By Peter Baker and Maggie Haberman

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump was hospitalized Friday (2) after learning he had the coronavirus and experiencing what aides called coughing, congestion and fever, throwing the nation’s leadership into uncertainty and destabilizing an already volatile campaign only 32 days before the election.

Trump was flown to Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre after being given an experimental antibody treatment as the White House rushed to cope with a commander in chief infected by a virus that has killed more than 208,000 people in the United States. Officials said he would remain in the hospital for several days and cancelled upcoming campaign events.

The White House shrouded Trump’s condition in secrecy, saying little more than that he had “mild symptoms”,  and officials characterized the hospital stay as a precautionary measure. But the normally voluble president remained almost entirely out of public view, skipped a telephone call with governors at the last minute and uncharacteristically stayed off Twitter nearly all day while people close to the situation said his fever and other symptoms worsened as the hours wore on.

“I want to thank everybody for the tremendous support,” Trump, wearing a suit and tie but appearing unusually pale and lethargic, said in an 18-second video taped just before getting on the Marine One helicopter and then posted on Twitter in his first public comment of the day. “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.”

Trump donned a black face mask and emerged from the White House shortly after 6:00 p.m., giving a perfunctory thumbs-up to reporters without stopping to speak as he walked unassisted to the helicopter. He was accompanied by Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, who was also wearing a mask.

The hospital trip was an abrupt change in plans after Vice President Mike Pence had told governors earlier in the day that the president would remain at the White House. One administration official said it would be better for Trump to leave on his own while he still could rather than risk getting sicker and having the image of being taken out of the White House with assistance. If he gets better, the official said, the Walter Reed stay will have been inconsequential politically.

Dr. Sean Conley, the White House physician, said in a statement that Trump, while still at the White House, received a single 8-gram dose of polyclonal antibody combination drug while also taking zinc, vitamin D, melatonin, aspirin and famotidine, a heartburn medicine. But Walter Reed has equipment that would allow better monitoring of his condition and a quick response if he has trouble breathing or experiences other symptoms.

Hours later, shortly before midnight, Conley said in a new statement that Trump was “doing very well” and “not requiring any supplemental oxygen,” but was put on remdesivir, an antiviral drug that has hastened the recovery of some coronavirus patients.

Around the same time, Trump, in his first tweet of the day other than the video, which may have been posted by his staff on his account, wrote, “Going well, I think! Thank you to all. LOVE!!!”

The president’s illness touched off a cascade of concern, suspicion, calculation and recrimination in response to a president hospitalized with a potentially life-threatening health condition for the first time in nearly 40 years. The White House was left in a state of shock while the capital pondered what-if scenarios in case the situation worsens.

The sudden development could have unforeseen consequences. It could on the one hand complicate Trump’s drive to confirm a new Supreme Court justice before the election Nov. 3 while giving new impetus to long-stalled talks for another round of coronavirus relief spending, according to officials.

The first lady, Melania Trump, and the president’s close adviser Hope Hicks were also infected, as was Ronna McDaniel, the Republican National Committee chair, who was last with Trump a week ago on Sept. 25, and Bill Stepien, the president’s campaign manager, who was with him at Tuesday’s (Sept 29) debate.

But the rest of Trump’s family tested negative, as did Pence, Meadows, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Attorney General William Barr and other senior officials who are regularly in proximity to the president.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the president’s Democratic challenger who was on a debate stage with Trump on Tuesday, tested negative Friday. Biden said he sent his prayers for a speedy recovery while also implicitly faulting the president for a casual and even reckless approach to the virus.

“This is not a matter of politics,” Biden said at a gathering in Grand Rapids, Michigan, while wearing a mask. “It is a bracing reminder for all of us that we must take this virus seriously. It is not going away. We must all do our part to be responsible. That means following the science, listening to experts.”

Trump by his own admission has played down the severity of the virus, repeatedly declaring that it would vanish on its own; pressuring schools, businesses and sports leagues to reopen; disputing the warnings of his own public health experts; and questioning the effectiveness of face masks. He defied health guidelines by hosting campaign rallies and other events crowded with supporters who mostly did not wear masks or maintain social distance. Only hours before his own positive test, Trump insisted in a speech that “the end of the pandemic is in sight.”

No one could say for sure when the president was infected, but the White House medical unit was focused on his ceremony in the Rose Garden last Saturday (Sept 26) where he announced his nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett for the Supreme Court, an event where many officials and guests mingled without masks and without keeping distance.

Several guests and reporters who were present or travelled with the president on Air Force One later that evening tested positive, including Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah; Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C.; the Rev. John I. Jenkins, president of University of Notre Dame; Kellyanne Conway, the president’s former counsellor; and Michael Shear, a White House correspondent for The New York Times. Barrett had previously recovered from the coronavirus.

Trump is the latest world leader to become infected. Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain was so sick that he had to be hospitalized before later recovering. Prince Charles likewise contracted the virus, as have the leaders of Brazil, Honduras, Guatemala and Bolivia. But Trump has repeatedly brushed off concerns about his health, telling advisers that the coronavirus is a roll of the dice.

While the virus is much deadlier than the ordinary flu, the vast majority of people infected by it recover, especially if there is no underlying condition, but the threat climbs with age. At 74, Trump is in the most vulnerable category, with the risk increased because of his weight, which is categorized as obese. Eight out of every 10 deaths attributed to the virus in the United States have been among those 65 and older.

Trump is aware of those numbers and long said that older Americans were more at risk. For all his public dismissal of the coronavirus, advisers said Trump has been haunted by the death of a New York friend from his business days, Stanley Chera, 78, who went into the hospital with the coronavirus and never came out.

Dr. David Nace, a geriatrics expert and director of medical affairs at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre’s network of 35 nursing facilities, said in an interview Friday that people who do not wear masks are exposed to higher concentrations of the virus, which can worsen the course of the disease.

About 5% to 15% of men in their mid-70s die from the virus, Nace said, although Trump will obviously benefit from excellent medical care and from the increased knowledge about how to treat patients. “My big fear is that he probably had a greater exposure,” Nace said. “Right now, he’s doing fine, but we’re early in this, and if that’s the case, we really have to watch him in the next two weeks.”

Even assuming Trump recovers quickly, it could be weeks before he is able to return to a full public life, calling into question the future of his already-faltering campaign for a second term. Trailing Biden by a significant margin in most polls, the president had been trying to change the subject from the pandemic, a goal that may now prove even more elusive.

The Trump campaign cancelled the president’s plans to attend rallies in Florida on Friday, Wisconsin on Saturday (3) and Arizona on Monday (5) and likewise scrapped in-person events featuring Trump’s family. Pence, however, will return to the campaign trail to pick up the burden of making the administration’s case to voters as many have begun casting ballots.

Biden followed through on his campaign schedule for the day and plans to continue to, but Democratic officials said they were moving to take down television ads assailing the president for his handling of the pandemic, and the former vice president’s campaign manager emailed the staff warning against social media posts on Trump’s condition.

-New York Times