Sat 10 October 2020:
US top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci on Friday said that President Donald Trump talking of taking up an experimental COVID-19 treatment that he received as a “cure” may cause “confusion.”
The director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Disease, while talking to CBS News, said, “We had a super-spreader event in the White House and it was in a situation where people were crowded together and were not wearing masks.”
He said the White House ‘super spreader event’ has infected dozens of people.
More than 30 people are thought to have been infected at a White House ceremony held on September 26 for the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
Talking about Trump’s praise for Regeneron’s antibody treatment, Fauci said that talking about a “cure” could be misleading as it has not been yet proven and has only been shown to have modest to moderate results.
“We don’t have any indication — I think you really have to depend on what you mean by a cure, because that’s the word that leads to a lot of confusion,” he said.
Fauci walked through some medicines that have been recommended or temporarily approved against the treatment of COVID-19.
These include the antiviral remdesivir, which has been shown to diminish time to recovery among hospitalised patients, and the steroid dexamethasone, which reduces mortality rates in patients who need supplemental oxygen. Regeneron’s treatment belongs to a class of drugs called monoclonal antibodies.
He said that research on these medicines, which has shown promising results, is still going on and no final determination has been made.
Talking about the low level of mask used at the White House until recently, he said “the data speak for themselves.”
Fauci said he had faith that the president’s medical team wouldn’t allow him to do that.
“I can tell you, they are going to be testing him to determine the trajectory and whether he gets to the point where he’s not infected,” he said. “I can guarantee you that they will be testing him before they let him go out.”
