President Donald Trump's startling Covid-19 diagnosis serves as a cruel reminder of the pervasive spread of the coronavirus and shows how tenuous of a grip the nation has on the crisis, health experts said. With US infections rising for several weeks, Trump became one of the tens of thousands of Americans who test positive each day.
He went through a "very concerning" period Friday and the next 48 hours "will be critical" in his care, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said Saturday. That differed dramatically from the rosy assessment by Trump's staff and doctors, who took pains not to reveal the president had received supplemental oxygen at the White House before he went to a military hospital.
Some of Trump's top advisers and allies also have tested positive recently. "No one is entirely out of the virus's reach, even those supposedly inside a protective bubble," said Josh Michaud, associate director of global health policy with the Kaiser Family Foundation in Washington.
Eight months after the virus reached the United States, worrying signals mounted of what's ahead this fall. The NFL has postponed two games after players on three teams tested positive. Some hospitals in Wisconsin have run low on space, and experts warned of a likely surge in infections during the colder months ahead.
Some economists said it could take as long as late 2023 for the job market to fully recover.