President Trump receives COVID x-ray, CT scans while radiologist White House advisor expresses optimism
President Donald Trump has received chest CT and x-ray imaging to help assess his health as the commander-in-chief battles the novel coronavirus. But White House providers have refused to elaborate on the results, according to an article published Sunday.
Politico reported that White House physicians dodged questions about the specifics of the president’s imaging exams during an Oct. 4 press conference at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
“We're tracking all of that. There's some expected findings but nothing of any major clinical concern,” Sean Conley, DO, the president’s physician, said when asked whether there were any signs of pneumonia or lung damage.
Physicians did, however, note that the president’s oxygen saturation had dropped below 94% and he has twice required breathing assistance. That, along with Trump receiving the drug dexamethasone, hint that the president’s case of COVID-19 is “at least moderate,” Politico reported. Many patients with this level of severity develop pneumonia—denoted by ground glass opacities on computed tomography imaging—but White House physicians would not comment on whether the president has sustained such damage.
“If he did, it would be a reason for heightened concern,” the report noted.
Meanwhile, radiologist and White House coronavirus advisor Scott Atlas signaled that President Trump is a “super vigorous man,” who should recover fully from the virus. He also doubled down on controversial calls to reopen the economy and let the virus run its course, according to Fox News.
“This is a disease that spreads, we anticipate that people get this infection, and it does not go away by isolating or locking down,” Atlas told the new station in an exclusive interview. “There is zero reason to panic,” he added later. “There is nothing different here. The president and his wife are human beings.”
Read more from Politico below.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.