‘This is insanity’: Doctors slam Trump’s drive to greet supporters outside Walter Reed hospital

President Donald Trump on Sunday briefly ventured outside Walter Reed hospital in a motorcade to greet cheering supporters, a move that doctors have condemned for flagrantly disregarding precautions designed to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Trump, 74, has released a series of videos over the weekend to try to reassure voters that he is recovering after testing positive for Covid-19.

“It has been a very interesting journey. I’ve learned a lot about Covid,” Trump said in a video posted via Twitter on Sunday. The president also suggested he would “pay a little surprise to some of the great patriots that we have out on the street.” Shortly thereafter, the presidential motorcade drove by the perimeter of the Walter Reed National Medical Center, with Trump seen through the window of an SUV wearing a face covering and waving to supporters.

Trump has repeatedly downplayed the threat of the pandemic, criticizing Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden as recently as last week for wearing a protective mask, even as the virus has infected millions of people and resulted in the deaths of more than 200,000 Americans. “Every single person in the vehicle during that completely unnecessary Presidential ‘drive-by’ just now has to be quarantined for 14 days. They might get sick. They may die. For political theater,” James Phillips, doctor of emergency medicine at George Washington University, and an attending physician at Walter Reed hospital, said via Twitter on Sunday.

The president’s doctors have said Trump’s health has been improving, even touting a possible return to the White House as soon as Monday. However, the White House medical team has also reported the president’s blood oxygen level had twice dropped suddenly in recent days, and he is being treated with a steroid typically recommended for severe Covid-19 cases.

To date, the U.S. has recorded more than 7.4 million cases of the coronavirus, with 209,725 related deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

‘This is insanity’: Doctors slam Trump’s drive to greet supporters outside Walter Reed hospital, CNBC, Oct 5