October 2: Trump's Covid diagnosis

President Trump is now “in a race” against coronavirus, the CEO of biotechnology company Regeneron said after the drug maker provided a dose of its experimental antibody treatment to the President on Friday.

“He's in a race where his immune system is racing against the virus, and if the virus wins you can have dire consequences, obviously, and what our antibodies do is we make it a fair fight,” Dr. Leonard Schleifer told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.

“That’s the strategy. We’ve got a lot of data but we’re still in the experimental phase, but when you’re in the midst of a pandemic and you have people at risk, we think it makes sense to try these,” he added. 

Regeneron’s experimental monoclonal antibody treatment is still in large-scale clinical trials, but Schleifer said it is available for compassionate use, something the US Food and Drug and Administration has to approve on an individual basis.

Trump received a single 8 gram dose of Regeneron’s dual antibody cocktail Friday and completed the infusion without incident, the President’s physician, Dr. Sean Conley, said in a statement.

A single high-dose should do the trick, Schleifer said. “It's a large enough dose, so that it'll last for quite a long time, hopefully even beyond when he's made a complete recovery,” Schleifer said. “We have evidence ready that these are long lasting in the body, as you'd expect with this type of therapy.”

The cocktail includes two monoclonal antibodies—lab-engineered versions of immune system proteins targeted specifically against coronavirus. “It’s not all that complicated. We’re just trying to mimic the natural immune system, which really isn’t ready to go when the virus is already going,” Schliefer said.

Schleifer says Regeneron is seeing promising results in its clinical trials of the treatment.

Schleifer would not say whether first lady Melania Trump received the same experimental treatment.

In response to the Biden campaign’s decision to pull negative TV ads while President Trump is hospitalized, spokesperson Tim Murtaugh told CNN that the Trump campaign will not make a similar move.

Earlier today: Joe Biden's campaign pulled all negative ads today, going all positive after Trump was diagnosed with Covid-19, a campaign aide told CNN.

This decision was made before the White House announced that Trump will go to Walter Reed medical center.

President Trump is currently at Walter Reed medical center after announcing that he had tested positive for Covid-19.

If you're just reading in now, here's a recap of the latest developments:

Anderson Cooper explains latest developments:

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro wished President Trump a speedy recovery in a message posted on his Facebook account as Trump was being flown to Walter Reed hospital.

Writing alongside an image of Marine One lifting off from the White House, Bolsonaro wrote, "With faith in God, they will soon be recovered and the work in running their country and their re-election campaign will not be harmed."

"You will win and leave stronger, for the good of the USA and the world." Bolsonaro added.

Bolsonaro spent months downplaying the threat from coronavirus, dismissing it as just a "little flu" and assuring his compatriots they had little to fear, before himself testing positive for Covid-19 in early July.

The Biden campaign has raised health concerns about the vice presidential debate slated to take place next Wednesday to the Commission on Presidential Debates, in light of President Trump testing positive for Covid-19, a source familiar with those conversations said. 

Amid negotiations with the commission about the terms of the Kamala Harris-Mike Pence face-off, the Biden campaign expressed opposition to the podiums being spaced seven feet apart, and asked that they be 12 feet apart instead, the source said.

The Biden campaign sees the podium-spacing issue as a “very serious concern,” the source added.

The President's daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump called her father "a warrior" following his arrival at Walter Reed medical center this afternoon.

Trump was flown there aboard Marine One after saying he contracted Covid-19.

Read the tweet:

The Trump campaign has notified attendees of Thursday's fundraiser at his Bedminster golf club that the President has tested positive for coronavirus.

The email reiterated that attendees were not allowed within six feet of the President, per the campaign's protocol.  

The email went on to encourage attendees to contact their medical provider if they or their loved ones develop Covid-19 symptoms. It did not make any mention of quarantining or self-isolation but did recommend attendees visit the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's website.

The email was sent early Friday afternoon.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent “warm greetings” and a message of sympathy to President Trump after he and first lady Melania Trump tested positive for Covid-19, according to North Korean state news agency KCNA.

Kim said he “sincerely hoped they would be recovered as soon as possible” and “he hoped they will surely overcome” the disease, KCNA reported.

The message was sent prior to Trump taking Marine One to Walter Reed medical center for Covid-19 symptoms.

Anyone who has been in President Trump’s inner circle should be tested for coronavirus infection and should not decide they’re clear just because they have tested negative for the virus one time, an infectious diseases chief said Friday. 

Dr. John Mellors, head of infectious diseases at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said he would expect more people associated with Trump to test positive for coronavirus in the coming days.

Mellors added: “Everybody needs to be tested. Everybody who has had contact with him needs to be tested.”

One negative coronavirus test does not mean people should not quarantine or take other precautions to protect those around them, Mellors added. Tests are not 100% accurate.

“They ought to do some very quick contact tracing and isolation to stop the spread in the government,” said Mellors, one of the world’s top experts in the treatment and spread of the AIDS virus, who has helped organize UPMC’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

“They are going to have to follow the science now. They should have followed it all along,” Mellors added. “This is an absolute wakeup call. Stop fiddling around and making this a political issue. Wear the masks. They work. It’s that simple. There should be federal and state mandates to wear a mask."

Mellors also disputed White House physician Dr. Jesse Schonau’s statement that Vice President Mike Pence has tested negative for coronavirus and thus does not need to quarantine because Pence was not a close contact of anyone infected.

“If he was in the Oval Office with Trump in the last week, then he was exposed,” Mellors said.