On Sunday, we learned that Trump has been started on dexamethasone, a steroid medication that has been shown to reduce mortality in critically ill patients. Importantly, this medication is not recommended for patients with non-severe disease. Given the use of steroids and oxygen saturation drops, it seems likely that the president has at least moderate pneumonia…

Also consider that Days 7-10 are when patients are most at risk for further deterioration. According to the time course provided by the White House, Day 1 of illness was Thursday, in which case discharging the following Monday would be on Day 5. If the president was brought into the hospital for closer monitoring, what sense does it make to discharge him just before the time period that’s potentially the most fraught?

It’s true that the White House has medical monitoring capabilities. But this is a highly complex situation. In addition to steroids, Trump is on remdesivir for a five-day course that wouldn’t be completed by Monday. This is a medication that itself requires in-hospital monitoring, including frequent lab draws.

He has also received an experimental antibody cocktail from the company Regeneron. As far as I’m aware, no patient in the world has received this combination of treatments. Surely, someone with the president’s risk factors — and who is the president — deserves careful supervision in the event he develops side effects or becomes suddenly ill, as often happens with moderately to severely ill covid-19 patients.