President’s blood oxygen levels dropped twice in recent days, doctors say

This spring, Navy Cmdr. Sean Conley confided to co-workers that he was laboring under intense personal stress in his job as White House physician.

The 40-year-old doctor is responsible for the world’s most high-profile patient: a president who has insisted on holding public events amid a global pandemic and rarely donned a mask, overriding the advice of his own health officials.

Multiple aides called Trump’s Sunday drive outside the hospital an unnecessary risk but said the move was not surprising, as White House spokesman Judd Deere defended the outing, telling reporters that “appropriate precautions were taken.”

The trip drew criticism from Secret Service agents and from doctors, who said it put others in the car at risk, exposing them to a coronavirus patient in an enclosed space. Trump wore a mask as he waved to the crowd outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, but experts said they were still deeply concerned.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) — one of several Republican senators who have recently tested positive for the coronavirus — is “feeling well” and has seen his symptoms improve, his office said Sunday.

Tillis is still isolating at home, his office said in a statement.

A growing number of Secret Service agents have been concerned about the president’s seeming indifference to the health risks they face when traveling with him in public.

A few reacted with outrage to his Sunday night drive outside the hospital where he is being treated for the novel coronavirus, asking how Trump’s desire to be seen outside of his hospital suite justified the jeopardy to agents protecting the president.

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden tested negative for the novel coronavirus on Sunday, according to his campaign, his third negative test since he shared a debate stage for more than 90 minutes with President Trump, who has been hospitalized with the infection.

“Vice President Biden underwent PCR testing for COVID-19 today and COVID-19 was not detected,” according to a statement the campaign issued to reporters at 7:16 p.m.

Asked Sunday evening if she knows how many White House staffers are infected with the coronavirus, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany cited privacy concerns, hours after another aide said the information would be made public.

Earlier in the day, White House communications director Alyssa Farah said the number of positive tests would be shared. But when McEnany was asked about the matter, she said: “No, there are privacy concerns we take very seriously safeguarding the information of the personnel here in the White House. So that’s basically where we stand right now.”

Medical professionals reacted with horror Sunday to President Trump’s decision to leave the hospital in an SUV for an impromptu tour, calling the move irresponsible and saying others in the car are risking their lives for “political theater.”

Among the critics: a doctor affiliated with Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where Trump is receiving treatment.

Attorney General William P. Barr again tested negative for the coronavirus on Sunday — his fourth negative test since Friday — and is “self-quarantining,” a Justice Department spokeswoman said.

Barr, who was without a mask and in the same room as Trump on Sept. 26 at a reception for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, went to a meeting at the Justice Department on Friday but stayed home over the weekend and plans to do so again Monday, said Kerri Kupec, the spokeswoman.