Trump has life-saving virus drugs reserved for friends only
'it's unethical and it shouldn't be going on.'
President Donald Trump praised the experimental drug treatment he received during a three-night hospital stay for his coronavirus infection. At the time, he also said in a videotaped message to the nation that he wants “everybody to be given the same treatment as your president because I feel great.”
Two months later, only Trump’s close friends and associates who contracted the virus have received the same COVID-19 antibodies and therapeutics, CNN reports.
“It’s wrong. It’s flat-out wrong, it’s unethical and it shouldn’t be going on,” said Art Caplan, the founding head of the Division of Medical Ethics at New York University School of Medicine. “We could make the case the President is an essential worker and we’ll bump him or her up to the top of some list. But when you have people rationing scarce drugs, antibodies, when you have people rationing beds in certain places around the country — and that’s going to continue — being a celebrity shouldn’t count. Being a highly visible politician shouldn’t count. It shouldn’t count who you’re connected to. What should count is need.”
READ MORE: Trump says contracting coronavirus was a ‘blessing from God’
More than 15 million Americans have contracted the coronavirus, and while about 7.2 million have recovered, a little under 300,000 have died from it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those infected have reportedly not benefited from the same drug treament given to the president, supplies of which are limited.
Trump seems to be uncommitted to giving the average American access to the drug cocktail afforded to him, despite saying that he wants everyone to be healthy.
“I think this was a blessing from God that I caught it. This was a blessing in disguise,” Trump said in October in a video from the White House. “I heard about this drug. I said, ‘Let me take it.’ It was my suggestion. I said, ‘Let me take it,’ and it was incredible the way it worked, incredible,” he continued.
theGrio previously reported, Trump tested positive for the virus in early October and claimed he recovered within less than a week. He departed the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center after a 3-day stay. Since then, his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has reportedly been one of several Trump associates to receive the promising COVID-19 drug therapy, as well as Ben Carson and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
“I didn’t really want to go to the hospital, and he said, ‘Don’t be stupid,'” Giuliani recalled in an interview with WABC Radio this week of his conversation with White House physician Dr. Sean Conley. “We can get it over with in three days if we send you to the hospital.”
READ MORE: Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani tests positive for COVID
Trump has called for the US Food and Drug Administration to approve the COVID-19 treatments quickly, but he has not vowed that “everybody” can receive the them for free.
While it is not fair that there is exclusivity in life-saving medicine, federal officials said the distribution of these treatments will not be easy.
“We anticipate that initially, there’ll be challenges for the health care system in administering IV infusions to infected patients,” Dr. Janet Woodcock, the head of therapeutics for the administration’s Operation Warp Speed, said at a briefing in November.
Giuliani, meanwhile, appears to have no issue with his celebrity status influencing the type of medical care he receives.
“Sometimes, when you’re a celebrity, they’re worried if something happens to you they’re going to examine it more carefully, and do everything right,” he said in his radio interview this week.
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