Doctors gave Trump a “dizzying array of emergency medicines” to save his life, from Remdesivir to monoclonal antibodies to dexamethasone, after his blood O2 dropped to 93%, dipping to 80% at one point. They hoped he get serious about #COVID19–he did not.🧵
washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/…
2) “When (FDA chief) Hahn later learned the [MAB request] was on behalf of the president, he was stunned. For God’s sake, it’s the president who’s sick, and you want us to bend the rules? Trump was in the highest-risk category— at 74, he rarely exercised and medically obese.”
3) “Trump’s brush with severe illness and the prospect of death caught the White House so unprepared that they had not even briefed Vice President Mike Pence’s team on a plan to swear him in if Trump became incapacitated.”
4) “Trump’s medical advisers hoped his bout with the coronavirus, which was far more serious than acknowledged at the time, would inspire him to take virus seriously. Perhaps now, he would encourage Americans to wear masks and put his health and medical officials front & center
5) “Instead, Trump emerged from the experience triumphant and ever more defiant. He urged people not to be afraid of the virus or let it dominate their lives, disregarding that he had had access to health care and treatments unavailable to other Americans.”
6) “It was, several advisers said, the last chance to turn the response around. And once the opportunity passed, it was the point of no return.”
During that time, I said I was an epidemiologist who wanted to vomit... old article: google.com/amp/s/www.wash…
7) ““ORWELLIAN,” tweeted Feigl-Ding, now a senior fellow at @FAScientists. “As an epidemiologist, I want to vomit.” Most upsetting, he wrote, “is that we knew, and we tried to warn. And yet people tried to shout us January alarmists down.”
google.com/amp/s/www.bost…
8) Hundreds of thousands died needlessly because of Trump’s inactions. Utterly needlessly.
9) it didn’t have to be this way. Trump knew in January it was bad. He told Bob Woodward it was airborne and very dangerous. And we epidemiologists tried to warn in Jan 2020…
nymag.com/intelligencer/…
10) The deaths here are graver than Watergate. 190,000 didn’t die from Watergate. #TrumpKnew #covid19
11) the week prior to WH outbreak, at events, “At Trump’s insistence, few were wearing masks, but they were packed in a little too tight for his comfort. He wasn’t worried about others getting sick, but he did fret about his own vulnerability & complained to his staff afterward.
12) “Why were they letting people get so close to him? Meeting with the Gold Star families was sad and moving, he said, but added, “If these guys had covid, I’m going to get it because they were all over me.” He told his staff that they needed to do a better job of protecting him
13) Trump and his aides had ignored numerous warnings from the task force doctors that they were putting themselves and everyone in the West Wing at risk by their cavalier behavior. Over the past eight months, Trump had come dangerously close to the virus a number of times.
14) Those repeated escapes had made the White House more careless, constantly tempting fate. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, and Redfield wrote to top aides after every White House outbreak, warning them that 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was not safe
15) At least two of those who were briefed on Trump’s medical condition that weekend said he was gravely ill and feared that he wouldn’t make it out of Walter Reed. People close to Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, said he was consumed with fear that Trump might die.
16) Redfield spent the weekend praying the president would recover. He prayed that he would emerge with a newfound appreciation for the seriousness of the threat. And he prayed that Trump would tell Americans they should listen to public health advisers before it was too late.
17) The virus had begun a violent resurgence. Redfield, Fauci, Birx and others felt they had limited time to persuade people to behave differently if they were going to avoid a massive wave of death.
(They failed).
18) If they couldn’t keep him in the hospital, the advisers hoped that Trump would at least emerge from Walter Reed a changed man. Some even began mentally preparing to finally speak their minds. It would surely be the inflection point, they all thought.
19) There’s nothing like a near-death experience to serve as a wake-up call. It was, at the end of the day, a national security failure. The president had not been protected. If this fiasco wasn’t the turning point, what would be?
(Whisper: no)
20) Redfield was watching on television from home. He was praying as Trump went up the steps. Praying that he would reach the Truman Balcony and show some humility. That he would remind people that anyone could be susceptible to the coronavirus…
But Trump didn’t waver.
21) Facing the cameras from the balcony, he used his right hand to unhook the mask loop from his right ear, then raised his left hand to pull the mask off his face… He was still probably contagious, standing there for all the world to see.
22) He strode into WH, passing staffers on his way and failing to protect them from virus particles emitted from his nose and mouth.
Right then, Redfield knew it was over. Trump showed that he hadn’t changed at all. The pandemic response wasn’t going to change, either. 🔥
23) And yet… Trump knew it was bad. And that it severely affected young people too… he even told Bob Woodward in March 2020 it was “deadly”. He goddamn knew!
24) So much #COVID19 pandemic tragedy could have been prevented. So much.
More rich interviews by @damianpaletta and @yabutaleb7. Lots more stories from Trump trying to stopping CDC doing tests to Jared Kushner losing his cool in their must read book:
amzn.to/3zNeuJC
25) Even more disgusting, Trump wanted to send returning US tourists to be detained and quarantined at Guantanamo Bay. 🔥
26) "You f*cking moron. We’ll all be dead by June.” ~Jared Kushner. 🔥
As #COVID19 slammed US in early spring, Jared Kushner was furious to learn the US order of millions of masks wouldn't arrive til June 2020. What an crazy history in this book…. amzn.to/3zNeuJC
27) History is sometimes both infuriating and crazy… Trump response during pandemic was both comedic and utterly tragic…
28) Let’s not forget Trump also wanted his own former National Security Advisor dead from #COVID19, according to new book.
29) I’m reading the book at the moment. I don’t want to spoil some parts, but it’s “holy shit wtf” stuff in here.
P.s. the authors @yabutaleb7 @damianpaletta make clear they did not hide anything from the public—insider details were not known until later.
amzn.to/3zNeuJC
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