More COVID-19 Cases in White House and Campaign.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.</s>NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello, everyone, I'm Natalie Allen. You are watching CNN live from Atlanta. We begin this hour with the breaking news in the United States, President Donald Trump now hospitalized with COVID-19 and a growing number of his allies testing positive for the disease as well. Mr. Trump spent Friday night at Walter Reed military hospital in Maryland, an extremely rare event for a sitting president. According to the White House physician, he's doing well, does not need supplemental oxygen and has begun remdesivir therapy. But an adviser says the president is very tired and having some trouble breathing. Mr. Trump put out this upbeat message after his arrival.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I want to thank everybody for the tremendous support. I'm going to Walter Reed hospital. I think I'm doing very well but we're going to make sure that things work out. The first lady is doing very well. So thank you very much. I appreciate it. I will never forget it. Thank you.</s>ALLEN: We're now getting a glimpse of just how far the virus has spread within the president's inner circle. Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien has recently tested positive for the virus as well as former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway. She tweeted the news, saying she has mild symptoms and has begun to quarantine. Conway was at the crowded Supreme Court nomination event at the White House last Saturday, along with senators Mike Lee and Thom Tillis, who also tested positive. They're among at least six people diagnosed with COVID-19 after attending the ceremony, including the president and first lady, who was there in the front row. Some doctors say it looks like a possible super spreader event. Let's go to our White House correspondent, Boris Sanchez, right now. He is live from Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, as we continue to stay on top of what we're learning. What is the latest you're hearing about the president's condition? How much are they saying?</s>BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Natalie. They're really not giving us much information. But we are learning more in the last few hours about the combination of medications that the president is being administered. For one, he's taking this experimental cocktail of drugs called Regeneron in combination with remdesivir, a known antiviral drug. Both of those approved by the FDA to treat the symptoms of coronavirus. And what we've heard from the White House physician is that the president is in good spirits, that this trip to Walter Reed Medical Center is largely out of an abundance of caution. What we've heard is that the president has a low-grade fever, that he's had some difficulty breathing, as noted, some congestion and is experiencing fatigue. From what we've heard from sources close to the president, he was spooked when he got this diagnose and about the speed of the onset of symptoms. Of course, the concern for those around the president is that this virus can very quickly become much more serious. As we saw with the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, initially he had mild symptoms and then days later he wound up in the intensive care unit. So there is some concern, especially for those around the president who are watching. Officials at the White House press that was near the president and Republican senators, as you noted, also tested positive for COVID-19. Notably, all campaign events that were scheduled to be held have been postponed or canceled, a very stark contrast with what we saw as confidence just a few days ago, when the president was holding these rallies with thousands and thousands of supporters, many of them not wearing masks, not social distancing. Now a very different image from the White House, especially given what we saw last night, when we saw almost all White House officials wearing masks at different points, especially when they were waving goodbye to the president as he boarded Marine One and came here to the White House (sic). Really a somber moment for officials at the White House who even, just days ago, privately were questioning things like the efficacy of masks and the wisdom of medical experts that we've heard from over and over again, who have urged the public to follow simple CDC guidelines -- Natalie.</s>ALLEN: All right. We hope in the coming hours to get an update on his condition. Boris Sanchez there at Walter Reed Medical Center, thank you, Boris. I'm joined now by Dr. Jorge Rodriguez, an internal medicine and viral specialist. Doctor, thank you so much for coming on.</s>DR. JORGE RODRIGUEZ, INTERNAL MEDICINE AND VIRAL SPECIALIST: My pleasure.</s>ALLEN: Well, this is what we know about President Trump. He made a short video in the afternoon and then he walked to Marine One to go to the hospital. So we know little about his condition, although we have heard that he does have a fever and he's feeling fatigued. How do you take that?</s>RODRIGUEZ: Well, I take it as the fact that probably something a little bit more serious than that is going on for a few reasons. One is, in my experience with my own patients, who have had the COVID virus, it's very rare that people go from zero to 60, if you will, from being diagnosed and, within 24 hours, going to the hospital. Once you develop the fevers, you probably have been infectious, you know, on the average, four to perhaps six days. And there are a lot of things that bring up some red flags that basically -- that basically tell us that something more serious is going on. For example, the fact that they gave him an experimental medication; that usually is not done until the patient is almost toward the end and there are no other recourses to take. And the fact that he's going to a hospital where there's an ICU or many ICU settings just tells me they are really cautious at best and concerned at worst.</s>ALLEN: Tell us more about this experimental drug, Regeneron. It's not yet even approved by the</s>FDA. RODRIGUEZ: The company is Regeneron. I don't know even if they have a name for this, but it is what's called a monoclonal antibody. It actually has two of them in there. It says that people were willing to take some risks with the president's health because, first of all, this is the president of the United States. And you are using a drug that, even though it looks promising in a very small study, we are not sure of what the potential side effects could be. They could have been life threatening. This could have actually been a death blow to the president. Nobody knew. But they were willing to take that risk. Obviously, the president in the past has been very cavalier about recommending and championing certain non-prescribable medications, if you will. So maybe it was just his personality that urged them to use this. But the fact that they went right toward this experimental drug, that, to me, was a red flag.</s>ALLEN: That's interesting, too. The other red flags -- talk about his age and the fact that he is overweight.</s>RODRIGUEZ: Well, those are two factors that contribute highly as to the potential risks that he is going to face with this virus. People of his age have a 3 percent risk factor of dying from coronavirus, which is much higher than the general population. Obesity has been found to be one of the risk factors, along with diabetes and high blood pressure. So he has two of the largest risk factors that put him into a very risky category.</s>ALLEN: I want to ask you, too, before we go, just the bigger picture here. This is a president, who sent out mixed messaging over this virus and said, for many months, it will go away. It wasn't a big deal. It's like the flu, would not wear masks. And here -- this is where we are. What do you hope, bigger picture, hopefully, this president will be well soon, comes from this, with flu season on the way and people that feel like they don't have to wear masks or take simple precautions?</s>RODRIGUEZ: I'm so glad you asked me that because I was going to go there anyway. Because even though I don't wish anybody harm and I wish him a very speedy recovery, we cannot leave tonight without seeing and discussing what harm has been done by in president's hubris, by the fact that he knew very early on in the year that this was a dangerous virus. He knew that it was recommended to wear coverings and to separate at least six feet from other people. He knew that. But yet apparently, for political and perhaps personal gain, he went against that grain. And we must talk about the reality, that this probably cost tens of thousands of lives. I'm hoping that when he recovers from this and that he does recover from this, that there will be a change in attitude because this epidemic is not over. We are going to have a confluence of two storms coming up in the fall and in the winter. And it is more important than ever that people realize -- so I'm talking to the viewer. This is not a hoax. This virus is real. This virus doesn't care who you are, what political or religious affiliation you have.</s>RODRIGUEZ: It is the most unbiased thing in the world. And you can do something about it. You can wear a mask, you can distance from other people, you can have great hands hygiene. The government is running their own little circus, but you need to protect yourself. So, I'm hoping that people realize that it's up to them to stay healthy.</s>ALLEN: And we'll all be better for it, won't we, and the country as well. Thank you so much. We really appreciate your time and your expertise, Dr. Jorge Rodriguez. Thank you, sir.</s>RODRIGUEZ: Thank you.</s>ALLEN: Following the president's diagnosis, Joe Biden's campaign has pulled all negative TV advertisements attacking Mr. Trump. The Trump campaign says it is not doing the same. The former vice president and his wife, Jill, both tested negative Friday before returning to the campaign trail. While speaking in Michigan, the former vice president said coronavirus must be taken more seriously.</s>JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I would like to start by acknowledging, which I'm sure all of you would do, as well, sending my prayers for the health and safety of the first lady and the president of the United States after they tested positive for COVID-19. My wife, Jill, and I pray that they'll make a quick and full recovery. This is not a matter of politics. It's a bracing reminder to all of us that we have to take this virus seriously. It's not going away automatically.</s>ALLEN: Here to talk more about the campaign now is CNN's Jason Carroll, joining me live from Wilmington, Delaware. Hello to you, Jason. So it seems that Mr. Biden is not slowing down his campaign even though his opponent has come down with COVID-19.</s>JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's is correct. He did alter his campaign, though, yesterday for a little bit in that stop in Michigan. Initially he was supposed to make two campaign stops in Michigan. And he ended up making just the one. And there were some questions if he would even do that, if he would even head to Michigan, given that had shared the debate stage with the president on Tuesday night. But I spoke to a campaign official about the reasoning, about going forward with that. There were several factors that played into that. First and foremost is that the former vice president tested negative twice. He was not in close proximity to the president on that debate stage. They did not shake hands. They did not do an elbow bump or anything of that nature. And also, Biden has been very strict about wearing a mask. He's always been that way throughout this pandemic, on the campaign, off the campaign trial, very strict about wearing a mask. He talked about that yesterday when he spoke very briefly in Michigan, saying that not only is it the patriotic to do, it's about protecting yourself, it's about protecting loved ones. And so going forward, a lot of folks asking, what's the campaign going to do, given all that's going to happen? They're going to do what they've done in the past, following the science, keeping a small footprint when they're on the ground, when they're out campaigning. No rallies, no large crowds of people. So they're going to be doing in the future what they've basically been doing in the past. And an example of that is, later on today, the former vice president will be holding a virtual town hall. He'll be doing that with members of a transit union. So again, looking forward, it's going to be doing what they've been doing in the past, following the science, keeping a small footprint when they're on the ground -- Natalie.</s>ALLEN: All right, Jason Carroll, following the Biden campaign, thank you so much. We'll talk more about it in a moment. Campaign rallies and debates kind of up in the air right now because of President Trump's coronavirus diagnosis. We'll talk more about how the U.S. presidential election could now be impacted -- right after this.