Oct. 11 (UPI) — Twitter on Sunday flagged a tweet in which President Donald Trump claimed he was now “immune” to COVID-19 after receiving treatment for the virus.
The social media platform hid the president’s tweet behind a warning, stating that it “violated Twitter rules about spreading misleading and potentially harmful information” related to the coronavirus that has sickened 7.7 million Americans and killed 214,690 more.
“A total and complete sign off from White House Doctors yesterday. That means I can’t get it (immune), and can’t give it. Very nice to know!!!” Trump wrote in the tweet.
Trump’s tweet referenced a memo by his personal physician Dr. Sean Conley in which he said the president met Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria to safely emerge from isolation and is “no longer considered a transmission risk to others” but made no mention of immunity from the virus. The White House has also not confirmed whether Trump has tested negative since contracting the coronavirus.
The president also claimed immunity on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures saying he could be safe from contracting the virus “maybe a long time, maybe a short time, could be a lifetime” adding it was unclear how much immunity can be expected after recovery.
In the same interview, Trump again praised the staff at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center where he received three days of treatment for COVID-19 stating that the treatments he received were standard and “pretty routine.”
Trump’s treatment, however, included an experimental antibody cocktail from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals known as REGEN-COV2.
The president has since touted the treatment as a “cure” for the coronavirus, although Regeneron CEO Dr. Leonard Schleifer told CBS News’ Face the Nation Sunday that Trump’s experience was “a case report” and represented the “weakest evidence that you can get” of the drug’s effectiveness.
“The real evidence has to come — about how good a drug is and what it will do on average — has to come from these large clinical trials, these randomized clinical trials, which are the gold standard,” Schleifer said.
Following his doctor’s clearance, Trump is set to hold a rally in Sanford, Fla., on Monday after making his first post-COVID public appearance in a campaign-style rally on the White House South Lawn on Saturday.
Dr. Sean Conley, in a letter Saturday night, said he will “continue to monitor him clinically as he returns to an active schedule.”
The Trump campaign has also launched a new campaign ad praising Trump for overcoming the virus and his administration for its handling of the pandemic, which contains a clip from an interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci in which he says, I can’t imagine that anybody could be doing more,” in reference to the administration’s pandemic response.
However, Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN he did not consent to participate in the ad and the quote was not shown in the appropriate context.
“In my nearly five decades of public service, I have never publicly endorsed any political candidate. The comments attributed to me without my permission in the GOP campaign ad were taken out of context from a broad statement I made months ago about the efforts of federal public health officials,” he said.
The quote originates from a March Fox News interview in which Fauci described the White House Coronavirus Task Force’s consistent efforts to respond to the virus, including numerous White Hous meetings and late-night phone calls.
Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh defended the inclusion of the quote.
“These are Dr. Fauci’s own words. The video is from a nationally broadcast television interview in which Dr. Fauci was praising the work of the Trump administration. The words spoken are accurate, and directly from Dr. Fauci’s mouth,” he said.
