There’s no mistaking his role, with the bright blue cursive lettering “Sean P Conley, DO” above “Physician to the President” stitched in the left breast of his white lab coat.
But Dr. Conley, who is a commander in the United States Navy, was anything but shipshape in describing his COVID-sick patient’s condition as he stood outside of Walter Reed hospital Saturday flanked by nine other white-coated medical professionals.
The picture was reassuring. The words all over the place.
Conley wrongly said that President Trump had tested positive for the virus 72 hours earlier, which would’ve put his diagnosis at Wednesday morning. Which would’ve meant Trump exposed many others after knowing he was a COVID carrier.
Soon after, the doc said he’d misspoken. The actual test results were back Thursday night, not long before Trump told the nation via Twitter. Oh.
Mistakes happen — assuming that’s all this was.
Worse, Conley was anything but forthright in refusing to divulge basic facts like what was Trump’s temperature when he was running a fever. Conley had no qualms about offering up Trump’s blood oxygen saturation (96%), heart rate (70s to 80s) and blood pressure (110 to 120 systolic), all of which were healthy and normal. So is Dr. Feelgood only the bearer of good news?
And he played a game of cutsie over whether or not Trump had been breathing with oxygen assistance since getting infected. The truth: Trump was on oxygen.
After Conley painted a rosy picture, it was left to an unnamed White House source, which was clearly Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, to inform the public that Trump’s vitals “were very concerning” and he isn’t out of the woods.
This isn’t the size of the president’s inaugural crowd. This is the state of the president’s health. Cut it out. Play it straight. Now.
— New York Daily News