Fauci Vouches For Doctors And Treatment Given To Trump
Anthony Fauci, the country's top infectious disease expert, has vouched for the credibility and qualifications of President Donald Trump's team of doctors led by his physician, Navy Cmdr. Dr. Sean Conley.
Fauci had come to the defense of the team of doctors who have been handling Trump's COVID-19 infection on Monday, October 5.
The head of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) said that he is confident that Trump is getting the optimal care.
According to Fauci, the colleagues that he know including Conley are very good physicians and that they are very qualified.
This is why Fauci said that he is confident that the president is getting the best care there is from the team at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
Fauci, a key scientist on the White House's Coronavirus Task Force, however, said that he has no involvement in the treatment of Trump who tweeted early on the morning of Friday, October 2, that he and first lady Melania Trump have tested positive for the viral disease.
Fauci pointed out that it is obvious that he is not involved and that he does not want to talk about the president's case because he does not have the clearance to do so.
Conley has come under fire and had his credentials questioned after he withheld crucial information as to President Trump's condition during a press conference held at the military hospital on Saturday.
It had seemed that Conley and the rest of the president's team of doctors were hiding something when the rosy picture that they have painted of Trump being in exceptionally high spirits was contradicted by the White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
After Conley's press briefing, Meadows had spoken to pool reporters that in the last 24 hours, the president's vital signs were very concerning and that the next 48 hours are very crucial for his treatment.
Aside from that, Conley also did not disclosed that Trump had been put on oxygen after his oxygen levels had dropped on Friday despite repeatedly being questioned about it.
On Sunday, October 4, the president's team of doctors once again held a press briefing wherein Conley acknowledged that it had seemed that they were hiding something.
According to Conley, he did not necessarily intend to mislead the public but he did not disclose that President Trump had received supplemental oxygen because he wanted to reflect the upbeat attitude of the team.
The president's physician added that he did not want to steer the course of Trump's COVID-19 illness to another direction.
CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, said that as a physician, Conley was not supposed to convey an upbeat attitude.
However, UCLA pulmonologist and critical care professor, Dr. Russell Buhr, said that the privacy of President Trump's medical condition is protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
Buhr added that Trump has the same rights as much as everyone with regards to his medical condition under federal laws such as the HIPAA.
And, this is also not the first time that a U.S. president has concealed the true extent of their medical condition and one such president was Franklin Roosevelt who hid from the public his inability to walk unaided.
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