Biden still Covid-positive but feeling OK, doctor says
Washington, Jul 31 (EFE).- President Joe Biden continued to test positive for Covid-19 on Sunday after the White House announced the day before that another test had confirmed that he is still suffering from the disease, his doctor, Kevin O’Connor, said in a statement released by the White House.
The president, however, “continues to feel well” and is working from his residence even as he continues to isolate so that he does not infect others, O’Connor said.
The president’s personal physician said that the president “unsurprisingly” tested positive on Sunday because of the fact that he had tested positive on Saturday, adding that he is experiencing no symptoms.
“The president will continue his strict isolation measures,” O’Connor said, but “he will continue to conduct the business of the American people from the executive residence.”
The White House announced on July 21 that Biden had contracted Covid-19 and on July 27 he emerged from isolation after testing negative the day before.
However, although he had tested negative for four consecutive days, on Saturday, an antigen test showed that the coronavirus was still present within his body.
O’Connor attributed the positive test result to the effects of the oral anti-retroviral Paxlovid, which Biden had taken for five days to help control the symptoms of the disease.
According to the doctor, the anti-Covid pill can have a “rebound positivity” effect such as the 79-year-old Biden is experiencing.
The president has already received the two-dose regimen of anti-Covid shots along with two booster shots.
US health authorities in May acknowledged that Paxlovid, manufactured by Pfizer, can cause a “rebound” effect but they continue recommending its use for adults and children over age 12 when those patients are at risk of suffering complications from Covid-19.
The “rebound” effect can arise between two and eight days after a person initially recovers from Covid and manifests itself with the reappearance of symptoms and/or a positive test result, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Website.
Given that the virus is still present within Biden, the White House has postponed two trips he had scheduled in the coming days, one of them to his home state of Delaware and the other to Michigan.
In addition, Biden had to postpone meeting on Saturday with a group of war veterans who are protesting outside the Capitol because Republican lawmakers last week blocked the approval of a bill that would have provided help to those of them who were exposed to toxic agents during their military service.
“Covid got in the way,” Biden said Sunday on Twitter.
Instead of meeting with the veterans in person, the president spoke with them via FaceTime and asked Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough to have pizzas delivered to them.
On Twitter, Biden posted a video in which he is seen speaking with the group via FaceTime. He appears in the video seated on a sofa at the White House wearing a blue cap bearing the presidential seal.
EFE bpm/jrh/bp
