Trump ready for 1st rally since contracting coronavirus
Published:Monday | October 12, 2020 | 4:34 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) — Just a week after his release from the hospital, President Donald Trump is returning to the campaign trail Monday for the first time since contracting the coronavirus as he tries to stage a late comeback in the election’s final stretch.
Trump, facing a stubborn deficit in national and battleground state polling, will be headlining a rally in Sanford, Florida — the first stop in a busy week that will include events in Pennsylvania, Iowa, North Carolina, and Wisconsin.
The robust schedule underscores the work Trump needs to do as he tries to win over voters just three weeks before Election Day.
And it comes amid still-unanswered questions about the impact so much travel so soon could have on the 74-year-old president’s health.
The progression of COVID-19 is often unpredictable, and there can be long-term complications.
But Trump, eager to return to campaigning, has proclaimed himself cured and says he is now “immune” to the virus — claims that are impossible to prove given limitations in what scientists know about the coronavirus.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, said Monday on CNN that those who recover from COVID-19 are likely to be immune for a limited period of time, but there are cases emerging of people getting reinfected weeks or months later.
Fauci, speaking as Trump was prepared to depart the White House for Florida, questioned the wisdom of holding such an event.
He noted that test positivity rates are climbing in parts of the Sun Belt.
“We know that that is asking for trouble when you do that,” Fauci said.
In a memo released over the weekend, Trump’s doctor, Navy Commander Sean Conley, said the president met Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria for safely discontinuing isolation.
He said that by “currently recognised standards,” he was no longer considered a transmission risk.
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