let's cross live now to the walter reed
medical center where mr trump is being
treated
and speak to our correspondent libou
disecho so uh libra we were
hearing that from the president's
doctors that he's doing very well
but they didn't really want to comment
on specifics especially not whether he'd
ever had
oxygen
absolutely there are a number of
questions
that have been raised as a result of
that press conference
also the team said that he was diagnosed
72
hours ago and actually he only announced
that he had coronavirus on friday uh
similarly as you said journalists did
press on
whether he's received oxygen at all and
the answer was that he's not at
on not taking oxygen at the moment and
in the last few minutes we've had
a statement from the white house paul
now
they are usually briefed by uh very
senior members of the white house so we
do have to take this very
seriously what they're saying is that
the president's vitals over the last 24
hours were concerning
and the next 48 hours will be critical
in terms of his care we're still not
on a clear path to recovery obviously
that is
a very different tone from that of the
uh
a press conference we heard the update
from uh donald trump's medical team
labor dissector it certainly is well
let's speak to our senior north america
reporter anthony zuercher so anthony we
have then the president's physician
giving rather a glowing report of his
health but then a source familiar with
the president's health
tells the white house pool the
president's vitals over the last 24
hours were very concerning and the next
48 hours will be
critical in terms of his care we're
still not on a clear path to a full
recovery what are we to make
of the dissonance there well what we are
to make of it is if the goal of this
press conference
here on saturday morning was to put the
nation's mind at ease that the president
is doing well that his medical team is
on top of everything and in charge
that was not a successful mission all
they've done is
create more confusion thanks to the the
conflicting statements about
how the president is doing about whether
he was on oxygen in the past or not
and also the timeline as we mentioned
earlier the timeline about when the
president was diagnosed 72 hours ago
would put it on wednesday when the
president revealed
he was diagnosed at 1 am local time on
friday morning now the white house has
come out
since then and said no the dr sean
connelly met
three days ago thursday night that he
started drugs also
on thursday night to treat the diagnosis
but the fact that they're having to
clean this up now immediately after a
press conference
whose goal was to settle things down
is just a remarkable mishandling of this
we did hear at the press conference that
the president is going to be treated
with rem deserve it's a five-day course
so
how long can we expect him to be there
well you know if you look at cdc centers
for disease control guidelines
you are supposed to be if you tested
positive in isolation for 10 days
after that initial positive test and you
have to be symptom-free
so what would imagine that it is going
to be a while before donald trump can
hit the campaign trail
again whether that means he can go back
to the white house and be in isolation
there
stays at the medical center i think we
don't have any details on that as well
but we have to remember
the reason he moved to the hospital was
because they wanted to have
all the different tests all the
different facilities available for him
so
i don't think they're going to try to
move him back until they feel like
they're out of the woods and as that
senior administration
or someone familiar with it the the
familiar with
the president's health said uh he said
that the next 48 hours are going to be
key
it was interesting also in that briefing
with the president's doctor how
reporters
pressed him on was the president ever on
oxygen and senator marco rubio an ally
of the president's republican senator in
florida has said because of all the
conspiracy theories
surrounding the president which are now
online it's critical to get accurate
information
but it seems like now the waters are
muddied doesn't it
uh it does uh as i mentioned they were
trying to clarify things but
to have the president's position be
evasive like that
on basic questions like was the
president on oxygen
i think it undermines the the
credibility not just of the white house
but of the medical team you have to
remember
in crisis situations like this uh
credibility
uh trust from the media from the
american public is invaluable and any
misstatements that have to be clarified
any misdirections
that squanders that credibility that
they're going to be relying on to
calm the american public to make the
world the financial markets
more at ease with the situation they had
we the american people
the the financial system everyone else
has to have faith that they're getting
the truth from the white house and from
the physicians
anthony zucker thanks so much for
joining