President Donald Trump is at Walter Reed Medical Center Friday night, less than 24 hours after being diagnosed with COVID-19, and he has been given an experimental drug that’s currently being tested at Stanford Medical Center.
The clinical trials are so new that Stanford Hospital just received the drug three weeks ago.
The antibody therapeutic cocktail is supposed to help the patient’s immune system fight off a COVID-19 infection.
The drug is called Regn COV2. Regeneron, the manufacturer, said it provided a single eight-gram dose for Trump.
“He got the highest dose, which at least in the early studies appears to be very effective,” said Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, Stanford infectious disease epidemiologist.
Maldonado is the doctor who is participating in the clinical trials.
The drug is a cocktail of something called monoclonal antibodies. Since the drug is so new, there’s not much data about its long-term effectiveness.
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Maldonado and other colleagues with extensive experience treating COVID-19 patients said the president has several risk factors for serious infection, including his age, weight and cholesterol.
They’re especially concerned with how quickly his symptoms have progressed.
Just a couple of days ago, Trump did not have symptoms. By Thursday he was sick, and by Friday he had a fever and went to the hospital.
Trump, usually active on Twitter, has sent just one tweet from Walter Reed.
“Going well, I think. Thank you to all. Love,” read the tweet.
