Just watched the @TuckerCarlson segment with Trump interview by @DrMarcSiegel. Takeaway: Trump looks good, his voice is strong, no visible shortness of breath, he's finishing sentences without stopping for air. Mental status and judgment seem unchanged from his usual. (1/9)
Siegel actually did a decent interview – asking questions testing recall, along with others that got at judgment and insight (latter included asking about lessons learned from this experience). I'm not a Trump fan but it's hard to make 25th Amendment case from what we saw. (2/9)
And, while Trump is still not completely out of the woods – there's still a small (<5%) chance of a significant setback – with a patient this stable 8 days into the illness, his most likely course is a relatively uneventful recovery. (3/9)
Did the interview make any news? A little. If Trump is to be believed, he was never short of breath; his main symptoms last Thursday were sore throat and weakness.
He says he wanted to leave the hospital after the second day; his team wanted him to stay for observation. (4/9)
He says he wanted to leave the hospital after the second day; his team wanted him to stay for observation. (4/9)
Per Trump, he is off all medications "as of 8 hrs ago." That includes the dexamethasone. Since starting it seems like a clinical toss-up (at best) and Trump did well, stopping it before completing a 10-day course seems prudent – at some point, the risks exceed the benefits. (5/9)
Any tests in hospital? “They tested the lungs, they have incredible equipment….it tested good; initially they said I had some congestion in there…w/ each day it got better."
If he means they found lung congestion on his x-ray, that's more info than we got from Dr Conley (6/9)
If he means they found lung congestion on his x-ray, that's more info than we got from Dr Conley (6/9)
How bad is the virus? "It's highly contagious. That's one thing you learn." (Sad if that's how he learned this.) Re: mortality: “Generally you get better...If you look at mortality rate, I think it's up 95 or 85%.” (I'd guess he means survival rate; if so, an overstatement) (7/9)
His final message. "I have great respect for the doctors... I have such respect for the people that have suffered, and my sympathies for the families that have been horribly hurt.” One of the more empathic things I've heard him say. (8/9)
Overall, if he were my patient I would reassure him that he is doing very well, and is highly likely to continue to have a benign clinical course. Given that he had a 5-8% predicted mortality when he was diagnosed, up to ~20% after he was hospitalized, he's a very lucky man.(9/9)
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
