President Trump’s medical team announced on Sunday that it had decided to treat the president with dexamethasone.
It was a decision that struck some doctors and COVID-19 specialists as surprising, given the fact that Dr. Sean Conley, the president’s doctor, gave a fairly upbeat assessment of his patient’s condition. Typically, only hospitalized COVID-19 patients in need of oxygen are given the drug.
Dexamethasone is a steroid drug. “It relieves inflammation (swelling, heat, redness and pain) and is used to treat certain forms of arthritis; skin, blood, kidney, eye, thyroid, and intestinal disorders (e.g., colitis); severe allergies; and asthma,” according to Medline Plus, a health information service of the National Library of Medicine. Dexamethasone is also used to treat certain types of cancer. It’s been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for decades.
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