When he was diagnosed, President Trump was 74 years old.
Joe Biden is 79. Age, as we know, greatly increases the risk of developing a serious case of the disease.
But the first reactions to the announcement of the positive test of the two men, with otherwise very different personalities, shine by their contrast: if concern and excitement dominated for Donald Trump, the positive test of Joe Biden was greeted with much more calm, the experts underlining the reduced risks incurred today thanks to the various treatments.
-Donald Trump-
On October 2, 2020, President Donald Trump announced in an overnight tweet that he had just tested positive.
His campaign for his re-election is stopped dead.
He was admitted the same day to the Walter Reed military hospital, in the suburbs of Washington, where he remained for three nights.
At the time, fears for the health of the leader of the world's largest economy were acute.
No vaccine is yet authorized.
The White House communicates little about his condition: the medical team and the president's entourage provide vague and sometimes contradictory information.
Initially: high fever, fatigue, cough... We also know that his oxygen saturation level has dropped.
After an oxygen supply to the White House, Donald Trump received the only treatments then available at the hospital: the monoclonal antibodies of Regeneron, at the time still in experimentation, and the antiviral remdesivir, both administered intravenously.
Then dexamethasone, a corticosteroid intended for serious patients with Covid-19, which makes experts wonder if he is not in worse shape than what his doctors say.
The Republican president, who likes to demonstrate his physical endurance during long campaign meetings, makes it a point of honor not to appear weak in the face of illness.
He stages himself at work, from the hospital.
Donald Trump greets his supporters outside the Walter Reed military hospital in the suburbs of Washington on October 4, 2020 ALEX EDELMAN AFP / Archives
Mr. Trump even wants to go out to greet his supporters massed around the establishment, by taking a very controversial car tour, in contradiction with the recommendations for isolation.
On October 5, Donald Trump finally returned to the White House by helicopter, during a memorable sequence showing him removing his mask from the balcony of his residence, in a sign of defiance.
About the virus, he says in a video posted online: "Don't let it dominate you. Don't be afraid of it."
Joe Biden
The announcement of Joe Biden's positive test was made on Thursday by official press release, immediately stating that his symptoms were "very mild".
“A daily update” on his condition is promised, and he remains in solitary confinement at the White House.
He is fully vaccinated, and received two booster doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
He also immediately started taking Paxlovid, an antiviral treatment in the form of pills taken daily for five days, which reduces the ability of the virus to replicate, thus slowing the progression of the disease.
“With the availability of modern treatments, vaccines, and expert care, (Joe Biden) is at considerably lower risk than during the early days of Covid-19,” former CEO Scott Gottlieb tweeted Thursday. United States Medicines Agency (FDA).
The currently circulating Omicron variant also replicates more in the upper airways (nose, throat) than in the lungs, where severe forms of Covid-19 develop.
The reaction is also not really surprising, the announcement sounding more like something that had to happen one day or another.
The case of Joe Biden, who unlike his predecessor vigorously advocated measures such as wearing a mask, thus illustrates the now accepted idea that Covid-19 can affect everyone when, in 2020, some still considered that people catching the virus were simply not taking enough precautions.
A guilt that has no reason to be, underline the experts.
© 2022 AFP