Trump’s physician, Sean Conley, said in a White House memo that he spoke incorrectly about the timing of Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis that conflicted with the White House’s previously stated timeline.
Conley created confusion at his Walter Reed news conference when he referenced Trump’s diagnosis being 72 hours old, which would have meant Trump learned he was ill Wednesday morning. Trump did not reveal his illness until 1 a.m. Friday.
The memo, released by White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, says the doctor meant to say “day three” when referring to Trump’s diagnosis. Trump was first diagnosed with covid-19 on Thursday evening, the memo says.
The memo also seeks to correct the timing of when Trump began receiving antibody treatment. During the news conference, another physician, Brian Garibaldi, (though the memo attributes this to Conley as well) referred to giving the president the drug “48 hours ago,” but the memo says he meant “day two,” as in Friday and Saturday.
But even the memo seeking to deconflict the messy news conference gets two things incorrect, the spelling of the pharmaceutical company that makes the antibody drug Trump is taking and the name of the specific therapy.
The memo calls the drug company “Regeron,” the correct spelling is “Regeneron.” It also says the president is taking “polyclonal antibody therapy,” which a Regeneron spokeswoman says is inaccurate.
“REGN-COV2, which the president received, is a combination of two monoclonal antibodies,” said Alexandra Bowie, Regeneron spokeswoman. “This means each was produced by making identical copies, or clones, of an antibody gene in a single B cell. Polyclonal antibody refer to antibodies made by mixtures of B cells.”
Source: Washington Post
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