President Trump appeared Friday on Rush Limbaugh’s nationally syndicated talk show and declared “we have something that will cure” COVID-19.
The president was diagnosed with COVID-19 on Oct. 1, and the next day was taken to Walter Reed National Medical Center, where he was treated with antibody drugs. Trump was among fewer than 10 people who were able to access the Regeneron cocktail under “compassionate use” rules, and he was discharged from the center on Sunday.
“I was in not great shape” when he was admitted to Walter Reed last week, Trump told Limbaugh. “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 Americans’ 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.
Trump said he is actively working to get the coronavirus antibody drug developed by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc and Eli Lilly and Co approved quickly and out to hospitals after his treatment. “We’re sending that to all our hospitals. This is stuff that’s so good it wiped out the virus,” he said.
The president also said he’s done with his drug therapy. “I’m not taking anything. I’m off any regimen they gave me.”
Dr. Sean Conley, Trump’s personal physician, said late Thursday that the president has “completed his course of therapy for COVID-19 as prescribed by his team of physicians” and will soon be able to return to “public engagements.”
In a memo, Conley said Trump on Thursday evening had a resting heart rate of 69 beats per minute, his blood pressure was 127/81, and his his pulse oximetry rate, which measures the amount of oxygen in someone’s blood, stood at 96-98%.
“Since returning home, his physical exam has remained stable and devoid of any indications to suggest progression of illness,” Conley said in the memo. “Overall he’s responded extremely well to treatment, without evidence on examination of adverse therapeutic effects.”
“Overall he’s responded extremely well to treatment, without evidence on examination of adverse therapeutic effects,” Conley wrote, adding that “Saturday will be day 10 since Thursday’s diagnosis, and based on the trajectory of advanced diagnostics the team has been conducting, I fully anticipate the president’s safe return to public engagement at that time.”
According to previous reports from Conley, Trump was treated with the experimental antibody cocktail developed by the company Regeneron. He also was prescribed dexamethasone, an anti-inflammatory steroid.
Trump said he’s ready to get back on the campaign trail. “I think I’m gonna’ try doing a rally on Saturday night if we have enough time to put it together — but we wanna do a rally, probably in Florida on Saturday night,” the president said on Friday. “We might come back and do one in Pennsylvania the following night, and it’s incredible what’s going on. I feel so good.”
The president’s re-election campaign on Friday released a statement saying the second presidential debate should take place as scheduled next Thursday. Citing Conley’s memo, the campaign said “there is therefore no medical reason why the Commission on Presidential Debates should shift the debate to a virtual setting, postpone it, or otherwise alter it in any way.”