Donald Trump will on Saturday hold his first in-person event since testing positive for the coronavirus. Two weeks after the Rose Garden event that is now considered a "superspreader," the US president is planning to convene another large crowd outside the White House for an event on "law and order." That's despite the ongoing White House COVID-19 outbreak. An official says Trump will address the group from a White House balcony. The official declined to say how many people had been invited. White House doctor Sean Conley said in a memo Thursday that, "based on the trajectory of advanced diagnostics the team has been conducting," he "fully anticipate(d) the President's safe return to public engagements" as soon as Saturday. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's top infectious disease expert, said in an Associated Press interview Friday that Trump "would be within the recommended timeframe of the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)." The guideline, according to Fauci, "generally is 10 days from the onset of your symptoms." He says ten days for Trump would be Saturday. Trump said he has been re-tested for the coronavirus and is "either at the bottom of the scale or free" of the virus. Speaking from the White House lawn in an interview with Fox News, the president said he has been tested "every couple of days" and he is "at a level now that's been great." In his first television interview since going to the hospital last weekend, Trump said that he feels "very strong" and has not been taking any medication as of earlier in the day on Friday. Trump credited his recovery to an experimental antibody drug made by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. Health experts say it's not a cure, but experimental antibody drugs like those are among the most promising therapies being tested. They aim to help the immune system fight the coronavirus. However, they are still in the testing phase and their safety and effectiveness are not yet known. Trump returned to the Oval Office on Wednesday with his doctor's approval but several of his top aides have now tested positive. The president said during a Thursday interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity that he is already planning rallies. After being sidelined for more than a week to recover, Trump hopes to return to the campaign trail early next week in Florida. In the Florida Panhandle, a Trump stronghold, nearly 300 Republicans convened shoulder-to-shoulder and maskless in a hotel conference room this week, in the president's absence. They chanted and cheered as leading party figures including the governor and the president's eldest son shared anti-Democratic conspiracy theories, attacked the media and warned that Joe Biden "is a puppet for the radical left." Meanwhile, the second presidential debate between Trump and Democrat Joe Biden is officially off. The nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates confirmed Friday that the Oct. 15 faceoff would be scrapped. The decision was made a day after the commission announced the debate would take place "virtually" because Trump had contracted the coronavirus. Trump balked at holding the debate in that format, and Biden scheduled a town hall with ABC News for that night once Trump said he would not participate. Trump's team later countered with a call to hold the debates as scheduled once the president's doctor said he would be cleared to hold public events beginning on Saturday. But the commission said it would not reverse its decision not to have the candidates on stage together, citing an abundance of caution with health concerns — particularly for the town-hall-style debate that was set to feature questions from average voters. The third debate, scheduled for Oct. 22 in Nashville, Tennessee, is still on. Biden is using a campaign stop in economically decimated Nevada to hammer Trump and Senate Republicans for not doing more to help Americans deal with the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. The Democratic presidential candidate told supporters Friday at a socially distanced drive-in rally outside Las Vegas that Trump "ignores you, looks down upon you." "His reckless personal conduct since his diagnosis, the destabilizing effect it's having on our government is unconscionable. He didn't take the necessary precautions to protect himself or others. And the longer Donald Trump is president, the more reckless he gets," Biden said. Nevada has been hit especially hard in the pandemic economy as tourism to Las Vegas has fallen drastically. The state's 13.2 percent unemployment rate in September was the nation's highest. Early voting starts in Nevada on Oct. 17. Dr. Anthony Fauci says he is "cautiously optimistic" the US will have a safe and effective vaccine available by the end of November or beginning of December. The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told the Associated Press that the federal government has already "pre-ordered to be produced large numbers of doses." So he said some Americans, like healthcare workers, would likely be able to start getting the vaccine by January 2021. — Euronews
