Impressions of today's Walter Reed presser:

a) Conley's mea culpa: “I was trying to reflect the upbeat attitude of the team. Didn’t want to give any information that would steer the course of his illness.” Trump's fingerprints.

But even so, today was only slightly better. (1/8)

b/ Biggest news is that T had 2 episodes of hypoxia (down to 93-94% O2 saturation), & Conley evaded whether sat was ever <90. "Never in low 80s" is all he offered.

c/ Re: Chest CT: "There were some expected findings but nothing of concern." What the hell does that mean?...(2/8)

...To be clear, the "expected findings" on a chest CT is NORMAL. If it was normal, he should say that. Anything else should have been described.

(The only semi-benign interpretation would be if the prez has a known chronic finding – like a benign nodule – that was seen)...(3/8)

... But it seems far likelier that they found evidence of pneumonia or other manifestations of Covid lung involvement or inflammation, which is serious and raises the level of concern and risk. (4/8)

d/ They pulled trigger & started dexamethasone. So they were clearly concerned. Given documented low O2, dex definitely was indicated.

e/ Said they're starting to plan for possible discharge, as early as tomorrow. Even w/ WH's medical capacity, that seems like an awful call. 5/8

Just watched the @TuckerCarlson segment with Trump interview by @DrMarcSiegel. Takeaway: Trump looks good, his voice is strong, no visible shortness of breath, he's finishing sentences without stopping for air. Mental status and judgment seem unchanged from his usual. (1/9)

Siegel actually did a decent interview – asking questions testing recall, along with others that got at judgment and insight (latter included asking about lessons learned from this experience). I'm not a Trump fan but it's hard to make 25th Amendment case from what we saw. (2/9)

And, while Trump is still not completely out of the woods – there's still a small (<5%) chance of a significant setback – with a patient this stable 8 days into the illness, his most likely course is a relatively uneventful recovery. (3/9)

Did the interview make any news? A little. If Trump is to be believed, he was never short of breath; his main symptoms last Thursday were sore throat and weakness.

He says he wanted to leave the hospital after the second day; his team wanted him to stay for observation. (4/9)

Per Trump, he is off all medications "as of 8 hrs ago." That includes the dexamethasone. Since starting it seems like a clinical toss-up (at best) and Trump did well, stopping it before completing a 10-day course seems prudent – at some point, the risks exceed the benefits. (5/9)