Biden recovering well from COVID, his doctor says
President Joe Biden’s symptoms have “almost resolved completely” after testing positive for COVID-19 last Wednesday, according to a White House press release.
After completing his tenth dose of the antiviral Paxlovid, his pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate and temperature remain normal, his doctor, Kevin O’Connor, said in the release. His oxygen saturation is “excellent” in room air and his lungs remain clear. All those are markers of recovery and general health.
O’Connor said Biden continues to perform his presidential duties, though he has canceled all public appearances since Wednesday and the White House has not yet said when he will resume them.
The update comes a day after the president made the unprecedented announcement that he would drop his bid for reelection, amid doubts about his age and health. On Sunday, he announced that he would leave the race and would instead support his vice president, Kamala Harris, as his successor.
Older adults are typically at relatively high risk for developing severe disease from COVID-19, but health experts had predicted that his stellar vaccination record and prompt treatment with Paxlovid would most likely lead to a full recovery from the immediate infection. Older people are also at higher risk for longer-term symptoms, known as long COVID, which can include fatigue, brain fog and breathlessness.
This is the president’s second bout with COVID-19. He was infected almost exactly two years ago, in July 2022.
Biden has been in generally good health, according to O’Connor’s medical reports, with his most recent annual physical in February.
But his performance in the first televised debate against Republican nominee and former president Donald Trump was disastrous late last month, with Biden sounding frail and sometimes struggling to finish sentences. Combined with his stiff gait, which O’Connor has dismissed as not getting worse, led some to speculate that the presidents health was declining.
O’Connor had released a statement earlier this month saying the neurologist whose visits to the White House were recorded in official logs treated many patients there and had not seen the president outside of his annual physicals.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that people with active COVID-19 or other respiratory infections stay home and away from others for at least 24 hours after both symptoms improve and temperature returns to normal without medication. Even people who continue to test positive are believed to shed very little virus after that point.
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