[The Soup Nazi]

(cont'd)

Afternoon

About 12 noon — In an email sent to reporters, the White House pool reporter traveling with the president passes along a statement that is attributed to “a source familiar with the president’s health” that says: “The president’s vitals over the last 24 hours were very concerning and the next 48 hours will be critical in terms of his care. We’re still not on a clear path to a full recovery.” It was later disclosed that the anonymous source was White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

About 1:50 p.m. — The White House releases a statement from Conley that seeks to address the confusion about when the president was diagnosed and when treatment began.

“This morning while summarizing the President’s health, I incorrectly used the term ‘seventy-two hours’ instead of ‘day three’ and ‘forty eight hours’ instead of ‘day two’ with regard to his diagnosis and the administration of the polyclonal antibody therapy,” he says. “The President was first diagnosed with COVID-19 on the evening of Thursday, October 1st and had received Regeneron’s antibody cocktail on Friday, October 2nd.”

Evening

6:51 p.m. — Trump speaks to the public for the first time since being hospitalized in a four-minute video that he posts on Twitter. “I came here, wasn’t feeling so well. I feel much better now,” he says. “We’re working hard to get me all the way back.”

9:08 p.m. — The White House releases a statement from Conley that says the president had made “substantial progress.”

“This evening he completed his second dose of Remdesivir without complication,” Conley says. “He remains fever-free and off supplemental oxygen with a saturation level between 96 and 98% all day.” Conley’s statement does not clarify if the president had been on oxygen.

Sunday, Oct. 4

Morning

Shortly before noon — Conley and other doctors treating Trump give a press briefing. Conley says that “the president has experienced two episodes of transient drops in his oxygen saturation,” indicating Trump’s lungs may be compromised. As a result, the president began to take dexamethasone, a steroid drug.

Conley also discloses for the first time that the president had received supplemental oxygen on Friday, for about an hour. “Late Friday morning, when I returned to the bedside, president had a high fever and his oxygen saturation was transiently dipping below 94%. Given these two developments, I was concerned for possible rapid progression of the illness,” Conley says. “I recommended the president we try some supplemental oxygen, see how he’d respond.”

Asked why he failed to disclose earlier that the president had received supplemental oxygen, Conley says: “I was trying to reflect the upbeat attitude that the team, the president, that his course of illness has had. I didn’t want to give any information that might steer the course of illness in another direction and in doing so, it came off that we were trying to hide something, which wasn’t necessarily true.”

When asked if Trump had received oxygen a second time, Conley suggests that the answer is no, but he isn’t definitive. “I’d have to check with the nursing staff. If he did, it was very, very limited,” he says, emphasizing that Trump was not on oxygen then and the only oxygen that Conley ordered had been on Friday morning.

The addition of dexamethasone to the president’s regimen is particularly curious, as the drug is not recommended for patients who are not on supplemental oxygen.

The RECOVERY trial in the U.K., which established the drug had a mortality benefit in hospitalized patients who were ventilated or on supplemental oxygen, did not find a benefit — and identified possible harm — in providing the drug to those who were not on oxygen at the time of randomization.

This had led some physicians to speculate that Trump’s condition might be worse than what has been shared with the public, or that Trump might be receiving very aggressive treatment, which may not necessarily benefit him.

Conley also refuses to provide specifics on other information that would get at Trump’s medical condition.

When asked about what X-rays or CT scans show, and whether there are signs of pneumonia or lung damage, Conley responds vaguely, “We’re tracking all of that. There’s some expected findings, but nothing of any major clinical concern.”

“Expected findings,” some doctors say, likely means some signs of lung damage — or at least enough concern to initiate the dexamethasone. As Vanderbilt University infectious disease expert Dr. William Schaffner told ABC News, Trump’s oxygen levels and CT scan results are “undoubtedly what targeted physicians’ decision to add dexamethasone.”

Afternoon

5:16 p.m. — Trump posts a short video on Twitter. “We’re getting great reports from the doctors,” he says.

About 5:20 p.m. — Trump briefly leaves Walter Reed in a presidential motorcade to visit and wave to supporters outside before returning to the hospital. At least two Secret Service members, wearing what appeared to be N95 masks, were inside the enclosed vehicle with the president, who wore a mask. While the White House said the trip had been “cleared” by the medical team, some experts, including a physician at Walter Reed, considered the excursion unnecessarily risky for his security detail.

Monday, October 5

Afternoon

2:37 p.m. — Trump tweets: “I will be leaving the great Walter Reed Medical Center today at 6:30 P.M. Feeling really good! Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life. … I feel better than I did 20 years ago!”

About 3:10 p.m. — Conley, the president’s physician, and others on the president’s medical team give an update on Trump’s health and his scheduled return to the White House. “Though he may not entirely be out of the woods yet, the team and I agree that all our evaluations — and most importantly his clinical status — support the president’s safe return home,” Conley says.

Dooley says the president’s temperature on the morning of Oct. 5 was 98.1 degrees. Conley says the president has not received fever reducing medication for the last 72 hours.

Conley declines to discuss some details, such as the date of the president’s last negative test. Conley also would not share any information on the president’s viral load or possible lung damage. He would only say that the supplemental oxygen wasn’t required and the president wasn’t short of breath when it was administered, which happened twice. “It was more of us trying to anticipate needs and see how he’d respond,” he says, adding it was given for a short period of time.