As we watch and wait for reports on President Trump’s condition, the experience of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson could yield clues as to how Trump might fare.
Even though Trump’s doctors said this morning he was doing “doing very well,” there is no assurance that is the case. And in a very confusing and contradictory development, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows later told reporters: “The president’s vitals over the last 24 hours were very concerning and the next 48 hours will be critical in terms of his care. We’re still not on a clear path to a full recovery.”
As you know, when Trump was admitted to Walter Reed Medical Center on Friday, doctors said they were transporting him out of “an abundance of caution.”
That phrase sounds a lot like what 10 Downing Street put out on Sunday, April 5, when Johnson was admitted to the hospital. He supposedly was going in for “routine tests” and as a “precautionary step.”
The next day, though — Monday, April 6 — he was moved to ICU in a development that rocked the world. It was clear then that Johnson was in real danger.
Unlike Trump, Johnson had been displaying “persistent symptoms” for 10 days before being hospitalized. (The diagnosis was March 26.)
Johnson was in ICU for four days, until Thursday, April 9, when he was moved back to a regular room. He was released three days later, on April 12. Here’s what he looked like shortly after being discharged…
Johnson was 55 when he had the virus and he’s now 56. Trump, on the other hand, is 74, and clearly more overweight than Johnson. Also — like me — he takes a statin drug to treat high cholesterol and aspirin to prevent heart attacks.
It would not surprise me a bit if Trump ended up in ICU, and from there, his fate would be more uncertain than it already is.
A New York Times story today quotes Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University, as saying: “He is 74, he’s hefty and he’s male, and those three things together put him in a higher-risk group for a severe infection. Although he is being watched meticulously and may well do fine for a few days, he is not out of the woods, because people can crash after that period of time. This is a very sneaky virus.”
With Johnson, it truly did seem like a sneak attack. If it happens with Trump, it won’t be quite so sneaky.
Another thing I read is that non-mask-wearers who contract the disease often get worse cases than masked people because they get a fuller “load” of infectious particles.
The images of that Rose Garden ceremony last Saturday, with scores of people sitting side by side, unmasked, is what really shocks the senses. Same with the photos of Trump family members sitting in the front row at Tuesday’s debate, unmasked and having firmly rejected a direct offer to don masks, which was a requirement to be in the debate hall in the first place.
Fools all. Absolute knuckleheads.
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I said in yesterday’s post that this development should pretty well seal the deal for Biden, and two New York Times/Sienna College polls conducted late this week tend to support that statement.
In Pennsylvania, Biden led by seven percentage points, 49 percent to 42 percent, among likely voters surveyed. In Florida, the margin was 47 percent to 42 percent.
Pennsylvania and Florida were key states in Trump’s 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton.
The polls also showed voters disapproved of the president’s conduct in the debate by a whopping 65 percent to 25 percent. Perhaps more important, some of those expressing disapproval were core supporters.
A third of the president’s supporters said they disapproved of his performance, while eight percent of people who backed him in the survey said the debate made them less likely to support him in the election.
Is even the base starting to crack? Is Superman’s cape starting to slip from shoulders to waist?
For all we know, Superman could be flat on his back in a hospital bed on Election Day. Or worse…
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
At this point, it won’t matter if either presidential candidate is alive on election day, their supporters will still vote for them and that is not without precedent. Was there not a Missouri candidate who won his election in spite of being room temperature?
Mel Carnahan
The first poll taken since it was announced that Trump has COVID-19 is out – the Reuters-Ipsos pols. The poll found that 65%, including 9 in 10 registered Democrats and 5 in 10 registered Republicans, agreed that ‘if President Trump had taken coronavirus more seriously, he probably would not have been infected.’
The poll also has him down 10 points to Biden – 51% to 41%.
New NBC/WSJ poll has Biden 53-39 over Trump.
Between the debate and the virus, the presidential race results are getting baked in.
It looks like the Lincoln Project’s Mike Madrid was pretty spot on about forecasting a 4-6% poll decline in Trump’s post debate polling.
The Lincoln Project folks are saying there is a full on mutiny in the Trump campaign about folks not being told about the infections. And there is panic and rage from staffers at the White House who are being kept in the dark.
I fully expect we begin to hear a lot more of this early this week.
Yay! Thanks, Bill…It’s starting to sound like a large mass of snow is detaching from a mountain slope. You know what comes next…avalanche.
John is right. Those favoring Trump or Biden will vote for them on Election Day regardless of whether they are dead or alive because they have already made up their minds about things and won’t be swayed by evidence to the contrary. No, there is a definite absence of people being forthcoming about things at The White House because they don’t want to spook the markets and they don’t want to give our allies cause for alarm, and they are afraid the American people will “panic,” as if we basically haven’t been in the panic mode since Sept. 11, 2001. For once I’d just like to see someone in Washington adopt a humble countenance and level with the American people about things. Instead, we get the same old government-speak and double talk.