United States President Donald Trump's doctor said an experimental vaccine is being administered to the commander in chief to help get rid of the coronavirus in his system.
The treatment, a two-antibody compound developed by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, is currently undergoing final phase clinical trials, Dr. Sean Conley said. Trump is also being given multiple other immune boosters, including vitamin D, zinc, aspirin, and the generic version Pepcid, a heartburn medication, Conley added.
Trump and his wife, First Lady Melania, announced Friday morning that they had been diagnosed with COVID-19. Trump has a mild fever and nasal congestion, two people close to him disclosed. Trump has been transferred to a military medical facility as part of safety protocols, the White House said on Friday.
In a statement, Conley said the 74-year old president remains fatigued but in high spirits after getting an intravenous dose of Regeneron's dual antibody, REGN-COV2, which is part of a class of potential coronavirus vaccines referred to as monoclonal antibodies: generated duplicates of human antibodies that are being evaluated for use in patients with early symptoms of the disease.
Regeneron has previously produced an effective vaccine for Ebola using a similar technique. The vaccine is administered as a single-use treatment through an intravenous. The Regeneron therapy being given to Trump, although yet to be effectively validated, is viewed by health experts as one of the most encouraging treatments for his infection.
Preliminary outcomes have indicated that dual-antibody therapy can significantly cut the level of the disease in the body and potentially reduce the length of stay in the hospital when administered early during the onset of infection.
In a statement, Conley said Trump is being examined closely by a team of medical experts, and together they will be issuing guidelines to the President and First Lady in connection to the next best course of action. The first lady remains well with a mild headache and cough, and the other members of the First Family are well with no traces of the virus, Trump's doctor added.
Officials said they are now conducting tracing procedure to get information from all the people that Trump has come in contact with in the past days, adding that he was figuring out how he might address the country on Friday. Trump has never advocated the use of face coverings and was regularly seen not observing social distancing with White House aides or other people in public engagements.
