President Trump says he doesn’t believe he is contagious and, less than a week after testing positive for coronavirus, he is ready to resume campaign rallies. He says he is immune from another infection and attributed his recovery to being a “perfect physical specimen.”
In his first interview since returning from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Trump sounded raspy on the phone speaking with Fox Business.
But he insisted he is, in fact, better than normal and is prepared to resume his campaign schedule.
“I think I’m better … to a point where I’d love to do a rally tonight. I wanted to do one last night,” Trump said. “I feel perfect. There’s nothing wrong.”
However, for Trump to not be contagious it needs to have been at least 10 days, at a bare minimum, since his first symptoms, and he needs to be fever-free for 24 hours without taking medication that could reduce his fever. Trump should still be isolating, not campaigning, and while he may have some degree of protection, no one can say for certain whether he is immune.
Calling his illness “almost a gift from heaven,” Trump again praised the drugs he received at Walter Reed but said he couldn’t have avoided contracting coronavirus.
“No matter how good the security you’re not going to protect yourself from this thing,” he said, adding later: “You catch this thing. It’s particles of dust.”
The virus is not “particles of dust.”
Asked about criticism he was returning to the White House while still shedding the virus, Trump said he didn’t believe that was true. However, from what the science tell us about the virus, it is almost certainly true that he is shedding virus.
“I don’t think I’m contagious, at all,” he said.