President Donald Trump’s doctors said during a press briefing on Oct. 3, that the president is being administered remdesivir, a drug trialed in the Bronx to treat patients with COVID-19, as a joint research initiative by Montefiore Health System and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

 

Einstein/Montefiore was the first New York site to take part in what is an ongoing international drug treatment study. The first iteration of the Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial (ACTT) began in various locations on Feb. 21, though candidate recruitment only began in the Bronx in March. Remdesivir is described as an investigational, broad-spectrum antiviral drug, and was discovered and developed by Gilead Sciences, Inc, of Foster City, California.

 

Researchers involved in the trial, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, a senior member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, announced on April 29 that they were cautiously optimistic about the study’s Phase I findings regarding the drug’s ability to reduce recovery time among patients being treated for COVID-19 and, in particular, its potential to help people who have serious lung complications as a result of the coronavirus.

 

Following that announcement, as reported by Norwood News, on Friday, May 1, the Trump administration announced emergency use authorization of remdesivir for the treatment of suspected or laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 in adults and children hospitalized with severe disease. The issuance of an emergency use authorization is different from general FDA approval. NBC reported on Oct. 3 that the president’s doctors had to request special approval to treat him with the drug.

 

The second iteration of the trial (ACTT 2) began on May 8 to evaluate the safety and efficacy of remdesivir, plus the anti-inflammatory drug baricitinib for treating hospitalized adults with COVID-19.

 

The drug trial is sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). The institute announced on Aug. 5 that the third iteration of the trial, ACTT 3, is underway and is evaluating the safety and efficacy of a treatment regimen consisting of remdesivir, plus the immunomodulator interferon beta-1a in COVID-19 patients. The New York Times reported in mid August that results of Phase 2 were still being evaluated. Phase 3 is estimated to be completed on Nov. 1, 2023.

 

Speaking outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington D.C., where the president is a patient, his doctors said he is not receiving hydroxychloroquine, and neither has he been placed in the prone position (a position whereby patients are occasionally placed face down to assist the ability of the lungs to function). They also confirmed that he is not currently receiving oxygen.

 

His medical team said that on Thursday, he had a fever and a slight cough and was run down. In response to a question about what other conditions, other than his weight, might make the president more vulnerable to the coronavirus, his doctors said that other than being 74, male, and slightly overweight, he was generally healthy.

 

They added that he was in good spirits, his vitals were not a cause for concern but were being monitored and that he was up and walking around on Saturday, Oct. 3. Asked by a reporter why it was deemed necessary to admit him to hospital, Dr. Sean P. Conley responded, “Because he is the president of the United States.”

 

Later on Oct. 3, the president tweeted out a video updating the public on his status, and giving his thanks to both his medical team and to well wishers.

pic.twitter.com/gvIPuYtTZG

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 3, 2020

 

On Oct. 4, the president’s doctors, at an additional press briefing, said that he was being given a steroid, that he did receive supplemental oxygen on Friday, his blood-oxygen levels had dipped on occasion, but that if he continues to improve, he may be discharged on Oct. 5.