Is it, though? The president appeared on the White House balcony to prove he is upright and not incapacitated due to the virus. He looked as he normally does and was dressed as usual. He sounded as he usually does, too. So, why isn’t the White House being more forthcoming about his illness?
An update from me: pic.twitter.com/L2oCR0uUTu
— President Biden (@POTUS) July 21, 2022
We don’t need to know every little medical fact but why hasn’t the White House physician addressed the president’s illness? In this case, the White House physician is the president’s personal physician who Biden brought to the White House. Dr. Kevin O’Connor was not present at the White House briefing yesterday after everyone learned that Biden tested positive for COVID. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre included White House COVID Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha. He took questions from the reporters. One reporter asked if they could get the White House physician there to answer some questions. KJP brushed off the request and noted that Dr. Jha is a doctor.
REPORTER: “Can we get the president’s physician here so we can not play the game of telephone?”
KJP: “I don’t think this is a game of telephone…” pic.twitter.com/hEoMIWsEUu
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) July 21, 2022
Sure, but he’s not Biden’s personal doctor and he isn’t treating the president. By Friday morning, Jha was on several morning news shows updating the public on Biden’s condition.
On Friday morning, White House COVID Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha was doing the rounds on the morning shows, saying he had last spoken to Biden’s medical team around 10 p.m. Thursday night.
He said on CNN that Biden was ‘doing just fine’ and ‘the symptoms were basically the same.’
On ABC’s Good Morning America, Jha pushed back that Biden’s age could make fighting the virus more problematic.
‘He is about as well-protected for this virus as possible,’ Jha answered, pointing to the four COVID vaccine shots the president has had, on top of his prescription for the antiviral, Paxlovid.
Perhaps Dr. O’Connor will join Jha today during the White House press briefing. In the meantime, O’Connor did release a statement about Biden’s condition today through the White House.
“President Biden completed his first full day of PAXLOVID last night. His symptoms have improved. He did mount a temperature yesterday evening to 99.4 degrees F, which responded favorably to acetaminophen (TYLENOL). His temperature has remained normal since then. His symptoms remain characterized as rhinorrhea (‘runny nose’) and fatigue, with an occasional non-productive, now ‘loose’ cough. His voice is deeper this morning. His pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate and oxygen saturation remain entirely normal, on room air,” Dr. O’Connor released in a letter.
“The President is tolerating treatment well. We will continue PAXLOVID as planned. His symptoms will be treated supportively with oral hydration, acetaminophen (TYLENOL), and the albuterol inhaler that he uses as needed,” he continued. “His apixaban (ELIQUIS) and rosuvastatin (Crestor) are being held during PAXLOVID treatment for several days after his last dose. During this time, it is reasonable to add low dose aspirin as an alternative type of blood thinner.”
Biden is old and frail, despite him trying to convince the public on how full of vim and vigor he is. At 79 years of age, he is in the high risk category. He has pre-existing conditions that require medication, including heart disease. He’s in pretty good shape for a man his age but he isn’t without physical issues. Dr. O’Connor mentioned in the letter to KJP that Biden has been twice vaccinated and twice boosted (as though she didn’t know that) and that was for public consumption. It is supposed to reassure everyone that the old man is going to be ok. Hey, remember when Biden declared that this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated? Good times, good times.
I suppose the lesson being presented by the White House is that Biden, because he is vaccinated and boosted, is able to carry on with his work as he isolates. The idea is to not make Biden’s illness look like yet another crisis for this administration. That is the last thing Biden’s administration needs – another crisis.
“The president does what every other person in America does every day, which is he takes reasonable precautions against COVID but does his job,” White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain told MSNBC late in the afternoon on Thursday.
It was all part of an administration effort to shift the narrative from a health scare to a display of Biden as the personification of the idea that most Americans can get COVID and recover without too much suffering and disruption if they’ve gotten their shots and taken other important steps to protect themselves.
The message was crafted to alleviate voters’ concerns about Biden’s health — at 79, he’s the oldest person ever to be president. And it was aimed at demonstrating to the country that the pandemic is far less of a threat than it was before Biden took office, thanks to widespread vaccines and new therapeutic drugs.
Unfortunately for the president, his diversity hire of a press secretary is really bad at her job.
In a lengthy briefing with reporters, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said repeatedly that the White House had been as transparent as possible about the president’s health. But she parried with reporters over specifics. And when pressed about where Biden might have contracted the virus, she responded, “I don’t think that that matters, right? I think what matters is we prepared for this moment.”
Jean-Pierre and White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha didn’t fully answer questions about whether Biden began isolating as soon as he started experiencing symptoms on Wednesday night, as federal guidelines suggest, or did so following his positive test the next day. Jha declined to speculate on some aspects of the president’s prognosis, characterizing the questions as hypotheticals.
No one buys the transparency schtick. And, with whom the president has been in contact is, indeed, very important. Good heavens. Take, for instance, Kamala. She is considered one who had contact with Biden and yet she is going along her merry way, keeping her schedule and apparently not following CDC guidelines. Jill Biden is going to Delaware as she does most weekends. What about those people Biden was with in his trip to Massachusetts for that stupid photo op? The one where he said he had oil cancer, or something.
It’s good that Biden’s symptoms are mild, at least so far. It’s likely because of the vaccines made available by Trump’s Operation Warp Speed. Biden’s bout with COVID is much easier than Trump’s. Trump didn’t have the advantage of the vaccines available.
I wish him a speedy recovery for the sake of the country. And, I sure don’t want President Kamala Harris.
President Biden continued working from the White House this morning, including speaking by phone with his national security team. pic.twitter.com/jdQkoDtupR
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) July 22, 2022
Discussion about this post