Questions Persist About Trump's Health After Second Dissembling Briefing

The NPR Politics Podcast

NPR

Politics, Daily News, News

4.5 • 24.9K Ratings

🗓️ 4 October 2020

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The president has started a steroid and his doctor acknowledges that Trump has in fact received supplemental oxygen. His course of treatment suggests a severe case of Covid-19, though his team suggests he could be back at the White House as soon as tomorrow.

This episode: campaign correspondent Scott Detrow, science correspondent Richard Harris, and national political correspondent Mara Liasson.

Connect:
Subscribe to the NPR Politics Podcast here.
Email the show at [email protected].
Join the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.
Listen to our playlist The NPR Politics Daily Workout.
Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.
Find and support your local public radio station.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Scott Detro. I cover the presidential
0:07.7	campaign. I'm Mara Lias and National Political Correspondent.
0:11.8	And we are joined by Richard Harris from NPR's Science Desk to help us make sense of things
0:15.9	again today. Hey Richard. Hello Scott. Hey Mara. Hi Richard.
0:19.5	So it's just about 2 o'clock Eastern on Sunday, October 4th. We got another update from
0:24.8	the president's doctor outside of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center this morning.
0:29.8	Since we spoke last, president has continued to improve. As with any illness, there are frequent
0:36.0	ups and downs over the course, particularly when a patient is being so closely watched 24 hours a
0:40.8	day. Richard ups and downs feels like the key theme from today's briefing. What did we learn today
0:48.1	about the president's treatment and the president's prognosis? Well, I think the most important
0:53.0	thing we learned is something that doctors didn't say directly, but that it's now pretty clear
0:56.9	that the president had a severe case of COVID-19 that doctors now say he had a high fever on Friday
1:02.8	and low oxygen levels. We don't know exactly how high the fever was or how low the oxygen,
1:07.8	but those are both very concerning signs. And the drugs that is getting also tell this story.
1:13.0	The president's now on three different medications, two of which are not FDA approved.
1:17.3	He was given monoclonal antibodies, which are in theory at any rate, supposed to block infection.
1:22.2	And those drugs are still experimental and may not actually work and they could have side effects.
1:26.8	Yesterday, he also got a second dose of REM-desiveer, which is given to people with significant illness.
1:32.4	And one study found that the drug reducing amount of time people need to stay in the hospital,
1:36.1	so that's good. And today, we learned that the president is also getting a steroid called
1:40.8	Dexamethasone. This drug, again, is given to people with advanced illness. It's usually used to
1:46.7	prevent their immune systems from overreacting and causing serious inflammation, which can be deadly.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.