Doctors say President Donald Trump took steroid dexamethasone after oxygen dip

The medical team addressed reporters from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where Trump was undergoing treatment since Friday after testing positive for COVID-19, which came in the middle of the presidential campaign and just more than a month before the election on November 3.

One of the doctors Dr Brian Garibaldi, said the 74-year-old president was given the steroid dexamethasone on Saturday in response to “transient low oxygen levels”. The doctors said Trump’s blood oxygen levels were currently stable, Al Jazeera reported.

But despite the White House team’s positive prognosis, Dr Eric Feigl Ding, an epidemiologist and senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists told Al Jazeera that Trump being given dexamethasone is an “extremely worrying sign”.

According to The World Health Organization(WHO) dexamethasone is only used for critical and severe patients. It actually does not recommend its usage against patients who are not very serious,” he said.

There was confusion and contradiction in the messages that flowed from the White House regarding Trump's health as well, with the medical team early on Saturday morning painting a very optimistic picture of the president’s condition, saying he was improving and already wanted to return to the White House.

But minutes later, Mark Meadows, the president’s chief of staff, told reporters: “The president’s vitals over the last 24 hours were very concerning and the next 48 hours will be critical in terms of his care. We’re still not on a clear path to a full recovery.”