President Donald Trump said that contracting the coronavirus was a “blessing from God” in a new video released Wednesday, as he talked up a treatment from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and said it should be free.
In a video released hours before the debate between Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris, Trump said, “I think this was a blessing from God that I caught it,” since it educated him about treatments.
Democratic Party communications director Xochitl Hinojosa offered a dissent from Trump’s view that the virus was heaven-sent, referencing the 210,000-plus Americans who have died from COVID-19:
Trump praised an experimental antibody cocktail from Regeneron REGN, +1.72%, which is still in clinical trials, which he was administered at the Walter Reed military hospital in Bethesda, Md., just outside Washington.
“I call that a cure,” Trump said.
Shares of the company were up 3% in after-hours trading.
Trump didn’t provide details of how the drug would be made available to Americans free of charge.
Trump had earlier returned to work in the Oval Office, but the White House did not say whether he was wearing a mask to protect those around him.
Trump’s management of the pandemic is expected to be a major focus of the vice-presidential debate in Salt Lake City later Wednesday.
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