able to use this information to identify those who are probably going to be protected from severe COVID.

These findings help us fill in some gaps in our knowledge, painting a much more detailed picture regarding how our bodies react to a new virus, particularly in the first couple of days of an infection, which is crucial.

We can use this information to compare our data to other data we are currently generating, specifically where we are challenging volunteers to other viruses and more recent strains of COVID. In contrast to our current study, these will mostly include volunteers who have been vaccinated or naturally infected that is, people who already have immunity.

Our study has significant implications for future treatments and vaccine development. By comparing our data to volunteers who have never been exposed to the virus with those who already have immunity, we may be able to identify new ways of inducing protection, while also helping the development of more effective vaccines for future pandemics. In essence, our research is a step towards better preparedness for the next pandemic.

This article was originally published on The Conversation by Marko Nikolic and Kaylee Worlock at UCL. Read the original article here.

Read more from the original source:

Still Never Got Covid-19? The Reason Is Not What You Think - Inverse

Dr. Anthony Fauci sat down with the co-hosts of "The View" to discuss advising Former President Donald Trump during the pandemic's peak, serving under seven presidents as NIAID director and the Latin phrase that has guided his work.

Fauci was the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 1984 to 2022. During the pandemic, he was a key White House Coronavirus Task Force member and initially had a good working relationship with Trump.

However, the dynamics of their relationship shifted when Trump began say things that were "not true," according to Fauci. Fauci, driven by what he said is a strong sense of personal and professional integrity, found himself at odds with the former president, a situation he says was not easy for him to navigate.

As Fauci attempted to implement policies recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he claimed that Trump and his supporters opposed him.

ABC News sat down with Fauci to talk about his deteriorating working relationship with Donald Trump during the COVID-19 pandemic.

ABC NEWS: So before we start, people are so glad to see you. They are so glad to see you.

FAUCI: Thank you.

ABC NEWS: So thank you for coming on the show and for everything. Everything you've done from the very beginning. It's extraordinary. And you're no worse for the wear. You look good.

FAUCI: Thank you.

ABC NEWS: You say empathy has always guided you as a physician and a public servant, but there's also a Latin phrase that has consistently come up for you and I'd love you to share it and tell everybody what it means.

FAUCI: Well, when I was getting my education in high school, Latin and Greek was an important part of our classical training. It was actually at Regis High School, a few blocks from here, a Jesuit school. And one of the things that they mentioned to us when things got down and you felt the world was caving in on you was Illegitimi non carborundum, which means 'Don't let the bastards wear you down.' Boy did that hold true.

ABC NEWS: You know, you look, you are probably one of the classiest people I've ever watched move around in Washington, D.C.

FAUCI: Thank you

ABC NEWS: So and -- you know, I just want to raise my dreads to you. But I don't want to take up too much time, Alyssa.

ABC NEWS: Well, Dr. Fauci, it's so good to see you. Before retiring from government in 2022, you served under seven presidents and bipartisan administrations. Fighting diseases like AIDS, Ebola, and, of course, COVID-19, where you and I got to know each other. You had addressed so many of these ailments before and never faced the backlash that you did from part of the country when you were working on COVID. Did you see that coming? We watched it in real time.

FAUCI: No, it was really unexpected. Because, as Alyssa said, I served and advised seven presidents, Democrat and Republican, both sides of the aisle. There are always disagreements, of course. But that's why we have a great country because you have people with different ideological views.

But the disagreements were always associated with civility, with respect for each other and respect for institutions in the government. So you could have a disagreement, but at the end you try and compromise. What happened with COVID, as I think was represented by the hearing a few weeks ago, was just pure ad hominem and vitriol. And that really took me by surprise. I thought there would be the give and take and respect each other's disagreements.

That's the thing that worries me not only about what I have to face, but also about the direction of the country and the social order of the democracy. It's very threatening I think.

ABC NEWS: It's in jeopardy. It's in jeopardy, I think. So you dedicate a chapter of your book to your dealings with Trump, the chapter is called "He loves me, he loves me not" and you describe some angry ranting expletive-filled phone calls. He would berate you and flatter you in the same breath. I'm wondering: you said you worked with seven other presidents. Did any one of them ever speak to you the way he does or did?

FAUCI: No, of course not. Not even close. What I meant by loves me, loves me not. Early on in the beginning -- he is an engaging character and we had a certain rapport with each other. I was trying to figure out what it was. I think it was two guys from New York City. He was from Queens, I was from the Bronx and we kind of had that New York -- he calls it swagger -- with each other, that was fine.

And all that was really good in the beginning. Until you know, he wished and hoped that the outbreak would disappear because it clearly was getting in the way of both the economy and then, as a result of that, into the election cycle. So he started to say things that actually were not true. And I just felt that I had a responsibility for my own personal and professional integrity, but also my responsibility to you, the American public, so had to contradict him.

It was very difficult for me to do that. Once I did that, then things got really dicey. Because I don't think he went away from the fact that we did have a good relationship, but he was really very upset about the fact I had to get up and say, no, it's not going to disappear like magic and no, hydroxychloroquine doesn't work no matter what Laura Ingram is telling you. I mean that's the problem.

ABC NEWS: He doesn't like when people disagree with him. That's why cohorts in the Republican Party are kowtowing to him because they know it displeases him.

ABC NEWS: Well, speaking of hydroxychloroquine, countless of Americans lost loved ones to COVID. My husband lost both of his parents, two doctors, within three days of each other from the pandemic.

We remember those pandemic briefings. I remember the injection of bleach, perhaps. The hydroxychloroquine. Dangerous recommendations. You were particularly disturbed, I read, by his refusal to wear a mask.

What was this time like for you having to contradict the president of the United States? And what should everyone know about how he handled the crisis? Because I blame him for my in-laws' death.

FAUCI: Well, the people who became very angry with me, people on his staff like Peter Navarro and Mark Meadows, and others thought that I was doing that because I had some sort of antipathy to the president and I did not. It was very painful for me. I have a great deal of respect for the presidency of the United States of America. I served seven presidents; it wasn't like 'wow, isn't this cool I'm contradicting the president.' It was very very painful, but I had to do it.

With regard to the masks, the thing that was a problem, is that when the CDC came out and made the recommendations -- indoors we should be wearing masks. That was at a time when the infections were going like that. And what he got up and said it's recommendation but I'm not going to do it; I choose not to do it. I consider that a missed opportunity to use the bully pulpit of the presidency to get people to do things that was for their own safety.

He has millions and millions of followers who are very loyal to him. All he had to do is say the CDC is recommending masks; we know it's going to save lives, do it. He missed an opportunity.

ABC NEWS: I remember telling him he looked cool in the masks because I thought that might be like, 'Fine. I'll wear it.' Didn't work.

FAUCI: Nice try, Alyssa.

Visit link:

Dr. Anthony Fauci talks about the challenges of advising former President Trump on COVID - ABC News

And while the rise is not too surprising with people traveling and gathering indoors where its cooler, health experts and doctors expect this seasons illnesses to be milder than some past versions of the virus. But the latest iterations of the ever-evolving coronavirus seem to be more contagious.

Dr. Luke Lathrop, chief medical officer at SmartMED Drive-Thru Medical Care in Roswell, said he has seen a small but notable rise in COVID cases in recent days. Of the roughly 30 patients seen there Monday, seven tested positive for the virus. Thats up from one or two a day in recent months.

Credit: custom

Credit: custom

Symptoms from the latest variants circulating are familiar and include sore throat, runny nose, coughing, head and body aches, fever, fatigue, and in more severe cases, shortness of breath.

For many people who have already had COVID, a reinfection is often milder than an earlier case. But people who are 65 and older, pregnant or immunocompromised remain at higher risk of serious complications from COVID. Lathrop said he has sent a few older patients with COVID to the ER due to their low oxygen levels.

I think the early predictions from the experts and the CDC were right on in that it seems to be ending up like being another influenza where there will be some seasonality to it, said Lathrop. The symptoms overlap and some people get very ill. And for some people, its a mild cold.

So its almost like a new flu out there and its not going away. We are going to have to deal with it, said Lathrop. It affects everybody in different ways.

While ER visits for COVID increased 14.7% in the past week nationally, they still only account for 0.7% of ER visits, according to CDC. In Georgia, the share of COVID patients in the ER is even lower.

Since April, less than 0.5% of emergency department patients in Georgia were diagnosed with COVID. Thats in line with last years trend, which saw an increase during the months of July and August.

This is a far cry from past summer peaks. During last summers peak, 2.5% of emergency department patients were diagnosed with COVID. COVID accounted for 3.5% of emergency patients in 2022, and 7% during the summer of 2021.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Experts say the COVID vaccines still provide some protection but their protection wanes over time. The latest variants have mutations thought to make it easier for them to evade immunity among people who received the most recent updated vaccine or who were infected several months ago.

Credit: Contributed

Credit: Contributed

Dr. Jayne Morgan, executive director of health and community education for Piedmont Healthcare, said the new JN.1 variant is both stealthy and contagious, but overall the symptoms remain mild.

This could result in more infections with mild symptoms and with many of these illnesses being ignored or dismissed as another virus. While some will continue to be hit hard by the virus, the upside to a mild yet contagious virus is that it could boost immunity levels in the general population, she said.

The CDC recommended people over 65 who already had one dose of the updated vaccine get an additional shot at least four months later. Doctors say vaccines remain the best way to protect against the worst outcomes of COVID.

For now, the publics interest in updated COVID vaccines has been cool. According to the CDC, as of May 11, only 22% of adults reported having received an updated 2023-24 vaccine since September 14, 2023.

In a new poll of 1,000 likely voters conducted by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution this month asking how much of a threat the coronavirus poses to the nation, 47% of respondents said it was a minor threat, while only 13% considered it a major threat.

In addition, health officials say getting the vaccine formula and production schedule just right can be tricky.

The Food and Drug Administration recently decided to request drug makers update the COVID vaccines to target the KP.2 strain, a descendent of the JN.1 variant that started circulating widely in the U.S. over the winter months. The announcement came a week after an FDA advisory panel voted unanimously to recommend the fall vaccine be designed to target the JN.1 variant or one of its descendants.

Dr. Peter Marks, director for FDAs Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said last week during a discussion about seasonal flu and COVID vaccines that his agency and the CDC work to follow the evolution of the coronavirus in order to update the COVID vaccine formula.

The optimal protection is making sure we get closest to what is actually circulating, he said.

Early this year the JN.1 (omicron) variant was circulating, but as the FDA and CDC got closer to the time when they needed to choose a strain to include in this falls vaccine, other descendants of JN.1 began to appear.

Now public health experts are hoping to formulate the shot to target one of those variants KP.2. But even that variant is already being outpaced by another offshoot, KP.3.

And then, by the time fall rolls around and the COVID boosters are made available, the updated vaccine might have lost some of its effectiveness against the mutating virus.

Despite these difficulties, public health officials say a fall rollout of the vaccine still seems to make the most sense.

Its anticipated that COVID will, over time, settle into a more traditional seasonal pattern in line with other respiratory viruses, with seasonal peaks in the fall and winter months, according to Morgan.

But the reality is because the coronavirus evolves so rapidly and doesnt retreat as weather warms, immunity to COVID may not last until the following fall and winter season, lending to the current summer increases that we see, she said.

Data reporter Stephanie Lamm contributed to this article.

So youve got COVID and arent sure whether to stay home? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in March updated its guidelines on when people can return to their normal activities after any viral illness such as the flu or COVID.

You can go back to your normal activities when, for at least 24 hours, both are true:

o Your symptoms are getting better overall, and

o You have not had a fever (and are not using fever-reducing medication).

When you go back to your normal activities, take added precautions over the next 5 days, such as taking additional steps for cleaner air, hygiene, masks, physical distancing, and testing yourself when you will be around other people indoors.

o Keep in mind that you may still be able to spread the virus that made you sick, even if you are feeling better. You are likely to be less contagious at this time, depending on factors like how long you were sick or how sick you were.

o If you develop a fever or you start to feel worse after you have gone back to normal activities, stay home and away from others again until, for at least 24 hours your symptoms are improving overall, and you have not had a fever (and are not using fever-reducing medication). Then take added precautions for the next 5 days.

More here:

COVID-19 cases rise in Georgia. Here's why this wave is different - The Atlanta Journal Constitution

usatoday.com wants to ensure the best experience for all of our readers, so we built our site to take advantage of the latest technology, making it faster and easier to use.

Unfortunately, your browser is not supported. Please download one of these browsers for the best experience on usatoday.com

Read more here:

COVID-19 cases on the rise this summer with sub-variants - USA TODAY

Photo-Illustration: Intelligencer; Photos: Getty Images

Donald Trumps 2016 campaign and his four years in office contained so much daily weirdness, wackiness, and horror that the human brain couldnt comprehend it all. As Trump gets close to the White House again, That Happenedbrings you the surreal moments you might have forgotten or blocked from your memory.

The first debate of the 2020 presidential cycle is probably best remembered for Donald Trumps bizarro even for him performance. The former president spent much of the evening interrupting and talking over both Joe Biden and beleaguered moderator Chris Wallace, rendering the event a farce (and paving the way for the conditions CNN insisted on in this weeks debate, like the ability to mute candidates). Biden spoke for much of the viewing audience when he turned to Trump and pleaded, Will you shut up, man?

What may be less often remembered is that as Trump spat out his Hunter Biden insults and told the Proud Boys to stand back and stand by, he was also expelling coronavirus particles into the air and that he knew full well he could have infected his opponent, who stood 13 feet away, at any time.

The debate took place at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland on September 29, several weeks before any COVID-19 vaccine became available. The conditions reflected that precarious moment: Only 300 audience members were allowed at the event, and the Cleveland Clinic, which partnered with Case Western Reserve on the debate, instituted safety measures including social distancing, masking, and proof that candidates and their entourages had tested negative for COVID.

Such protocols were obviously necessary. Three days earlier, the White House had held an event celebrating the unveiling of Trumps Supreme Court pick Amy Coney Barrett. Guests at the event blithely mingled with one another indoors sans masks, the still-very-much-untamed pandemic be damned. The results were grotesquely predictable: The party was likely a superspreader event. Six days later, and three days after the debate, on October 2, Trump announced that he and First Lady Melania had tested positive for COVID, and a wave of Republican legislators and White House staffers who had attended the event also fell ill. And Trump did not have a mild case. He spent three nights at Walter Reed Hospital, receiving experimentaltherapies, and it later emerged that he was sicker than his staff let on. As he memorably put it at the time, I could be one of the diers.

For a while, it seemed that Trump had merely displayed callous indifference about his possible COVID status at the previous weeks debate. That indifference was perfectly in character, of course, for a man who repeatedly predicted that the virus would simply disappear and whose disastrous June rally in Tulsa had probably led to Herman Cains death.

But in 2021, the even-worse truth came out. A memoir released by Trumps final chief of staff, Mark Meadows, revealed that Trump had tested positive for COVID days before the debate with Biden and that Trump had probably contracted COVID earlier than anyone suspected. Unless Meadows was lying which, knowing him, remains a distinct possibility this casts Trumps behavior around the debate in a far more disturbing light. Per The Guardian:

Meadows says Trumps positive result on 26 September was a shock to a White House which had just staged a triumphant Rose Garden ceremony for the supreme court nominee Amy Coney Barrett an occasion now widely considered to have been a Covid super-spreader event.

Despite the president looking a little tired and suspecting a slight cold, Meadows says he was content that Trump traveled that evening to a rally in Middletown, Pennsylvania.

But as Marine One lifted off, Meadows writes, the White House doctor called.

Stop the president from leaving, Meadows says Sean Conley told him. He just tested positive for Covid.

It wasnt possible to stop Trump but when he called from Air Force One, his chief of staff gave him the news.

Mr President, Meadows said, Ive got some bad news. Youve tested positive for Covid-19.

Meadows wrote that Trump quickly took a second COVID test, this time with the Binax system, as opposed to a supposedly outdated kit the first time around. The Binax test came back negative, which was good enough for Trump to pretend he had never heard about the positive result: He continued with his busy schedule, which included a meeting with military families and an indoor press conference.

Then it was off to the debate, where Trump & Co. appeared to exploit a slight loophole in the Cleveland Clinics rules: The campaigns were responsible for vetting the candidates negative tests, not debate organizers. That left it up to the famously trustworthy Trump campaign to promise scouts honor that Trump was virus-free. As ABC News reported, the presidents advisers and family exhibited typically cautious COVID behavior:

Several members of the presidents family, along with White House and Trump campaign staff, were seen without masks in Cleveland ahead of the debate, and some took off their masks while seated watching the debate, violating protocol.

At one point, a doctor approached the Trump family and their guests to ask them to wear masks, but someone shook their head when she approached, according to a pool reporter traveling with the Biden campaign.

Thats all you can do, a debate staffer was overheard telling the doctor.

Bidens team was displeased with this aggressively anti-social conduct (though it is unclear whether any of the unmasked actually knew Trump had tested positive). But there was nothing they could do but wait to see if their candidate fell ill, which he did not. If he had contracted COVID, he probably would have survived he was a spring chicken of 77 at the time, after all, and in good health otherwise. But it would have kept him off the campaign trail during the last month of a close campaign, a time when Republicans regularly accused him of running for president from his basement. Instead, the second Biden-Trump debate was canceled, and the third one actually went a bit more smoothly than the first.

Like almost everyone else in America, Biden did end up getting COVID, but not until a year and a half after the vaccine era.

The stakes of Thursday nights debate are extremely high for the candidates and for the country. But the chance that one candidate will physically harm the other through sheer recklessness seems meaningfully lower than it did four years ago. Whether you think thats a good thing is another question.

Daily news about the politics, business, and technology shaping our world.

By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us.

Read this article:

The Time Trump Almost Gave Biden COVID on a Debate Stage - New York Magazine