Something going on here
The White House physician said Sunday that President Donald Trump is now taking another drug for Covid-19, adding to his growing list of treatments for his illness.
Dr. Sean Conley said the president was given a steroid called dexamethasone following “two episodes of transient drops in his oxygen saturation,” meaning his oxygen levels dropped too low.
…
Dexamethasone has been shown to be beneficial in those with severe Covid-19 because it can stop the immune system from going into overdrive. When that happens, the immune system can do more harm than good, attacking the body in what is called a cytokine storm.
However, the drug is not recommended for more mild cases of the disease.
Ah. So that means…
“The fact that he got the steroid sets up a bit of a red flag that there’s something going on here,” NBC News senior medical correspondent Dr. John Torres told Kate Snow on Sunday. “I think they might be painting a little bit of a rosy picture for everyone.”
They shouldn’t bother. It’s not as if we want him to be robust and healthy. We want him above all things to go away.
They’ve been given footage of him making marks on bits of paper. What more can they want..?
It’s also possible that this is Trump’s idiocy at play, rather than him having a serious case. “Just gimme the good stuff! I don’t care why not, I wannit!”
I don’t think they’d do that. I can see him bullying the White House doctor into doing it, but not external doctors.
I agree. Steroids are nothing to play around with. I need steroids about two or three times a year because of my asthma, and my doctor is extremely cautious. He will not prescribe them until I need them (nor would I take them unless I need them), he gives me short bursts, and tries to use them as little as possible. Lots of problems can arise from steroid use.
Dex is a common thing to take among mountaineers at altitude, and it really does work. It’s a hellishly strong drug, though. We consider it to be a method of last resort if we are unable to breathe at altitude (usually as a result of climbing too high, too fast), and we use it to give ourselves the needed edge to get back down, if necessary. I’ve used it once, during an ascent of Tocllaraju in Peru, when I feared that I was going to die overnight because I kept gasping myself awake. It did the trick. It allowed me to breathe as normal, again, finally. I’ve always carried Dex on trips, and I always will, just like I always carry ciproflaxin (a VERY STRONG antibiotic that destroys one’s internal flora, but all the bacterial bugs with it), but I would only use either one if I thought I was in actual danger of death. I certainly wouldn’t use them just to continue a climb, or to jump in a car and wave at passersby.
The thing about Dex is that once you start using it, you can’t stop until you’re out of danger. If you stop, the symptoms can come back ten times worse, with a vengeance. So putting him on Dex was a radical decision, and one not taken lightly. If he’s at sea level and resorting to using dexamethasone, he’s in bad straits. I would not call it “a bit of a red flag”, I’d call it fucking frightening.
Relevant snippet from The Times today:
Sounds about right to me.
Donnie should have scored some Sputnik V from his pal Pootie. Too late now…
Ah. Harald’s Times snippet corrects me on that “I don’t think they’d do that” of mine. I was thinking, I guess, that their own egos and professional chops would cause them to bristle at Trump’s attempts to tell them how to treat him. I think that’s how I would see it if I were a medical pro – “where does this ignorant bossy fool think he gets off telling us how to do our job??” But VIP syndrome seems plausible.