PORTLAND, Texas — A positive COVID-19 test for President Trump has landed him in the hospital and resulted in a temporary postponement of any personal involvement in his campaign.
As he copes with the virus, a local health expert is offering some insight into what the President may be dealing with.
“Most people have no symptoms at all — he’s already passed that stage,” said San Patricio Health Authority Dr. James Mobley. “So then, our most common symptoms are fever, 100.4. Very common in the patients I’ve seen is a loss of taste.”
According to an update from the White House’s press secretary this afternoon, President Trump’s condition was described as remaining “fatigued, but in good spirits.”
If those fever-like symptoms continue, Mobley said it could progress to a cough, shortness of breath, and both cold and flu-like symptoms.
Trump is 74 years old. Mobley adds that age can play a larger role.
“The older you get, the more likely it is to have complications,” he said. “If you’re overweight and, my understanding is he’s somewhat overweight — but not obese — high blood pressure, diabetes, lung disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease — to my knowledge, he does not have any of these, although I don’t know his medical history very well.”
Mobley said if those symptoms progress, doctors could offer Hydroxychloroquine, although the Food and Drug Administration has previously cautioned its use, as its mainly used for the treatment of Malaria. Mobley also said the antiviral Remdesivir could be offered.
“Usually that’s reserved for quite advanced cases, but in this case, they might make an exception,” Mobley said. “It will be really interesting to see how they decide to treat this, and we should know over the next 96 hours, how he does.”
Despite his age, Mobley said, statistically, the President is going to do “just fine.”
“The mortality rate, at his and my age — we’re about the same — is 1 percent,” he said. “So I’m thinking he’s going to do fine, but, it’s a wild card out there, and I don’t do well with predicting.
“Overwhelmingly, most people have few or no symptoms at all. That’s the best-case scenario. And that’s 90 to 95 percent.”
For most people, COVID-19 runs its course within 10 days, Mobley said.
“I would expect about a week from Monday, he should be —there’s a lot of things that go into that, they do a lot of testing — but about a week from Monday, he probably won’t be contagious and will be able to get back on the campaign trail,” he said.