The White House is just like a lot of regular American households — when one person gets COVID-19, everyone else in the house often gets it, too.
So after President Trump caught the virus, his wife, first lady Melania Trump, got it — and so did their son, Barron, 14.
In a rare personal essay posted on the White House website on Wednesday, Mrs. Trump detailed what happened after her husband tested positive on Oct. 1. First, she said she immediately had Barron tested.
“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?’” she wrote. “My fear came true when he was tested again and it came up positive. Luckily he is a strong teenager and exhibited no symptoms.”
But like his father, Barron got rid of the virus quickly. Mrs. Trump said her son had since tested negative.
Addressing a rally in Des Moines, Iowa, on Wednesday, Mr. Trump said Baron recovered quickly and was doing “fine.”
“He had it for such a short period of time, I don’t even think he knew he had it because they’re young and their immune systems are strong and they fight it off,” Trump said, joking that his son had the virus for “like two seconds.”
Trump also urged schools across the country to re-open. “Get the kids back to school, you’ve got to get the kids back to school. Get ’em back.”
At a campaign rally in North Carolina on Thursday, Mr. Trump said, “My beautiful Barron had it and he recovered so fast. I said, ‘Wait a minute, how long did that take?’ They have the strongest immune systems, they’re better than all of us, that’s what they are.”
In her essay, Mrs. Trump said her own symptoms were minor — a cough, headache, and fatigue. She also said that she has since tested negative and — as her husband already has — plans to resume her work “as soon as I can.”
Mrs. Trump, 50, fared better with the virus than the president, 74. He was hospitalized for three days at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center after his diagnosis, and he received an array of therapies, including an antibody cocktail. Mr. Trump was among fewer than 10 people who were able to access the Regeneron cocktail under “compassionate use” rules.
“I was in not great shape” when admitted to Walter Reed last week, Mr. Trump told Rush Limbaugh recently. “But we had a medicine that healed me,” he added. “I might not have recovered at all without the Regeneron cocktail.”
“This is a cure. Call it what you want, it’s a cure. I’m talking to you today because of it,” the president said. “This is a total gamechanger.”
“People are going to get immediately better, like I did,” Trump said, adding the treatment could save “hundreds of thousands” of American lives. “A day later, I was fine,” Trump said. “This is better than the vaccine, and it’s going out as we speak. This is the greatest of them all if it works out,” Trump added.
Mrs. Trump, meanwhile, said she “chose to go a more natural route in terms of medicine, opting more for vitamins and healthy food.”