The latest
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BETHESDA, Md. — President Donald Trump’s blood oxygen level dropped suddenly twice in recent days, but he “has continued to improve” since then, the White House physician said Sunday, adding a new layer of confusion to the president’s fight with COVID-19 even while suggesting he could be discharged from the hospital as early as Monday.
Trump’s doctors, speaking on the steps of the military hospital where he was being treated for a third consecutive day, refused to disclose the specific timing of the president’s dip in oxygen or whether lung scans showed any damage.
Navy Cmdr. Dr. Sean Conley acknowledged he was trying to downplay the severity of the president’s condition the day before.
“I was trying to reflect the upbeat attitude of the team, that the president, that his course of illness has had. Didn’t want to give any information that might steer the course of illness in another direction,” Conley said. “And in doing so, came off like we’re trying to hide something, which wasn’t necessarily true. The fact of the matter is that he’s doing really well.”
Conley said the president had a “high fever” and a blood oxygen level below 94% on Friday and during “another episode” on Saturday. He was evasive when asked whether Trump’s level had dropped below 90%: “We don’t have any recordings here on that.”
The level currently stands at 98%, Trump’s medical team said.
News
3:28 p.m. Illinois logs 1,453 new coronavirus cases, additional 17 deaths
State health officials on Sunday announced 1,453 new coronavirus cases and 17 additional deaths.
The new infections, which brought the state’s total to 301,541, were found among the latest batch of 51,656 tests reported to the Illinois Department of Public Health in the last day, lowering the state’s seven-day positivity rate — a figure experts use to gauge how rapidly the virus is spreading — to 3.3%.
Despite a mid-summer spike in cases, positivity rates have continued to decrease across most of the state over the last month thanks to an increase in testing capacity. Chicago is at 4.6% positivity, which is where it stood last weekend. Meanwhile, its surrounding regions check in at 5.5% or below.
Eleven of Sunday’s 17 fatalities were reported in Cook County, including a woman in her 30s.
In total, 8,791 Illinoisans have succumbed to the respiratory virus since March — about 2.9% of all Illinois coronavirus cases.
9:30 a.m. Florida man stops in Chicago to help out-of-work people with professional portraits
A bright red 2015 Chevy Cruze with Florida license plates sat idle in front of a modest storefront in Logan Square as Harry Aaron pointed at a tote bag sitting in the front seat.
“See, this is where all my V neck shirts are, and in the back — not sure if you can see — is a yoga mat” Aaron said pointing through his passenger-side window. “I use that for stretching my back. I do yoga at rest stops on the road to help with my back pains.”
For about a week, Aaron has been driving from the Southeast into the Midwest. Over the next week, the trip will take him through the Rust Belt and toward the East Coast. The trip will have him searching for any Walmart parking lot to sleep in and a Planet Fitness where he can bathe.
By trip’s end, the 28-year-old photographer will have put 3,500 miles on the Chevy’s odometer to complete his mission: providing professional headshots on a “pay-what-you-can basis” to unemployed workers and out-of-work performers.
The Refresh Portrait Series will have him hitting 10 cities from Florida to as far north as Maine.
Read the full story from Manny Ramos here.
7 a.m. Trump said to be improving but next 48 hours ‘critical’
BETHESDA, Md. — President Donald Trump went through a “very concerning” period Friday and faces a “critical” next two days in his fight against COVID-19 at a military hospital, his chief of staff said Saturday — in contrast to a rosier assessment moments earlier by Trump doctors, who took pains not to reveal the president had received supplemental oxygen at the White House before his hospital admission.
Trump offered his own assessment Saturday evening in a video from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, saying he was beginning to feel better and hoped to “be back soon.”
Hours earlier, chief of staff Mark Meadows told reporters outside the hospital, “We’re still not on a clear path yet to a full recovery.” In an update on the president Saturday night, his chief doctor expressed cautious optimism but added that the president was “not yet out of the woods.”
The changing, and at times contradictory, accounts created a credibility crisis for the White House at a crucial moment, with the president’s health and the nation’s leadership on the line. With Trump expected to remain hospitalized several more days and the presidential election looming, his condition is being anxiously watched by Americans.
Read the full story here.
Analysis & Commentary
12 p.m. Fight monsters, but not by becoming them
Most folks don’t proofread remarks tossed up on Facebook. But this was Nietzsche, and I didn’t want to get Nietzsche wrong, lest the forces of darkness he dabbled in come flapping out of a fissure in the earth and get me.
I had posted my Saturday column about Donald Trump coming down with COVID-19. It skewed toward kindness. Sorry, I had to work quick and find decency a handy default position, particularly now. You rarely regret kindness. Rarely slap yourself on the forehead the next morning and wonder, “How could I have been so decent?!?”
Yes, it bothers some. “We’re showing him more empathy than he’s shown us,” complained an assistant professor at Loyola. “He has never called for any kind of remembrance of coronavirus victims or personally sought to console survivors.“
True enough. But since when did Donald Trump become our moral pole star?
“That’s how it should be,” I replied. “‘When battling monsters,’ Nietzsche tells us, ‘make sure that you do not become a monster.’”
Quotes have a way of being distorted. So I checked the source, “Beyond Good and Evil.” Easy enough to find, aphorism No. 146: ”Whoever fights with monsters should make sure not become a monster in the process.”
OK, I condensed a little. Close enough for Facebook. And simply true.
