Houston COVID-19 expert says Pres. Trump should stay under observation for 5 days
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- President Donald Trump's medical staff said Sunday he will be staying in a hospital after briefly leaving the Walter Reed Medical Center in a motorcade to surprise supporters.
On Sunday morning, a team of physicians reported that the president's blood oxygen level dropped suddenly on Saturday then followed up with announcing he could be discharged as early as Monday.
Dr. Peter Hotez with the Baylor College of Medicine believes Pres. Trump should stay under observation until at least mid-week.
"My recommendation is ... let's not hurry this," he said. "He's getting multiple experimental treatments which have, in some cases, rarely been used in combination together. He is having those drops in oxygen. I don't see the hurry in getting him out of Walter Reed. I understand why he wants to get out of there. If anyone given a choice between sleeping in their own bed [and] being in the hospital, you sleep in your own bed, but I think it's for the best interest of the president, the best interest of the nation, to stay put in the hospital at least for five days."
Hotez said there's still a lot of uncertainty as America looks forward to this coming week regarding Pres. Trump's health and the health of others on Capitol Hill who have tested positive for COVID-19 or have been exposed.
"We might be getting some additional surprises in the early part of this week in terms of other individuals being infected," Hotez said.
Paul Brace, a political science professor for Rice University, said the uncertainty makes it difficult to assess how the president's condition could impact pending legislation and the upcoming presidential debates.
"We've never had the deck shuffled so substantially this close to an election in our history," Brace said. "Hopefully, we will have a more confident picture of the president's health in the next 24 hours, but right now, I think there is grave concern not only that the president isn't well, but we don't know how well the president is and I think we have the right to know that as citizens."
However, Brace believes there's increased potential the confirmation process regarding a Supreme Court nominee could be delayed.
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"There's a two-vote margin in that committee advantage to the Republicans, but how I also understand it, two Republicans on that committee have now tested positive for the virus and presumably will not be able to show up for that meeting," Brace said. "So this may influence those proceedings until the Republicans can feel confident that they can assemble a comfortable majority on that committee before they move forward."
