{"id":79926,"date":"2022-07-23T19:29:41","date_gmt":"2022-07-23T19:29:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=79926"},"modified":"2022-07-23T19:29:41","modified_gmt":"2022-07-23T19:29:41","slug":"bidens-covid-symptoms-improve-wh-says-hes-staying-busy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=79926","title":{"rendered":"Biden\u2019s COVID symptoms improve; WH says he\u2019s staying busy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"News Desk:<\/strong> COVID-19 symptoms left President Joe Biden with a raspy voice and cough as he met Friday via videoconference with his top economic team. But the president tried to strike a reassuring tone, declaring, \u201cI feel much better than I sound.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later Friday, White House officials told reporters that Biden was working more than eight hours a day. His appetite hadn\u2019t diminished \u2014 with Biden showing off an empty plate with some crumbs when speaking with his advisers \u2014 and he signed bills into law and took part in his daily intelligence briefings, albeit via phone.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHe\u2019s still doing the job of the president,\u201d White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. \u201cThat does not end.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was all part of a diligently choreographed effort by the administration to depict a commander-in-chief who had not relinquished his day job, despite testing positive for COVID-19 Thursday and being sent into isolation at the White House residence.<\/p>\n

As he beamed into a virtual meeting from the Treaty Room, Biden took off a mask and sipped water as he began discussing the decline in gas prices in recent weeks. Reporters were allowed to view a few minutes of the proceedings and, when they asked how Biden was feeling, he flashed a thumb\u2019s up \u2014 although he was audibly hoarse and coughed a handful of times.<\/p>\n

The president\u2019s doctors said his mild COVID symptoms were improving and he was responding well to treatment, as the White House worked to portray the image of a president still on the job despite his illness. Biden received his presidential daily security briefing via a secured phone call while, separately, Chinese President Xi Jinping wished Biden a \u201cspeedy recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Biden had an elevated temperature of 99.4 F on Thursday, but that went down with Tylenol, according to a new note from Dr. Kevin O\u2019Connor, the president\u2019s personal physician. Biden also used an inhaler a few times but hasn\u2019t experienced shortness of breath.<\/p>\n

The president completed his first full day of Paxlovid, the antiviral therapy treatment meant to reduce the severity of COVID, and Biden\u2019s primary symptoms were a runny nose, fatigue and a loose cough. Other metrics, such as pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate and oxygen saturation were normal, O\u2019Connor said, although the White House did not release specific figures and did not commit to doing so.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cThe president right now feels well enough to continue working, and he has continued to work at a brisk pace,\u201d White House COVID-\u206019 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha told reporters.<\/p>\n

Jha said Biden will remain in isolation in the White House living quarters for five days and then be tested anew. He plans to return to in-person work once he tests negative. As he works in isolation, the number of aides around Biden has been reduced to a \u201cvery, very small footprint,\u201d Jean-Pierre said \u2014 including a videographer and photographer who captured the images of Biden in the residence.<\/p>\n

Once Biden tested positive Thursday \u2014 after more than two years of successfully dodging the virus \u2014 the White House sprang into action, aiming to dispel any notion of a crisis and to turn his diagnosis into what Biden Chief of Staff Ron Klain said he hoped would be a \u201cteachable moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House released a photo Friday of Biden, masked and tieless, in the Treaty Room of the president\u2019s residence, on the phone with his national security advisers. After the economic team meeting, he participated in a separate discussion with senior White House advisers to discuss legislative priorities. Jha said his hoarse voice might actually be a sign that he is improving rather than the alternative.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Jean-Pierre said 17 people were determined to have been in close contact with Biden when he might have been contagious, including members of his senior staff and at least one member of Congress. None have tested positive so far, she said.<\/p>\n

One of Biden\u2019s close contacts was first lady Jill Biden. Her spokesman Michael LaRosa said she tested negative for COVID-19 on Friday morning in Wilmington, Delaware, and hasn\u2019t shown any symptoms. LaRosa said she\u2019s spoken to the president \u201cmultiple times\u201d as he remains in isolation.<\/p>\n

Another close contact was Vice President Kamala Harris, who participated in a National Urban League luncheon Friday and was spotted hugging participants, although during the event, she was seated more than six feet from others. She was masked as she headed onto the stage but took it off during the luncheon.<\/p>\n

The administration is trying to shift the narrative from a health scare to a display of Biden as the personification of the idea that most Americans can get COVID and recover without too much suffering and disruption if they\u2019ve gotten their shots and taken other important steps to protect themselves.<\/p>\n

Jha said, \u201cThis virus is going to be with us forever,\u201d as he echoed Biden\u2019s message that Americans get vaccinated and boosted.<\/p>\n

The overall message was crafted to alleviate voters\u2019 concerns about Biden\u2019s health \u2014 at 79, he\u2019s the oldest person ever to be president.<\/p>\n

Jha said Friday that it\u2019ll likely take until next week for sequencing to determine which variant of the virus Biden contracted. Omicron\u2019s highly contagious BA.5 substrain is responsible for 78% of new COVID-19 infections reported in the U.S. last week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s latest data released Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Jean-Pierre has repeatedly bristled at suggestions the Biden administration wasn\u2019t being much more forthcoming with information about the president\u2019s illness than that of his predecessor, Donald Trump. The former president contracted COVID-19 in the fall of 2020, before vaccines were available, and was hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for three nights.<\/p>\n

Still, the White House has declined to make O\u2019Connor directly available to reporters, despite repeated requests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News Desk: COVID-19 symptoms left President Joe Biden with a raspy voice and cough as he met Friday via videoconference with his top economic team. But the president tried to strike a reassuring tone, declaring, \u201cI feel much better than I sound.\u201d Later Friday, White House officials told reporters that Biden was working more than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":79927,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,5],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n