President Biden is in his third day of isolation after being diagnosed with COVID-19. As he isolates at his Delaware home, he has been inundated with calls for him to resign, culminating on Friday when 12 Democratic members of Congress joined the resignation list.
The president tested positive for the virus on Wednesday while campaigning in Nevada, but his symptoms were mild and he was given the COVID drug Paxlovid, which he continues to take.
“President Biden completed his sixth dose of Paxlobidi this morning,” the president’s physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, wrote in a letter to the White House. “The President continues to experience a loose, dry cough and hoarseness, but his condition continues to improve steadily.”
Anthony Fauci, Biden’s former chief medical adviser, told CNN on Thursday that given the president’s age, seeking treatment was “the right decision” to aid his recovery.
O’Connor also reported that the president has been found to be infected with the KP.2.3 variant, which the CDC says accounts for about a third of new cases in the country.
As the president recovers, calls are growing that he should withdraw from the Democratic nomination for 2024. The latest updates on divisions within the party were temporarily muted following the assassination attempt on former President Trump.
But on Friday alone, after the Republican National Convention ended, 12 Democrats called for Biden to resign, with Rep. Takano (D-Calif.) issuing the latest statement on Saturday, and reports also emerged that major campaign donors had threatened to pull their funding from Biden’s campaign.
There has been no announcement yet as to when the president plans to return to public life and complete his quarantine.
Biden is due to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later this week as he travels to address a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, and the Biden team has maintained the president’s health is its top priority.
