Having first exhibited COVID-19 symptoms last Wednesday or Thursday, President Trump left Walter Reed medical center just as he was entering the disease’s danger zone. While he may seem outwardly fine, the complex interaction between the virus and his immune system taking place inside his body could quickly spiral out of control, according to experts.
The timing of the coronavirus’s peak danger is a function of how the virus attacks the body. During the early phase, the coronavirus multiplies inside the host’s cells and triggers the immune system response. It’s during this period that the first symptoms can manifest. The critical phase doesn’t come until seven to 10 days after the onset of symptoms, when the immune system can lurch dangerously into overdrive as it tries to beat back the infection.
It’s during this time that patients risk undergoing what’s called “decompensation” — a process in which the disease abruptly becomes life threatening, which can unfold over the course of hours. “People can be percolating along and doing fairly well, and then all of a sudden without warning, inexplicably just crash,” says Daniel Sterman, the director of pulmonary medicine, critical care, and sleep medicine at NYU Langone Health.
Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, calls it “falling off a cliff.” The cause, he says, is a dysregulation of the immune system, something that the elderly and people with other health risk factors are especially vulnerable to. “The immune system is like an orchestra that’s finely tuned,” he says. “Imagine if the percussion team were out of control and no longer listening to the conductor.”
Thanks to this dysregulation, a combination of the viral infection and the immune system’s response to it can cause the lungs to become flooded with fluid and cellular debris, a process called acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). The level of oxygen in the blood drops, requiring patients to receive supplemental oxygen or even intubation. Inflammation can spread throughout the body causing other acute events as well, such blood clots in lungs, strokes, and heart attacks. It’s in the wake of a crash that the risk of death is highest. Among COVID-19 patients who develop ARDS, nearly half die.
Back in March, April, and May, when the pandemic was raging in New York, Sterman says, “It was a common scenario that you’d be having a conversation with somebody, they look well, they’re on the phone, they’re talking with their family, and the next time you come in they’re extremely sick.”
The fact that Trump felt better after three days at Walter Reed doesn’t necessarily mean he’s on the mend. A patient’s subjective perception of how well they’re feeling isn’t necessarily relevant to how the disease is progressing internally. And then there’s that fact that he was on steroids.
“He has moderate to severe COVID-19, if dexamethasone is being administered,” said Panagis Galiatsatos, a pulmonary and critical-care physician at Johns Hopkins who has treated hundreds of COVID patients, many with the steroid. “Now that definition is objective — all you need is some level of organ dysfunction, and he’s checked that off based on his need for supplemental oxygen.”
It’s no surprise that Trump tweeted that he feels better “than I have in 20 years.”
“Everyone who gets steroids feels great when they first start. They feel on top of the world,” says Chin-Hong. “Part of it is the contrast between how they felt before the steroids, and after. It’s sort of like when you have a headache and you take ibuprofen and it’s gone, and you feel amazing. Multiply that by a thousand.”
So far, Trump’s doctors said Tuesday he is doing “extremely well” after checking his vital signs and performing a physical exam. Granted, Trump’s doctors have been less-than-forthcoming about previous negative news about his condition — and they got his “permission” to release the latest rosy portrait.
“I would be concerned for at least another three to seven days,” Sterman says. “If he were to decompensate at the White House, and his oxygen levels were to drop, or he were to have a blood clot, how rapidly could they get him back to Walter Reed or another hospital?”
Trump’s doctors are no doubt keeping a constant close eye on his blood- oxygen levels. A device called a pulse oximeter shines a low-intensity laser into the tissue of the fingertip. A level of 92 or 93 percent is concerning, while below 90 percent signals a high level of danger. Trump’s level on Tuesday was between 95-97% while he was ambulating, doctors said.
Trump’s physicians will also likely be doing daily blood tests and looking at his white blood cell count, his hemoglobin, his liver and kidney function, and the levels of two key proteins that are markers for COVID-19 disease activity. The first, D-dimer, indicates the presence of blood clots; the second, c-reactive protein (CRP), is a measure of inflammation. “They’re pretty good, but not great, for showing the trends that predict clinical deterioration,” Sterman says.
For now, the White House is keeping a tight lid on the president’s condition, and has cancelled all public appearances for the immediate future. Galiatsatos said travel — including to next week’s presidential debate in Miami, as Trump is planning — should be out of the question. “He has COVID-19. The steroids didn’t cure that, he will have it for quite some time,” he said. “I think of Herman Cain, who got the virus in late June and died in late July. This disease takes time.”
If Trump does decompensate, the public will likely have no clue that his condition has deteriorated until he appears on the South Lawn for the helicopter ride back to Walter Reed or in a motorcade screeching to nearby George Washington University hospital. If it gets that bad, there will be no time left to waste.
This article first ran in New York magazine on October 6, 2020.
Called it months ago. Stocks in pharma lmao.
Compulsory voting and masks should be made law in the US.
Really tv in the White House should be banned.
Any news on mh370?
@Laura, Nice to hear from you! We’ve got less than a month to go until the election, fingers crossed this fever will break.
Nothing really new about MH370, I continue to make inquiries but haven’t pieced together enough to publish yet. A piece of debris turned up the other day but after all these years I rather doubt it’s from MH370… https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/aviation/aircraft-debris-raises-questions-over-mh370-resting-place/news-story/d64fc17ccf560e3a6ac192c389afa25e
Hi Jeff 🙂
Thanks for the link, I hadn’t heard anything about the debris found in Queensland. I shall do some research.
The news here is overflowing with covid and inquiries into the Victorian outbreak, which I’m pleased to say looks like it’s once again under control. But wow those living in Melbourne have been on level 4 restrictions for months on end. And of course what’s happening in the US is high priority news here also, it really is quite sad to see. I’ve been tuning in to Late Night with Seth Meyers, and Planet America (ABC) to help de-stress.
Let’s all hope that the USA becomes United with science come Election Day!
Stay safe – wear a mask – protect others.
I forgot to mention that the above article you wrote sounds like what happened to Herman Cain.
Hi Jeff,
Does the steroid treatment come with additional side effects beyond the euphoria? In particular, after completing the regimen, will there be tell-tale signs in Trump’s behavior (though his normal state of crankiness and erratic behavior might make this hard to spot)? And are there physical dangers or repercussions in coming down from a dosage of the type of steroid treatment Trump received?
@Kyle, These are great questions. I haven’t looked into the subject in great depth but a quick search suggests that steroid use can produce dementia-like symptoms, in particular problems with memory. There don’t seem to be mood effects.
@Laura, There are definitely similarities–Cain, too, was 74. But I think he was even more vulnerable, having survived stage 4 cancer, and though he was reported to have been getting better he never became well enough to leave the hospital.
Update: Just read this in the New York Times: “Dr. Negin Hajizadeh, a pulmonary/critical care physician at Northwell Health, noted that the majority of Covid patients receiving dexamethasone are on mechanical ventilation and in a state of induced coma, so they do not exhibit any behavioral side effects. But, she said, large studies show that generally 28 to 30 percent of patients will exhibit mild to moderate psychiatric side effects like anxiety, insomnia, mania or delirium after receiving steroid treatments, and about 6 percent may develop psychosis.
“When we prescribe steroids we warn our patients: ‘This may cause you to feel jittery, might cause you to feel irritable,’” Dr. Hajizadeh said. “We will tell family members, especially for our older patients, ‘This may cause insomnia, this may cause changes in eating habits and, in extreme cases, mania and impaired decision making.’”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/08/us/politics/trump-calls-to-indict-political-rivals.html
Funny, no one would notice a change because Trump is always unpredictable.
I know this isn’t a political forum, and I apologise in advance for my lack of knowledge (voting in Australia is compulsory)
Does voting really matter in the US? From my understanding presidents are elected by the “electoral college”, and tbh that sounds shady. How many votes/donations from each state leader determines who wins?
@Laura, Effectively, the electoral college system just means that rather than every person casting a vote in a big national forum, and then the winner of the most votes becoming president, the outcome of each state’s vote is tallied separately, and all the votes from that state get tallied for the winner. An unfortunate side effect of this is that a candidate can win by a landslide in some states, and lose narrowly in others, and wind up losing the race even though they got the most votes. This is what happened to Hillary in 2016. It’s a dumb design but not inherently unfair in that it doesn’t necessarily advantage one side over the other–though given current demographics it gives Republicans an unfair edge.
It does seem unnecessarily confusing and fallible and, still dodgy 😉
From some of the history that I’ve read, it was to protect the country from tyrants gaining power. Ironic really!
At least Trump has pointed out (by demonstrating) the holes in a system that can be corrupted.
And trust me, I don’t feel protected or superior cause I live in Australia. I have more pro Tump relatives than anti.
The difference with Australia (I think) is that we’re not a hugely Christian or gun society. America has these anti abortion and pro gun laws, which seem instinctively at odd with themselves.
Systemic racism and stupidly is a world wide disease being spurred on by social media and keyboard warriors, and unfortunately that affects everyone when leaders are condoning it.
Thanks for the info @jeff. Sorry for my rant.
https://youtu.be/6a7j6DUD5Gc
Happy Halloween
Congrats Joe and Kamala, feels like a bright future.
75 mil Americans voted for compassion and unity!!
Celebrating in Australia
@Laura, Thank you! This week has been such an emotional rollercoaster, it feels wonderful to have closure, not just on a difficult election but a degrading and demoralizing four years.
Hello all,
i hope for everybody that the dark years under Donald Trump will be gone now. But as i mentioned on this website in 2016: “He will leave nothing but scorched earth.”
Sometimes i have the feeling that it still lacks comprehesion of how far this person is insane and destructive. Its not a petitesse when he told in 2016, that he would be able to shoot someone on 5th Avenue and would get away with it. The Destructiveness of this person is serious. He really would or did already shoot someone, and now in slow motion rolls even out a coup d’etat , conspiring with fellow republicans to change eltion results . Doubtless a high profile case for the FBI, isnt it?
He , right now gets at the foundation of the american way of ciilization and his admiration and friendship of the most ruthless dictators in this world are a forebode to what to come next.
Still 72 million americans voted for self destruction and abdication of democracy. From the european perspective, our leader in america is utmbling down at exponential speed. The US look suicidal and that is a global nightmare.
Homo Sapiens was often at the brink of extinction in the past 60 years. But now with this psycho in control of the nukes, probing the “checks and balances” of the american constitution demands somewhat more, than “adults in the room”, to prevent a catastrophic outcome.
I only believe in Homo Sapiens, because i am an optimist by design. But what, if i am wrong about that? What if Trump ist not an outlier but just one of the symptoms of a dangerous predator race, that will prove to be a dead-end of evolution?
Trump is a symbol of the emotional immaturity of mankind. Without emotional development there might not be a way to turn hate into love and divide into compassion.
But try to tell that a predator, that just , in his greed, destroys the world it depends on.
Hope my english is good enough to get my message through.
My best wishes for recovery in US
Peter
Happy holidays & Missing your MH370 updates Jeff.
Btw election still not certified so stay tuned!
Thanks @Ken you too!