Trump Gasps For Air & Removes Mask Returning To White House After COVID-19 Hospitalization

On Monday night, President Donald Trump returned to the White House and visibly gasped for air as he removed his mask for a photo op after his COVID-19 diagnosis and hospitalization at Walter Reed medical center on Friday.

“Over the past 24 hours, the president has continued to improve,” Dr. Sean Conley said. “He’s met or exceeded all standard hospital discharge criteria.” He continued to say that Trump, although he can return home, is not “out of the woods yet.”

Trump’s doctors did not answer questions about his lung function, as well as when he most recently tested negative for COVID-19.

“There are HIPAA rules and regulations that restrict me in sharing certain things for his safety and his own health and reasons,” Conley said in response to those inquiring more details about Trump’s condition.

Conley did, however, say that Trump received a third dose of the antiviral drug remdesivir, and that he has been taking a steroid drug called dexamethasone, which has helped patients who have been extremely ill with COVID-19.

In Trump’s announcement to the public via Twitter that he would be returning home, he wrote, “Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life.” This has been considered by many as a continuation of his efforts to downplay the virus that has taken the lives of 209,000 Americans.

Several medical experts said on Monday that Trump is more at risk than the average American, as COVID has seemed to affect senior citizens (he is 74), males and those who are overweight (Trump is considered obese) the most severely.

“I think it would be disastrous to be in a situation where he gets really sick at the White House, and you’re having to emergency transfer him,” said Dr. Céline Gounder, from N.Y.U. Grossman School of Medicine.