the race for the white house has been
thrown into turmoil after the revelation
that donald trump and his wife melania
have both tested positive for
coronavirus the couple are
self-isolating at the white house
officials say mr trump has mild symptoms
but is in good spirits
his diagnosis has stunned america
causing financial markets to dip
and raises major questions about the
remainder of the election campaign
well with the very latest our north
america editor john sobel is at the
white house for us tonight john
clive if this doesn't sound
contradictory the news that broke at one
o'clock this morning was simultaneously
astonishing and mind-boggling and not in
the least bit surprising astonishing and
mind-boggling
because donald trump is the most
protected man in the world he is tested
daily for the coronavirus
not at all surprising given the very
lacks lackadaisical attitude
towards face masks that you see in the
white house although palpably
it was a different atmosphere today as
you know tonight's al smith dinner last
night in what now appears to be grim
irony
the president made a speech from the
white house about the pandemic
the worst was behind us he said and i
just want to say that the end of the
pandemic
is in sight and next year will be one of
the greatest years in the history of our
country
but then later that evening came a
bombshell statement that will
reverberate around the world
the most serious health issue to affect
a serving president
in decades he tweeted tonight the first
lady and i
tested positive for covet 19. we'll
begin our quarantine
and recovery process immediately we'll
get through this
together today the president's chief of
staff gave reporters this update
the president the first lady tested
positive
for covet 19. they remain in good
spirits
the president does have mild symptoms a
hint of something being wrong came
earlier in the evening last night
when it was announced that this woman
hope hicks had contracted the virus
on wednesday she was part of the inner
circle to travel with the president
on the cramped marine one helicopter
none of them
is wearing a mask as donald trump seemed
to dance with joy at the rally in duluth
minnesota
she'd become symptomatic and was
quarantined on air force one
for the return journey to washington the
ripples of concern will reach everyone
who's been in close contact with the
president
not least joe biden who shared a debate
stage with him
for a shouty 90 minutes on tuesday night
a debate where the president ripped into
the democratic candidate
for his mask wearing i don't wear mess
like him every time you see him he's got
a mask he could be speaking
200 feet away from it he shows up with
the biggest mask i've ever seen
and it was noticeable that none of the
trump entourage wore face coverings
that actually uh violated the rules
of the cleveland clinic which was in
charge of all the safety issues
in inside the hall which were that
everybody except for the president the
vice president
and and i were not supposed to wear
masks i mean we're supposed to wear
masks
the president has worn masks in public
on less than a handful of occasions
and his ambivalence towards them is
evident
can you take it off because i cannot
hear you i'll i'll just speak louder sir
okay because you want to be politically
correct i just don't want to wear one
myself it's a recommendation they
recommend it
uh i'm feeling good and he's been
holding rallies as though kovid
was in the rearview mirror with
thousands turning up
no attempts at social distancing few
wearing masks
today messages of support from around
the world
this from boris johnson who's been where
the president
is now obviously i think we all want to
send our best wishes to
the president and uh the first lady and
uh i've done that this morning as you
can imagine
and uh i'm sure that they'll both stage
a very strong
recovery and messages of support too
from political rivals
this from joe biden who's tested
negative today
sending my prayers for the health and
safety of the first lady
and president of president united states
after they tested positive for covert
19.
my wife jill and i prayed that they'll
make a quick and full recovery
this is not a matter of politics
it's a bracing reminder to all of us
that we have to take this virus
seriously but another leading democrat
the speaker of the house nancy pelosi
comes very close to saying to the
president serves you right
this is tragic it's very sad but it also
is something that
that again going into crowds
unmasked and all the rest was sort of a
brazen invitation
for something like this to happen this
is first and foremost a medical issue
for the president and his wife
but it's up ended a presidential
election campaign that needed no further
agitation
with many questions begged and few
answers to give
at this early stage john sobel bbc news
at the white house well with a month to
go before the presidential election
what impact could donald trump's illness
have at the ballot box
our north america correspondent nick
bryant reports now from michigan
the lockdown is a scam the covenant
tests
are a scam the coronavirus has opened up
yet another fault line
in an already fractured country these
militiamen part of a protest of those
who see the coveted restrictions
as a threat to american liberty
it was packed with supporters of donald
trump most of them still not wearing
masks
and began with heads bowed in prayer for
the president
we could take like five seconds just to
say prayer for the guy that's okay
lord we pray for president trump as
family for a swift recovery
i understand he's got some mild symptoms
but i think he'll probably be over them
soon and it'll be a victory for him a
victory in what way
the victory in showing that there's a
lot of overreaction to this kovitz stuff
i just hope he pulls through it do you
think he took enough precautions do you
think he should have worn a mask
no i think everybody this is a free
country and everybody should
be not be dictated to and everybody
shouldn't have to wear
a mask if they don't want to this was
another covert protest of child care
workers bemoaning the lack of financial
aid
and their responses to the overnight
news spoke of how in american democracy
right now
there's not even an agreed-upon set of
facts
i don't believe it why don't you believe
it
i think it's just a ploy because he did
so bad
debating he did horrible in the debates
so i think it's a ploy to get out of
debating again and if he does have it
i don't believe it i can't even say if
he does have it i just don't believe it
michigan is a key battleground state
that donald trump won
unexpectedly in 2016. but there aren't
so many trump yard signs as there were
four years ago
we've fallen flat on her face jack
spielman is a lifelong republican who
supported him back then
but he's already voted for joe biden
partly because of the president's
mishandling of covid
he initially denied it uh called it fake
news blamed on the democrats blamed it
on the chinese
then he transitioned and said it's going
to go away like magic then it was going
to go away when the heat comes
then we're going to have then we just
had to deal with it and then it was
we're going to have a vaccine just
before the election
can't trust anything he says with it in
a bygone political age the nation might
have rallied behind a leader suffering
from a virus that had killed so many of
his compatriots
but this is such a deeply divided
america
and this is such a deeply divisive
american president
[Applause]
even this pandemic has become an
accelerant of political
polarization nick brown bbc news
michigan it's well known that the older
you are and the heavier you are
the higher the risk of having serious
complications with covert 19.
our medical editor fergus walsh looks at
the risk to the president's health
donald trump has several factors which
raise his risk profile for coronavirus
his age weight and being a man at 74
he's often insisted how healthy he is
despite a love of burgers and hot dogs
age is the biggest risk factor for kobit
19. in the united states
8 out of 10 deaths have been among the
over 65s
the risk of dying for someone aged 65 to
74
is 90 times higher than for someone in
their 20s now to put that in context
a recent international study found that
once
infected with coronavirus the chances of
dying were around
one in a hundred at age 65
one in 25 at 75
and one in seven at 85.
the president and first lady of the
united states the first lady
melania trump is just 50 24 years
younger than donald trump
and physically fit so her risks from
covid
should be low
the president is six foot three and
weighs more than
17 stone putting him in the obese
category
another red flag his medical team
will be on constant guard for any change
in his condition
often patients have quite mild symptoms
to start with and
then it's as if they drop off a cliff
and suddenly it gets worse and that can
happen really within hours
i don't think they can be sure for
approximately 10 days if then he really
hasn't developed any worse symptoms
he seems to be controlling the virus in
his in his throat and his nose
then i think they will relax i have i
still have a temperature and so
it was nine days after testing positive
for coronavirus
before boris johnson was admitted to
hospital in early april
he spent three nights in intensive care
and says the nhs
saved his life
another leader who got kovid was
president bolsonaro of brazil
he had few symptoms and dismissed the
virus
as a measly cold
it's impossible to predict how any
individual will cope
with covid many people never develop any
symptoms at all
and there are treatments now which have
helped improve survival rates
for what can be a brutal disease fergus
bbc news
and our north america editor john sopple
is at the white house john november the
third is election day little more than
four weeks away where does the
president's illness leave the campaign
let me give you a bit of geography of
where i'm standing to help answer the
question if i might in front of me
is the west wing of the white house
where the oval office is where the
president would normally be working
except he's not now because he is in the
east wing
which is also where the residence is and
where he is now
convalescing we and the longer he is
there the less normal this campaign
will be now we've had a bit of an update
of a medical bulletin
that he has been given an antibody
cocktail an infusion that was completed
without
incident we're told the president is
fatigued
but in good spirits and apparently the
first lady has a mild cough
and headache but otherwise not too bad
where it leaves the politics i mean the
next presidential debate was due to take
place
in 12 days time that seems highly
unlikely
there were a whole series of rallies
that the president was going to hold
they will be off he's not going to be
able to go to those
and it may be that he'll do zoom calls
if his health improves
but there's one critical thing in all of
this clive and it's this
donald trump wanted the last four weeks
of the campaign
to be about anything but covid now that
he's contracted coronavirus
it is going to remain absolutely center
stage
okay john thank you for that john sobel
there at the white house