Donald Trump has claimed he has fully recovered from Covid-19 and is now “immune” from the virus that has killed more than 210,000 Americans.
“I have to tell you, I feel fantastically. I really feel good. And I even feel good by the fact that, you know, the word immunity means something — having really a protective glow means something. I think it’s very important to have that, to have that is a very important thing,” the US president said in an interview with Fox News on Sunday.
Mr Trump repeated his claim to be immune from coronavirus on Twitter, where he wrote: “A total and complete sign off from White House Doctors yesterday. That means I can’t get it (immune), and can’t give it. Very nice to know!!!”
The post was flagged by Twitter as “spreading misleading and potentially harmful information”. Studies have yet to establish whether being infected with Covid-19 leads to future immunity.
The president’s comments came a day after his doctor said the president had taken a test showing he was no longer infectious. He did not say whether Mr Trump had tested negative for the virus, for which the president tested positive on 1 October.
But the doctor’s statement freed Mr Trump to return to holding big campaign rallies during the final weeks of the US presidential campaign.
He is expected to make his first public appearance on the campaign trail since his diagnosis at a rally in Florida on Monday.
“The doctors, the White House doctors, as you know, are the best, and they said [I’m] totally free of spreading. There’s no spread,” Mr Trump said. “I beat this crazy horrible China virus,” he added.
While Mr Trump said during the interview he did not know whether or how long he would be immune from Covid-19 — “no one knows”, he conceded— he made several misleading statements about the disease and how it affects patients who have had it.
“Once you do recover, you’re immune,” Mr Trump said.
He then appeared to tout his illness and recovery from Covid-19 as a chip in his stack against Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, who has not caught the virus.
Source: Independent