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Dr. Ahmed on Trump testing positive for COVID-19: Initiation of remdesivir will most likely be focus in WH

2020-10-02 | 🔗
Dr. Qanta Ahmed, a pulmonologist who is treating COVID-19 patients, weighs in.
This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
You forget how many leaders have been affected in different ways lets bring in pulmonologist Nyu Langone and been on before Dr Ahmed. We are seeing again the president doesnt have any symptoms, little bit fatigued and mild symptoms. Does that show you? This virus is changing at all Brian. We have known all along this virus has manifestations where people are asymptomatic with the president of the United States. First of all, we wish him really a full recovery godspeed. The whole country is for our president to be fully recovered. You can guarantee the discussion in the White House will be the remdesivir which MARC Siegel Sealing mentioned, Brian, even with wild symptoms. This is the president. The goal is to bring him to pcr negative as soon as possible, not just for the confidence of the country, but the less viral burden on the patient, the better
they are going to do. Remdesivir shortens that, but also controversially, convalesce sent plasma is probably be considered in our put, it has been shown to reduce and bring people to PCR negative within seventy two hours. Now we also must be mindful and of course, Prime Minister Johnsons case. I was watching that in London im also British, when a president contracts an infection, it has different outcome than the average patient. Our president is constitutionally incredibly strong. He operates more like a 45 year old than a 74 year old. In terms of his stamina. He has no underlying co morbidities. He will naturally resolve this quickly. That would be enormous focus on his advisors in terms of his position today he may even have received some of those agents last night. I also think God forbid, when Prime Minister Johnson went to
the intensive care unit at St Marys Hospital in London. He we treat world leaders slightly different than the every man, because the stakes are so high, so we must not panic if the president is going to be moved to an area of higher monitoring, whether it be inpatient setting or intensive care setting does not necessarily mean. Is he critically ill, but we do know he will get the very best medicine he is being aggressively tested every day his infection will be detected much faster than any of my patients. He have access to the widest medication. The problem is: will people are very able to transmit infection while asymptomatic? The president has to be around the advisors around his cabinet? So it would be very important to bring him down to having no viral as quickly as possible. That will benefit his outcome too. Im very confident
I have had many patients in their 70s result. The infections at home didnt know it until they found antibodies. I dont think we should be overly focused about the presidents Age Steve. I was going to ask you if you have had any patients who had similar profiles same weight same age, so co, morbidities and you know every patient is different, but just curious about the outcome. Steve. The answer is yeah. Now, as you remember, I was in the intensive care unit at the beginning of the pandemic. Treating gravely ill people did. I thought treat people like the president, but since then im seeing patients come into my office for other reasons, exactly the same age, exactly the same body, weight, less stamina, less of a constitutional strength than the president has any of us that have been in contact with the president and his events in the past know. He has amazing, drive amazing energy and they have resolved the infection without this kind of close supervision,
and I think for the presidents, physicians, their main concern is going to be. Do we throw many things that we have at him because they may contain some risk. For instance, convalescent plasma can have an allergic reaction to that like getting a blood transfusion, the stakes are so high and it will be phenomenal. He will be quarantined for ten days, not fourteen days he will be PCR tested every day and if they can shorten that thats a tremendous boost to the country to the markets, as Stu Varney said, but also to the president, because he needs to be on the move. I would not be shocked if he also gets on camera speaks with us on video. That could all be done with people around him in personal protective equipment and he can connect with the country dry remotely, just as we are doing now with each other Ainsley. So if he is asymptomatic, when he tests positive, what are the chances he will remain asymptomatic? I dont know the exact numbers,
but they are fairly high. Many patients have infection and are completely unaware of it. If he had not been the president of the United States, if he had been a private person, he may have been unaware of his infection, gone about his business and discovered antibodies. Several months later, we see that so commonly, I think, also critically, the patient doors not have the major co morbidities that we are very worried about. He does not have organ failure. He does not have diabetes. He is not on Immunosuppress isnt, as he has even had the benefit of plaque Quinel early on which may have conferred him some protection. I wouldnt exclude that either plaque Crennel in some studies has shown the virus to enter into red blood cells. It has been unfairly vilified. The virus the president has now is not the same: the virus my patients had here in New York
City in March and April. It is a different beast. We are seeing that all around the country, even those Americans that become hospitalized at every age group, are not showing the severity of illness that we saw. The other thing that would be happening to the president may have happened. Last night already is CT scans of the chest to look to see if there are any feathery shadows to the show that the virus is having activities in the lungs which can show up very early. That may also buy decision, making im extremely confident. The president will resolve this, and in a few days we will be talking about his pcr test coming back negative and we will see the convalesce sent plasma being a center of that discussion Brian. Lastly, Dr Qhanta, if you look at the numbers, cases are up eight percent around the country. Sixteen percent around the country deaths are down significantly too around the country. Does that show we are getting better at treating had, or does that show that this is changing?
I think its both, I think we have so much more than we did in March. I think the character of the virus has changed. Remember you and I went through this in New York City. Nowhere else in the world had the manifestation of coronavirus that we had in New York with the highest number of deaths, a million population in the world. Truly numbers from China cannot be relied upon. So perhaps it was worse, but we dont seem to think so so number one we are getting better at treating it number two. It is changing in virulence. It is not as God awful as it was here in March and April. The presidents story or presidents course is going to be different than that of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who got it early on in the pandemic number two. The United States has expanded its public health security. Hospitals are standing by waiting with intensive care unit beds, as our facility at Nyu is. We are absolutely prepared. Should there be a surge we are not yet seeing it, there will be more cases in the community.
People will resolve them. They there will be outbreaks, people will resolve them. We are not going to seat same very important decision makers, policy makers, Congress, men, world leaders, we keep calm, we must be absolutely optimistic. The president is robust and the virus has a formidable foe in the presidents constitution, but I am hoping if I was in the room with his physicians, I would be arguing for the use of both those drugs as of last night in order to give him the best possible chance of eliminating the virus from the body and becoming pcr negative. That is not how I would treat anyone that would come into my office because they are into not leader of the free world thats. What makes the cases Brian cases up nationally? Eight percent deaths are down. Sixteen percent.
Transcript generated on 2020-10-17.