Health News at Your Fingertips

The White House has updated the President’s schedule for tomorrow. It has mostly been cleared, but Trump still plans to “host a phone call on Covid-19 support for vulnerable seniors,” it says:

Australia’s coronavirus expert Dr Norman Swan (Australia’s Dr Fauci) says that at the president’s age of 74 the mortality rate is 5-12%.

But, he says, that obesity (the president is just over the line as obese in his last medical check) increases the risk by an extra 40%, increasing the risk of death to between about 7-18%.

Here once again is Trump mocking Biden for wearing a mask:

Under the Presidential Succession Act, vice-president Mike Pence would step in if Trump was unable to serve.

If Pence was also unable to serve, the next in line for power of the presidency would then pass to House speaker Nancy Pelosi. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in May the administration was not preparing for the possibility that Pelosi might need to step in.

A reminder that Trump and Pence appeared together at the White House Rose Garden on Monday.

The editor in chief of China’s Global Times says: “President Trump and the first lady have paid the price for his gamble to play down the Covid-19. The news shows the severity of the US’ pandemic situation. It will impose a negative impact on the image of Trump and the US, and may also negatively affect his reelection”:

The Guardian has not yet verified this, but MSNBC is reporting the following travel contacts for Hope Hicks. The list includes Trump family members Ivanka, Erik, Lara and Tiffany Trump as well as Jared Kushner:

Vice President Mike Pence has tweeted saying he and his wife are sending “love and prayers” to Trump and Melania:

And here is what we don’t know

• Whether Pence is infected. CNN medical analyst Dr Jonathan Reiner said on Thursday that House speaker Nancy Pelosi should be in isolation because it is possible that both Trump and vice president Mike Pence could become ill, in which case she would likely need to step in. It is not clear-cut what the rules would be in this case. In May the Washington Post asked the question and found that, under the rules of a 1947 act, “The speaker of the House and the president pro tempore of the Senate would be next in the line of succession, followed by the members of the Cabinet, beginning with the secretary of state.”

• How long Trump, Melania and Hicks have had the virus for and exactly which White House staff she has had close contact with. According to the World Health Organization, it takes five or six days on average from when someone is infected until symptoms show, but it can take 14 days. It appears Hicks began to feel ill on Wednesday.

Trump has cancelled Friday’s rally in Arizona: