President’s doctors’ briefing today presented some encouraging news. They reported he was breathing w/out oxygen and feeling well. They reported normal cardiac, liver and kidney fxn. But some news raised concerns. And other key information hasn’t yet been presented: 1/x
They reported president needed oxygen twice since symptoms started, which would likely mean he has underlying pulmonary involvement. The results of Chest X ray(s) and Chest CT(s) would provide specific information about the level and kind of pulmonary disease 2/x
In addition, Chest X ray and Chest CT at time of presentation with COVID has been shown to be predictive of a patient’s future course. Such as in this study ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P… 3/x
Or this one: pubs.rsna.org/doi/10.1148/ra… 4/x
So in order to understand the likelihood that the president will progress to more serious illness, it would be important to know the results of his Chest X Ray and Chest CT scan. 5/x
Also would be valuable to know the result of his lymphocyte count, given it also helps determine risk of severe outcome onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.11… 6/x
And important to see the results of inflammatory markers that would very likely and should be part of the president’s testing, like his D-Dimer, C reactive protein, platelet count etc which also can help determine likelihood of disease severity pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32492712/ 7/x
In terms of risk categories, this CDC study is useful. Look at Table 3. 34% of 70-79 y/olds dx’ed w/COVID hospitalized and 16% in that age group died from it, higher for people with serious underlying conditions. cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/6… 8/x
Of course every individual is different, and you cant extrapolate from population information to an individual. And president receiving highest level possible care, including experimental treatment not given to others. 9/x
That’s why it would be valuable to know the results of his Chest Xray, Chest CT, lymphocyte count and inflammatory markers to have better data around likelihood president might risk progressing to more serious disease. 10/x
Hopefully of course he'll continue to remain well and not need oxygen, and his symptoms will resolve in the coming days. But its also possible w/ COVID for people to have mild illness in early days and then go on to develop severe illness in the 5-10 day range. 11/x
It will be good to hear more details from the president's team in the time ahead to better understand the risks int the time ahead. /end
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