Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson posted to Facebook that he has been “desperately ill” with coronavirus on Friday. But, thanks to top-notch medical care, he is “out of the woods at this point.”
Carson initially, who suffers from “several co-morbidities,” displayed only mild symptoms before getting sicker.
In the post, he reveals that Donald Trump, who has been closely following the secretary’s condition, approved monoclonal antibody therapy, which attributes to saving his life. Trump received the same treatment when he was battling the virus in October.
According to NPR, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Eli Lilly’s monoclonal antibody therapy Bamlanivimab for emergency authorization last week.
“There are a number of promising treatments that need to be tested, approved, and distributed (sooner rather than later) so that the economy can be re-opened and we can all return to a semblance of normalcy,” Carson said in his post. “Also, people should recognize that there are a number of defined steps that legally have to be taken before vaccines are released to the public and trying to cause alarm by saying dangerous shortcuts were taken only serves to stoke fear.”
In his post, he stressed the importance of making the level of treatment he received at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center available to everyone as soon as possible.
“I am hopeful that we can stop playing politics with medicine and instead combine our efforts and goodwill for the good of all people,” he said.
