A side effect of those drugs or that perhaps his condition has deteriorated thats always a possibility with kovan 1000 because the symptoms can play out and change very quickly also had some reaction from u. S. Democratic president ial nominee joe biden he says that his campaign is temporarily taking down negative ads regarding the president after his coven 1000 diagnosis so thats where we stand at the moment earlier on that was the statement from the white house describing the president as being in good spirits is that that is symptoms were a mild hed been working throughout the day but that he would be moved to the they say that hell be working out of the president ial offices at walter reed for the next few days though its not clear if the president will be in. Will be able to do that depending on the severity of his condition but the his the decision to move him was based on the recommendation of his physician and the various. Medical experts there at the white house but all the see there will be a great deal of concern about this move because of course the president does have access to. A special specialist medical team and treatment at the white house itself so the fact that he is being moved to this medical facility will generate concern about whether there has been a deterioration or it could be that obviously because he is a world leader he is the president of the country that there isnt that the threshold to make a decision like this isnt so high that it is a precautionary measure but its also interesting that he is being airlifted by helicopter or obviously to this facility because we understand the walter reed is just a 20 minute drive for the from the white house itself so the fact that he is being airlifted suggests that there is an urgency to the situation and the priority is to get him there as soon as possible we have piece of math hes with us now presser of Political Science at Cypress College joins me now by skype what are your initial thoughts of what were seeing play out because of course the timing of this is absolutely crucial i mean in many ways what the president the president is 1000 diagnoses it really just reflects whats happening in the country and in much of the world right now but the fact that its happening just a month out from the election. Its the october surprise its a horrendous situation and very critical obviously and it depends really crucially right now what happens in next couple of days or even a few hours from now the fact these will be transferred to walter reed is a Major Development he could have been quietly in the white house and with it out there but theres Something Else thats going on here now it could be theyre just taking to work a very cautious about maybe as president but still you have to take these things very seriously you have to look at what is being put in place by the administration to make sure theres a smooth transition you know the president stays in office smoothly and can carry out his work in his duties or a transition to the Vice President to call him to question the 25th amendment theres a provision in there for it. Very right now we have to wait and see just for a little bit more. In terms of that potential transition even if it is just temporary to the Vice President of course there is that statement from the white house keen to emphasize that the president will be working out of the president ial offices at walter reed now of course its not clear that his condition will allow him to be able to do that but want how quickly could we get a decision on whether he is incapacitated to be do you think it will it will be more determined by whether he is responding to treatment whether the fever deteriorates possibly if he is conscious or not. Well there are 2 ways to go in there is the precedent when president reagan had to go in for surgery he signed a statement a letter saying that hes turning over power to Vice President george w. Bush for 8 hours and then he would resume it after that and it worked out pretty smoothly thats what we do with the president voluntarily signs a statement but always when the president isnt capacitors in very clearly that he is the Vice President has a lead on that and call a cabinet together and the cabinet has to vote by majority vote to proceed to transfer part of the Vice President and then when that happens the president can challenge it he was available to do it will do that he can challenge it then he goes to congress to be or upon by a 2 thirds majority the house to transfer the power over so there are couple of options here it all depends on how President Trump comes through right now as far as physical health goes and we all do wish him well use the head of the country right now that states we need someone in the stability at this point america has been speaking of wishing him well joe biden has made a point of saying that it cant be a partisan moment Everyone Needs to come together that taking down any negative ads of the president after the 19 diagnosis what do you make of the way hes playing this. I think its very prudent by a candidate by nothing is going to help them do it this way or theres probably no other way if you can do those ads its complicates matters and throws gasoline on the fire we have a president i dont could be a worry and how these negative ads you know i dont think it really helpful to joe bidens campaign so he was a good prudent move it could help them in the medium run well see what happens then but the key right here is to make sure that any kind of change or transition has to be smooth use to florida smoothly because you have seen this has given the world this really really going to present washington as our office years in office and George Washington have stayed on and become president for life you didnt do it you stepped out and that was the president for a smooth transition of power thats maybe a little early to talk about there right now but also we should have that in mind as things develop and could be very rapidly we can attack overnight and i wanted to are some of the material various really unravel its happened many young people. Yes exactly the whats fascinating about this virus is that it isnt just one single set of symptoms that plays out in the same way it can really vary depending on whether a person has any preexisting conditions depending on age sex and other things now of course a President Trump based based on his lifestyle his gender his age alone he medical experts suggest there is a vulnerability to the virus but the other thing that will cause some concern is that he was seen at Campaign Rallies shaking hands no social distancing not wearing a mosque will will this come as a surprise to many people there in in light of that. I think most people would say that watching his behavior and how he was just ignoring all the precautionary principle zz and then with the whole picks you know she was his right hand woman as i say she was the mother was with him every day practically giving with vice on policy on procedure and she was right next to him and they were not Wearing Masks in many cases most cases you saw even joked and others walking along to marine one with no mast top of you from each other the president been holding rallies with 35000 people at a time many of them not Wearing Masks and he was bragging about that it is so just incredibly ironic this president who just neglected to take this seriously for beginning and to actually come down to see it beginning in february find out the seriousness of this to say we have to start massive testing massive Contact Tracing and massive quantity he didnt do that the South Koreans did it the germans and other countries in it and they got it under control so this is very tragic and its tragic for him on a personal level as well well thats right because we were hearing the president particularly in the initial stages of the outbreak downplaying the severity of the virus but actually sort of continuously virtually throughout the year throughout the time that we have seen this disease take hold in the United States and much of the world didnt he deny the severity of it. Declined to wear a skirt and even whats joe biden for wearing moss just recently could this perhaps i mean if theres one Silver Lining to all of this perhaps change Public Perception about the virus in the u. S. It certainly could have it should and it depends on the people there may be a few hard core supporters of his who believe that this is all you know a manufactured crisis and they may to continue not Wearing Masks but i the vast majority of americans will say it including a few people who changed her mind who thought the other way that it wasnt such a bad thing well see this is real our president has this now and especially if something detrimental happens to him god forbid then it will really wake people up and im hoping that the leaders of this country the medical leaders will be listened to by the politicians who have been listened to respectfully in any way that would actually carry out the policies that havent been that politicians have to get medical leaders the experts seriously now and start immediately put pursuing policies that we know works and i hope this will change the country has to do that thats one of the fascinating things about the 1000 pandemic particularly in countries where you have populist leader as we have seen official institutions being undermined we have seen in a quite hostile atmosphere in some cases toward scientists towards evidence based science and i suppose that that approach has cost lives. Absolutely it was a very horrible approach that these populist took of also naro in brazil president tran people i think the some of the Eastern European people the dictators leaders who did that you know they didnt didnt Pay Attention to the scientist the evidence the reasonable and rationality of the whole approach that should have been there wasnt there and its been a tragic consequence for the people in these countries the brazilian rate is huge and sos the american one the highest in the world brazil that number 3 right now and this has to be taken seriously and other countries have done that but its how korea you only have about 400 deaths in south korea even despite the fact that they have 57000000 people the u. S. Has 6 times as many people as south korea but it has 10 times as many deaths that the words we have 200000 deaths if we had the same day number of deaths of south korea the same rate of death we would have only 2000 deaths not 200000 we didnt do what tucker you did we should be learning from other societies in countries that actually worked it were science was king or queen and we should be doing that right here and i hope this will change things is it likely to mean this is what were saying now is quite unprecedented fair president to potentially be incapacitated but certainly to be unwell in this way not long before the election but before this happened before before President Trumps diagnosis with 1000 did you get a sense that there was an awareness of how other countries were coping with the virus in terms of a widespread testing and Contact Tracing and perhaps of dismay with the way in which the way in which this administration has dealt with it. No and ill tell you work because a person with very top president from should have been at the forefront of educating the people of telling them the truth about this and going on all media including not just cable news was a lot of people watch you are intellectually you know involved with these things but the rugged common public had to hear from the top leaders that this is serious and here is the Science Behind it and you know you fix it and we should they should go on and film south korea investigate it kind of like taiwan who got some control and shown it documentary to the American People to millions of people didnt believe it i didnt get the sense that things were changing in fact we were going backward our numbers went down in june they start rising back up in in july august and the selling opening schools up the kids are all children schools right now in this is something where theyre going thousands of infections children my some of them asymptomatic but yet they can carry it to their parents and thats an example of this after that attitude that start from the top all the way through society and things about time from these politicians of the Congress Speak up as well as the president you so you know how i mean i guess whats interesting whats really been a challenge there in the u. S. Is that given the countrys signs and its fragmented federalist system theres been a very inconsistent approach to the virus across the country which on the one hand makes sense because you will have different hotspots at different times and it seems as though washington really abdicated responsibility. It really did and that was the achilles heel to go to decentralize government and since got you know a National Federal government in a lot of cities states and local counties but that could have been courted much better if we had leadership at the very top look at the federal republic of germany germany has a federal system with many states and yet the federal government and the state your has courted actors that are unified team in doing massive testing massive contact raising and massive quarantining at the beginning and they kept their numbers down and of course theres some resurgence there but thats thats to be expected but the numbers per 1000 are far lower than here we could have done it differently didnt take a unitary system like south korea or like taiwan a little systems were able to work growth usually more quickly but we could have done it it has to do with leadership and a lack of inspiration and leadership to talk and just disbelief and just denying science thats a real problem all right professor well thank you very much we can talk we can talk again because thats going to be a busy night sales on the table would be good to pick your brains again but for now thanks very much appreciate it want to get back to eggs to chew emergency physician shes been very good to stick with us as well throughout this breaking news story i so tell me how would you from the scant information that we have. That the president has a mild fever that he is being moved to the walter reed medical facility then of a slightly contradictory statement from the white house saying the symptoms a mild if you could paint a picture of the the president s current condition right now how would you describe it if you had to. Well i think the real question is are we doing for President Trump what we would do for anybody else which is monitoring him closely and then when sent seem to be escalating or sometimes couldnt or his side and sometimes can be managed at home we move them to the hospital so is simply the movement to the hospital some indicator that things are not going well and those things could be Something Like hes starting to feel short of breath hes starting to feel the respiratory symptoms of coated hes needing a little supplemental oxygen hes showing signs that he may need to escalate to more serious care over the next few days you know so i think for an ordinary person the decision to go to the hospital the hospital would be very concerning because you can manage most typical viral symptoms of mild disease or even moderate disease at home on the other hand you know this is not an ordinary person and someone were going to take a tremendous abundance of caution with so it may be that hes having regular person early viral symptoms low grade fever maybe a little bit of a horse for somebody noticed that when he was on his campaign trail the fatigue maybe body aches things that we all know are just kind of typical viral symptoms that because hes covered positive and we know this can develop into more serious disease particularly somebody of his demographic profile they are deciding to just bite the bullet move him over rather than waiting to see if he needs it that way he has access to every treatment he could possibly need over the next week or so as you say that the demographic profile is an important one of course the president has not disclosed his medical records throughout his presidency. There is a lack of information there but none the less from what we know he could be particularly vulnerable to this and its not just the fact that hes. A male 74 years old possibly obese and the other way but hes also been on the campaign trail and that is a very strenuous that requires a great deal of stamina and so fatigue in a hoarse voice i mean that could also be from from campaigning i and i suppose that could also affect his ability to cope with the virus yeah thats right i mean so so you could look at it either way it could be that hes you know he is demonstrating some symptoms that actually have nothing to do with the fact that he got a positive test that hes simply tired because of the nonstop since his debate the other night hes been on planes in dry air and that causes ways to get or as weve been discussed earlier maybe a low grade fever actually had to do more of a big stir mental therapy he got rid of so i think theres so many confounding factors all of these things potentially could be explained away and made he will just get better in the next couple days and it was never the code that at all he just kind of attributed it to that or it could be that traveling like that being exhausted me to morris to sceptical to. And are actually making him more symptomatic right now so just you know a lot of dust in the air that will need to settles that we can really see what hard it is attributable to cope with 19 and how much of this is an indicator of the trajectory that hes going to have of the next couple days and what can you tell us about this sort of medical monitoring and can President Trump will receive at walter reed because it is going to be the best care available anywhere in the country and presumably that will also improve his prospects. It will and i think that the biggest advantage there is that if any as Little Things starts going in the wrong direction they will be able to jump on it right away so generally when we discharge patients from the Emergency Department whether positive covered 1000. 00 tests and theyre starting to feel symptomatic theyre going to have a cost or shortness of breath well ill tell them is come that actually actually esta were just seeing that the helicopter is about to take off and its taken a bit of a while for president chung to to leave the white house and to actually board the helicopter but we understand that he is actually now on the helicopter and he will be added to the walter reed medical facility and as you say he will have access to medical care and specialist monitoring there allan fisher is also watching all of this and. Allan it it took a little while for trying to actually pull the helicopter. Bus right but he walked to the helicopter youll hear it taking off just shortly its finding up its engines behind me on the south lawn he was accompanied by mark meadows his chief of staff who was wearing a mask interestingly enough a few years ago and mark meadows was on the driveway behind me giving is an update on the president s condition he did not wear a mask he said that he hadnt proven to be 100 percent effective and also he was accompanied by the young aide whos known as his body among the past news always with the president within easy distance takes things that the president might need including at the Nuclear Codes he is always with the president so he of the 3 of them boarded the helicopter to make the short journey from bethesda and from here in the white house across the washington skyline towards bethesda and the Walter Reed Hospital it will take no more than 10 minutes from taking off which is just doing no the landing it was to read. And the president being in the Specialist Hospital unit there that is set aside 3 for president he could have gone by car but that would take him 20 minutes people are saying well it is 620 on a friday here in washington but since the covert crisis there hasnt been much of a rush but of course if youre a company by Motorcycle Police officers then you tend to move through the traffic a lot quicker so there are the pictures or perhaps showing you that the helicopters not taken off it has just left its heading over in that direction heading towards the Lincoln Memorial it will follow the potomac for some distance and then essentially turn right towards georgetown and then move over towards but theres the so as i see from less than 10 minutes no i would suspect the president will be touching down at Walter Reed Hospital somewhere around 630. 00 local time which is 2230. 00 g. M. T. So the president no on his way accompanied by his personal aide and also mark meadows who is his chief of staff not on the helicopter milan the 1st woman the 1st lady of the United States she currently remains isolating we believe in the residence here at the white house. And allan just remind us what weve been hearing from the white house over the last 24 hours since we learned of this since we had the disclosure of president johns diagnosis because there has been this concern about there being a lack of transparency regarding the the course of his illness. Well its almost 24 hours now since the president was 1st told that he may be at risk that is when he was told that his close aides hope pick someone who is always in these very close orbit had tested positive for corona virus the president then went off to a fundraiser bedminster his estate in new jersey his golf course in new jersey there at the fundraiser we are told by the white house that they were socially distance from people who had turned up and paid a substantial sum of money to be there with the president but those who were there said that he looked tired he reported being fatigued he sounded a bit croaky he came back to the white house hed done a phone interview with. One of the american t. V. Channels and said that hed had this exposure and he was going to get a test that test was conducted just before midnight the results came back and the president was positive for covert he tweeted that just before 1 oclock confirmed by the white house then there was nothing really from the white house for several hours we were told that the president was self isolating in the residence that you see behind me we then got an update to see that he was fatigued but was in good spirits and mark meadows his chief of staff actually came on to the driveway to tell us that the president was still working he did fight given a list of 6 things that he wanted to get done that day we then got an update from the press office to say that the president had been given an injection of some revolutionary new drugs that hadnt even been given Regulatory Approval as well as vitamins and aspirin as well at some point after that within the hour we were told that the president had a mild fever and it was decided to freeze that youll hear a great deal over the next few hours an abundance of caution to move him to walter reed that was a surprising decision theres a medical unit here at the white house but the. Vision was taken that if you needed more urgent treatment more arguably then he would be able to get that water read where there is a specialist unit on standby waiting for his arrival and then waited for an hour 2 after the helicopter arrived either you know on his way to walter reed and the suggestion is from the white house that he will spend a few days at walter reed but i guess that will depend on whether theres any changes in his condition or whether it deteriorates if he needs treatment how he responds to that but it could be at least a few days possibly even more alan and one thing we know with the coronavirus is that resilience and immunity really matters and of course this comes as just weeks before the election and just describe to us you know whats it like being on on the campaign trail because it involves a lot of really traveling public speaking and a grueling schedule actually sorry alan just before you answer that question i think these are the pictures were actually seeing of President Trump boarding the helicopter just now yes so these are the pictures of president boarding the helicopter just a couple of minutes ago as you can see boarded that on his own he clearly walking so he was able to make his own way on to the helicopter and now hes been taken to walter reed but but you know its a it is a grueling schedule as an owl and being on that campaign trail. I think you remember for the president is that here in the United States if youre over 75 and remember the president is 74 the fatality rate is one in 25. It gets much more complicated if you have underlying conditions and the president does have an underlying condition he is overweight significantly overweight he is borderline obese and so that also complicates the issue youve got to also take into account that the president doesnt sleep very much sleep at night and 4th thing in the more. I think. He puts long hours into doing what he does. I did then i did to that theres been the stress of preparing for the debate on tuesday of travelling all over the country and he does it in relative luxury in the cabin of your force one which is like a 5 star hotel in the area. But then hes also been he does numerous rallies maybe sometimes 2 or 3 a day what is interesting that i noted in that no becomes kind of fairly significant. Is that on wednesday he held a rally thats the day after the debate of course i normally a donald trump rally would last about an hour and a half with that with the president speaking but on wednesday it lasted only 45 minutes and a number of people remarked that they seemed unusually short that he cut things short very quickly that maybe because he was feeling fatigued he may not have tested positive at that point but we may already have been experiencing the symptoms and so if you add all that up with the stress of preparing for the debate all the travelling at the fact that hes on his feet at these rallies for sometimes more than an hour all of that would then suggest that this is very taxing particularly if youre a 74 year old man who doesnt have the greatest of diet in fact just yesterday or a couple of days ago this is been a very long week someone had reported. French fries from a Fast Food Restaurant help you help fight baldness and he tweeted out saying well that may be explain why hes kept his here all these years but it also suggests that he has never had the greatest of diets and he likes fast food he likes french fries he drinks a diet coke in fact he has a button on his desk that he can press he likes to tell people that its the Nuclear Button and suddenly press it when suddenly a steward will appear with a diet coke so high that all that together plus his e plus the fact that hes been exposed to someone with cordwood you could understand why the doctors would be concerned why they would want to make sure that he is in the best possible place so that he can be treated not leaving anything to chance when they see abundance of caution they actually mean so if he is in the hospital he can be treated very quickly its like someone perhaps experiencing chest pains and thinking well you know ill be ok till i go to see my doctor tomorrow the best thing actually is to get to the hospital because of that is a. The complication after you start to feel those initial chest pains they want to be able to be in a position where they treat you so that is why as the president in consultation with the doctors obviously decided walter reed was the option for him and even at walter reed there is a specialist unit that is set aside for the president it is very secure it is state of the art communication he can do so with the privacy they would have here in the white house and so he can continue to be president and conduct his his duties even speak to other heads of state if required another thing to point out is this also kind of follows the pattern of Boris JohnsonBoris Johnson of course you remember the u. K. Prime minister was diagnosed with covert conditions got slightly washed he was taken to hospital. Bed then things deteriorated for him and obviously people will be hoping that doesnt happen to President Trump. But that he deteriorates to the extent where he had to be put into i didnt just coma and was in intensive care for some considerable time mike pence will no be in stand by there will be senior figures from the administration and also from the military who will be taking the far steps to make sure that theres a succession in power not only will mike pence be approached but also one see. Palosi who is the speaker of the house of representatives she would be 2nd in line to the presidency id be me also take this step of the left to the president of the Senate Pro Tem the most Senior Member of the senate who is republican Chuck Grassley from iowa so all of them will be aware that the president has gone to hospital and that there is a line