ASShole

Donald Trump drew immediate rebuke from doctors on Sunday afternoon for an “insane” surprise drive-by visit to supporters outside the Walter Reed military medical center, where the president is being treated for an infection of Covid-19.

At least two other people, probably Secret Service agents, wearing respirators and eye protection, were seen on video in the vehicle accompanying Trump, who was also masked, during the short drive.

  Guardian

In a second tweet, Phillips[, doctor of emergency medicine at George Washington University, who is an attending physician at Walter Reed,] added: “That Presidential SUV is not only bulletproof, but hermetically sealed against chemical attack. The risk of COVID19 transmission inside is as high as it gets outside of medical procedures. The irresponsibility is astounding. My thoughts are with the Secret Service forced to play.”

[...]

“In the hospital when we go into close contact with a Covid patient we dress in full PPE: Gown, gloves, N95, eye protection, hat. This is the height of irresponsibility[," tweeted Jonathan Reiner, professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University school of medicine and health services.]

NBC pointed out that a White House official told them Melania Trump would not leave her residence to visit her husband because: “That would expose the agents who would drive her there and the medical staff who would walk her up to him.”

Trump signalled his intention to visit his flag-waving supporters in a video tweet of his own, released only moments before a cavalcade of black SUVs drove through the gates of the Maryland medical center.

[...]

“This is the real school,” Trump said in the video, describing his experience with Covid-19, and his second full day at Walter Reed after being admitted on Friday. “I get it and understand it. [It is] a very interesting thing and I’m going to be letting you know about it.”

He quite obviously DOESN'T get it.

A White House spokesman, Judd Deere, said the drive had been “cleared by the medical team as safe” and that “appropriate precautions were taken in the execution of this movement to protect the president and all those supporting it, including PPE.”

[...]

As recently as Friday, Secret Service agents were expressing their anger at how Trump’s perceived recklessness was placing them at risk.

“He’s never cared about us,” one agent told a confidant, according to the Washington Post.

The newspaper said some agents had become convinced in recent months that the president was oblivious to them being in harm’s way, citing as evidence a policy that agents on duty at Trump rallies were no longer routinely being tested when they returned home.

So they probably won't be trying to protect him from getting his fat ass booted from the White House in January.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Plus....Raheem is suggesting Trump was NOT healthy?

Mr. Trump’s camera-friendly, morale-boosting “surprise visit” [...] may have masked the reality of his condition, and his seeming energy may have reflected the fact that he was given the steroid dexamethasone, according to medical experts. Dexamethasone has been shown to help patients who are severely ill with Covid-19, but it is typically not used in mild or moderate cases of the disease.

[...]

In a telephone interview on Sunday night, Dr. Phillips also said the trip raised the alarming question of whether the president was directing his doctors.

“At what point does the physician-patient relationship end, and does the commander in chief and subordinate relationship begin, and were those doctors ordered to allow this to happen?” he said, noting that it violated standards of care and would not be an option open to any other patient. “When I first saw this, I thought, maybe he was being transported to another hospital.”

[...]

Even as the White House released new details about the president’s condition on Sunday, it continued to withhold others, including when Mr. Trump had his last negative test for the coronavirus and his first positive one. Two administration officials speaking on the condition of anonymity acknowledged that he had an undisclosed positive result from a rapid test on Thursday evening after returning from a fund-raiser at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J. But he did not reveal it when he subsequently called into Sean Hannity’s Fox News show and, in a raspy voice, said he was still waiting for results.

Only after the television show did the results of another, more sophisticated PCR test come back confirming the positive reading.

[...]

Mr. Trump, who historically hates hospitals and anything related to illness, has been hankering to get released, according to two people close to him, and some aides expressed fear that he would pressure Dr. Conley into releasing him by claiming to feel better than he actually does. But advisers were also troubled by the doctors’ prediction that they might release him on Monday because if they do not, it would signal that the president is not doing as well as indicated. They also worried that a premature return could lead to a second trip to the hospital if his condition worsens.

[...]

The president has also been watching lots of television, even more than usual, and has been exasperated by coverage of Saturday’s calamitous handling of his medical information by Dr. Conley and Mr. Meadows, as well as speculation about whether he would transfer powers to Vice President Mike Pence.

He was also angry that no one was on television defending him, as he often is when he cannot inject his own views into news media coverage, aides said. As a result, Rudolph W. Giuliani, his personal lawyer, was expected to appear on several television shows, as was Corey Lewandowski, who was Mr. Trump’s first campaign manager in the 2016 race.

  NYT

What do you want to bet that both of them, having been in close contact with Trump, have Covid-19?

Ms. Farah told reporters that the White House would disclose the number of positive cases among the White House staff, but Ms. McEnany later seemed to reject that, citing “privacy concerns,” without explaining how a statistic without names would violate anyone’s privacy.

She can't explain it because it doesn't.

The White House has not sought help from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to trace the contacts of people who attended a celebration in the Rose Garden and a follow-up reception inside the White House on Sept. 26 for the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett, the event seen as a likely source of the outbreak.

A federal official familiar with the matter said the C.D.C. had a team of experts on standby to help the White House but had not been approached to do so.

If the CDC had any backbone at all, they'd undertake contact tracing on their own.