President Trump’s treatment is mostly the same as anyone who would contract coronavirus, except for one experimental drug and the speediness of care given.
When the news broke that the President tested positive for coronavirus, his doctors assured America that the President has the best possible care available for anyone who tested positive for the virus.
Last Monday, his physician, Dr. Sean Conley, said that the President is on a routine regimen of coronavirus therapy. Although the President indeed had outstanding care, the President’s treatments are mostly similar to anyone who was hospitalized for coronavirus. The two major components that made a difference is that everything was done earlier and second, the antibody cocktail drug that the President received.
Everything was done earlier
The care given to the President and his diagnosis came much faster.
Trump was tested within the first 24 hours of first fealing of fatigued on his flight going back to the White House from a rally in Minnesota. Average Americans usually have to wait for a few days after they started feeling some symptoms before getting the results of the COVID-19 tests. Afterward, they have to wait for a few more days for the results.
Then, the President immediately received a nonstandard drug, a combination of what they call “monoclonal antibodies.” Then he was immediately hospitalized on Friday afternoon as a precaution. All these happened in less than 48 hours after he was diagnosed to be positive for coronavirus.
On October 5, the President was able to return to the White House after leaving Walter Reed National Military Medical center, where he was hospitalized.
President Trump’s doctors are somehow reluctant to provide information about the early symptoms that the President experienced. The doctors instead only said that the President is experiencing low energy and high fever. The President’s Physician, Dr. Conley, hinted that the President’s blood oxygen saturation level might measure the amount of oxygen in his blood may have fallen as low as 80s twice on Friday and Saturday.
However, The President’s oxygen saturation bounced back after he received oxygen, and Dr. Conley said that it was measured to a normal rate of 95% to 97% on Tuesday.
Monoclonal antibodies
In less than 48 hours after the President started experiencing symptoms, President Trump already received a monoclonal antibody dose made by a New York biotech company, Regeneron.
This drug called REGN-COV2 is created to mimic the natural process of the body’s immune system. As a result, it provides the body with antibodies called antibodies that the body naturally produces to fight any diseases.
This REGN-COV2 drug is currently tested in people that are on different stages of the disease. The patients who are being tested for this drug include symptomatic but not hospitalized and patients who are symptomatic and hospitalized.
The President and other participants tested for this drug are not charged for the drug because it is not yet available for sale. The prices for monoclonal antibodies are not, however, set until they were approved by the FDA.
Remdesivir
After President Trump arrived at the hospital on Friday evening, he was given the first five doses of an antiviral drug called Remdesivir. This drug was first developed to treat Ebola and had been repurposed to use against COVID-19. Remdesivir is made by Gilead Sciences of California.
Remdesivir was shown to effectively treat patients hospitalized with breathing problems but do not yet require ventilation.
Dexamethasone
Two days after President Trump’s diagnosis and three days after his first symptoms, the President was given the steroid called Dexamethasone. This drug is usually reserved for patients experiencing very low oxygen saturation levels or those on ventilators.
Then on Monday, the physician to the President, Dr. Conley, said that the President was already well enough to go home. The doctor further stated that, although the President might not be entirely out of the woods yet, he and the team of doctors looking at the President’s health agreed that the President is now safe to return home.
