ATLANTA — Since President Donald Trump’s positive COVID-19 diagnosis, the White House has reported the drugs President Trump has taken and, according to a local doctor, some were surprising.
Not long after the president and First Lady tested positive, the White House said he had mild symptoms and doctors gave an experimental antibody cocktail called “Regeneron”.
On Friday, the president took his first dose of “Remdesivir”, a drug studied at Emory University.
Based on reports of him taking these drugs, local doctor Mehrdod Ehteshami questions the life cycle of the virus President Trump has.
“Is he in day five or is he in day 14, day 10? Who knows and that’s important. It’s important because given what we know so far about COVID-19 that where you are in the life cycle of the virus, it has a lot to do with your potential outcome and how bad you can potentially be,” said Dr. Ehteshami.
Researchers said “Remdesivir” has proven to be an effective tool, although it’s far from a cure and there are still many unknowns with the drug.
Dr. Ehteshami is an emergency room doctor in the Atlanta area who treats COVID-19 patients daily.
He said it’s unlikely he would ever give one of his patients with mild symptoms, an experimental drug.
“If he’s early in the life cycle of the cycle and he’s showing what they’re claiming to be mild to moderate symptoms and yet he’s receiving an experimental drug, it’s interesting to me. It’s a little mind-boggling,” said Dr. Ehteshami.
An Emory University professor of infectious disease, Dr. Marybeth Sexton, said “Remdesivir” is available under emergency use authorizations.
“Those are things that seem to shorten the course of symptoms for people. We don’t know yet if they have a significant benefit on mortality and we don’t know yet at what point in the illness they’re most effective but it is good that we’re starting to see things like that get developed,” she said.
She said for most people who have mild symptoms, supportive care like resting and drinking lots of fluids is also effective.