Dr say they are giving Trump dexamethasone so
@Jon is this little bit I found on Reddit accurate in its assessment of what this implies...or is it not unusual for someone to get this treatment....
"Now Dr. Conley is saying they gave Trump dexamethasone, which would seem to indicate that his case is not so mild. The RECOVERY trial of dexamethasone in covid patients found benefits only in patients on ventilation or receiving supplemental oxygen, and the WHO recommends against using corticosteroids to treat covid patients who are not severely ill. So either Trump's doing worse than they're letting on, or they're just giving him everything they can think of and hoping something works."
Unusual if you’re to believe he’s mild. Not unusual if his condition has worsened and he’s in the 7-12 day window and not the 4 day window.
Dexamethasone is not appropriate for a mild case. Giving steroids too early in treatment and to patients who are “mild” is reckless, medically speaking. I have to assume these doctors wouldn’t just throw it in there to add it to the kitchen sink if they didn’t have a good reason. It’s only used when there is an inflammatory condition present and they need to lower the inflammation in the tissues. This is no doubt inflammation of the lungs, in the setting of pneumonia most likely. Either he has trouble breathing, lung scan findings and/or O2 saturation issues (ie. coughing fits that drop his O2 sats low and take longer than normal to recover)
Now that’s not to say he’s in grave danger or dying. All this tells us is his condition isn’t as mild as they’re letting on, but it doesn’t mean he’s hooked up to IVs and bed bound. He can take dexamethasone orally, and he could still not be requiring much supplemental oxygen at all.
People are treated with steroids and breathing treatment and sent home on steroids all the time with pneumonia in the outpatient setting. The issue is here is that it’s in the setting of a Covid hospitalization, and considering his age and obesity, the trend seems to be in the wrong direction.
Dexamethasone is not prednisone. It’s longer acting and more potent. They wouldn’t just give it to him because he has Covid, they are giving it to him *in response* to objective findings...as the doctor said in the press conference, his O2 levels dropped twice. When asked if it dropped below 94, Dr Conley replied that it “wasn’t in the low 80s”...which is odd. He’s essentially saying Trump isn’t severely hypoxic but he’s not denying he’s had issues.
The RECOVERY trial is available to anyone who wants to read the data for dexamethasone in the setting of covid. The trial actually found that giving dexamethasone too early to mild patients actually INCREASED mortality rates.
But in the setting of O2 requirement, decreased mortality slightly. This is Trump’s group.
No one knows the true status of the president’s condition because we don’t have a live patient chart we can dig through. But the fact that they started dexamethasone doesn’t make me confident he’s discharged tomorrow. Even in a perfect outcome, he’d need additional monitoring...and while some of that can be done at the WH, there’s NO reason for an early discharge unless you’re confident his condition can’t worsen...and we’re not there yet. The last thing they want to do is actually have to medevac him in an actual emergency back to the hospital.
