There seems to be some lingering confusion on the internet as to whether President Trump as a COVID inpatient received a monoclonal antibodies treatment (Regeneron) or remdesivir.  (While usage varies, I use a small “r” since remdesivir is the drug, VEKLURY the brand name.)  In fact, he received both, as discussed by CNN along with Fox News (“Trump tweets from hospital as doc confirms Remdesivir treatment: ‘Going well, I think!’”) The Fox story contains this letter from the White House physician, Sean Conley:

“This evening I am happy to report that the President is doing very well. He is not requiring any supplemental oxygen, but in consultation with specialists we have elected to initiate Remdesivir therapy. He has completed his first dose and is resting comfortably.”

Fox News a day later: “President Trump completes second dose of the Remdesivir drug; doc reports ‘substantial progress’.”  Here are more links on Trump taking remdesivir: NBC, USA Today, Miami Herald.

2. The fact that Trump recovered fast for an inpatient doesn’t prove it was the remdesivir.  It could have been some other ingredient in the cocktail he was taking, or maybe he recovered fast naturally.  If anecdotes are evidence, my daughter was lying in bed for a week with COVID barely able to move, on a Thursday morning she started a cocktail which included hydroxychloroquine, zinc, and ivermectin, and by Friday evening she was almost completely recovered and ate supper with the family at the dining room table. 

3. Trump’s White House physician, Sean Conley, definitely was not part of the Medical Establishment Deep State (MEDS), having earlier (to much ridicule) given Trump hydroxychloroquine as a prophylactic (which doesn’t bother me; even if it’s ineffective for this, no harm done).  As argued in my previous article, I just feel he and his medical team should have resisted the pressure to give Trump remdesivir based on the evidence available at the time.  I don’t know who those “specialists” are that he consulted, but stay away from your MEDS!

4. I was disappointed not to see ivermectin listed as part of Trump’s COVID cocktail.

5. Fauci definitely deserves blame, not only for pushing remdesivir through the approval process when he knew it was ineffective and dangerous, but also for not warning Trump or his doctors.

6. Also deserving of blame is (what Trump himself tweeted) “the great Walter Reed Medical Center” for allowing remdesivir to course through Trump’s veins in its halls during its watch, risking his life for nothing.  Shame on you, Walter Reed!

7. Not that he handled everything about COVID right, but I do feel sorry for Trump that the entire MEDS was against him.  And the entire intelligence community.  And the entire …

8. Remdesivir is still on the COVID inpatient protocol and still doing damage (and will still be there for the next coronavirus outbreak).  My neighbor around the corner, whom I had known for decades, was hospitalized with COVID in March 2023, they gave him remdesivir which caused organ damage, he was discharged a month later but was never the same, he was readmitted in July, put on a ventilator, and died shortly thereafter.

9. Much of the general public (and even many doctors who by inertia continue to rely on our public health agencies and medical organizations) still does not know about the dangers of remdesivir, in great part because it is administered mostly in the inpatient setting.  When I try to inform people, they tell me, “Come on, the public health agencies and hospitals wouldn’t go along with a treatment they know is ineffective and dangerous, and you’re not a doctor so shut up.”

W. A. Eliot is a pseudonym

Image: White House