HOUSTON – President Donald Trump is experiencing “mild symptoms” of COVID-19 after revealing that he and first lady Melania Trump have tested positive for the coronavirus.
In an interview with KPRC 2, Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, said it’s critical for the country to protect the commander in chief and believes the president should be monitored in a hospital environment, not the White House.
“Because of his age and his risk factors and he’s having symptoms, indeed this is someone you might consider hospitalizing even if he wasn’t a high-profile individual," Hotez said. “The fact that, of course, there are specific national security concerns and there’s zero margin for error, I don’t know what kind of monitoring capacity they have at the White House. I would have a very low threshold for admitting him to Walter Reed National Medical Center.”
Furthermore, Hotez said the president should begin receiving prescription drugs right away.
“I would feel better if he were monitored in a hospital and then we could potentially look at potential treatments, and there’s a number of them out there, which we do here at the Texas Medical Center, including dexamethasone and coagulant therapy and getting some virus-neutralizing antibodies in him either through convalescent plasma,” he explained.
Watch the full interview below:
Dr. Hotez speaks with me about President Trump testing positive for coronavirus.
Posted by KPRC2 Haley Hernandez on Friday, October 2, 2020
Trump’s positive test comes just hours after the White House announced that senior aide Hope Hicks came down with the virus after traveling with the president several times this week. However, Hotez could not conclude if that exposure is where President Trump contracted the virus or if it could have also placed his running mate, former Vice President Joe Biden, at risk. He recommended contact tracers work to determine that information.
READ: Joe Biden, wife, Jill Biden, test negative for coronavirus
“Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!” Trump tweeted late Thursday.
Most people develop only mild symptoms. But some people develop more severe symptoms, including pneumonia, which can be fatal. Trump is 74 years old, putting him at a higher risk of serious complications from the virus that has now killed more than 200,000 people nationwide.
