WASHINGTON: After testing positive for COVID-19, US President Joe Biden, who has received two booster shots and is fully immunized, said in a video posted to his Twitter account that he is “doing well.”
His positive test result and the fact that he is having only mild symptoms while continuing to work alone were earlier confirmed by the White House. The oldest president of the US, Joe Biden, is 79 years old.
His symptoms, which started late on Wednesday, include a runny nose, fatigue, and an infrequent dry cough, according to a note from White House physician Kevin O’Connor that was made public on Thursday. According to O’Connor, Biden has started taking the antiviral medication Paxlovid.
He was smiling, holding papers at his desk, and wearing a blazer in a picture posted to his Twitter account.
Dr. Ashish Jha
The president would isolate for five days and return to public events once he had a negative COVID test, according to Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House’s COVID coordinator, who noted that Biden’s oxygen levels were normal.
Joe Biden
At a time when his administration is dealing with soaring inflation, global supply issues, mass shootings, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by land, Biden fell ill.
Biden’s illness made it necessary to postpone a trip to Pennsylvania where he was scheduled to outline his request for $37 billion in funding from Congress for crime prevention initiatives.
The president made several phone calls to political allies, according to the White House’s unusually detailed account of the president’s morning activities, and those who had been in close contact with Biden were informed of his illness.
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke frequently on Tuesday, according to a White House representative. Ron Klain, the chief of staff for Biden, admitted to being positive as well to MSNBC but claimed that nobody connected to the president’s case had tested positive as of yet.
Paxlovid
When administered within the first five days of infection, the antiviral medication Paxlovid from Pfizer Inc PFE.N, which Vice President Biden is currently taking, has been shown to reduce the risk of severe illness in high-risk patients by nearly 90%. the complete story
However, Paxlovid has occasionally been linked to rebound infections, in which patients test negative and recover quickly after a five-day course of the medication but experience symptoms again a few days later.
Paxlovid is probably the only treatment Biden will receive, unless his symptoms get worse, according to Dr. Bruce Farber, director of infectious diseases at Northwell Health in New York, who is not the president’s doctor.
Older people are more likely to experience COVID complications, according to Farber. It is significantly lower if you have received vaccination and double boosters, which he has, so I believe he will perform admirably.
The president is taking Eliquis, a medication made to prevent blood clots and lower the risk of heart attacks and strokes, for atrial fibrillation, a common irregular heartbeat, according to Biden’s most recent physical in November 2021.
To prevent a harmful drug interaction while receiving Paxlovid treatment, Jha stated that Biden will stop taking Crestor and Eliquis.
Dr. Harlan Krumholz, a cardiologist at Yale University, said that when practising medicine, risks must be balanced.
“The decision to reduce the risk of one thing can occasionally increase the risk of another. I have faith that the president will successfully complete COVID, benefit from Paxlovid, and soon resume taking the medication that lowers his risk of developing atrial fibrillation “said he.
Official Washington is not exempt
In recent months, a number of officials in Biden’s administration and other prominent figures in Washington have tested positive for the coronavirus, including Harris and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, both of whom have since tested negative and have resumed their jobs.
The virus has been rapidly spreading even though many Americans have abandoned the stringent precautions of the pandemic’s early months, going back to work and school, and engaging in summer travel.
In the last month, US cases have increased by more than 25%, according to CDC data, as the BA.5 subvariant has become more prevalent.
Since at least early July, BA.5 has been the predominant subvariant in the United States and has been the primary cause of an increase in new infections across the globe. It does this by eluding the immune protection provided by either vaccination or prior infection.
In the United States, COVID has claimed the lives of over 1 million people. The majority of those fatalities—around 600,000—occurred after Biden assumed office in January 2021, at the height of a significant wave of the illness.
“Get immunised now,”
At the White House, Biden instituted stringent COVID-19 safety procedures, urged Americans to treat the virus seriously, and pushed for universal vaccination.
According to the White House, he undergoes routine disease testing, and anyone who travels or meets with him is also tested. Tuesday marked Biden’s most recent negative test.
In recent months, he has stopped donning a mask at public events, and the White House removed the mask requirement in advance of his State of the Union address on March 1.
When questioned by Reuters on Wednesday about what the nation should do regarding the increase in COVID cases, Biden urged vaccination for those who had not yet received it.
At Joint Base Andrews, Biden told reporters, “It’s not in their interest or the public’s interest to not get immunised. “We have the power to influence it. They need to be immunised right away.”
The list of world leaders who have contracted COVID since the pandemic began in early 2020 now includes Biden. the complete story
Donald Trump caught the virus a month before he lost to Biden in the 2020 presidential race. It was contracted by him, his wife Melania, and other members of the White House staff in September 2020 following a function for Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
On October 2, 2020, Trump, who was 74 at the time, was admitted to the hospital and received aggressive care at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in a suburb of Washington. His low oxygen levels triggered a medical alert.
