Healthwatch w/Dr. Leana Wen: Trump, COVID; Safe At Home?

The Maryland State Department of Health reports today that 10 people died of COVID-19-related illness yesterday, the highest death toll in the last couple of weeks. More than 3,800 people have died in our state since the pandemic began in March. More than 130,000 Marylanders have been infected with the virus.The coronavirus pandemic continues to dominate the national conversation as well. Since President Trump’s treatment for his COVID-19 infection at the Walter Reed Military Medical Center last weekend and his return to the White House Monday, dozens of the president’s staffers, as well as political and military leaders who had recent close contact with the president, have tested positive for the virus. And there has been growing concern among public health officials over Mr. Trump’s tweets and video messages in the past few days about his self-proclaimed “recovery” from COVID-19, aided by powerful therapeutic drugs which he has falsely described as a “cure.”The Administration’s handling of the pandemic over the past eight months was also a dominant issue in the Vice Presidential debate on Wednesday night. The US death toll from COVID-19 is at a higher rate than any other nation. On Wednesday, the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine in an unprecedented political editorial, called the Trump administration “dangerously incompetent” and said it should no longer be abeted and enabled. Scientific American also broke precedent and endorsed Joe Biden.Today on Midday, it’s another edition of the Midday Healthwatch with Dr. Leana Wen. She’s an emergency physician and public health professor at George Washington University. Dr. Wen is also a contributing columnist for The Washington Post and a CNN medical analyst. She was Baltimore's Health Commissioner from 2015 to 2018.Dr. Leana Wen is with us for the hour today. We’ll also take your comments and questions…Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.