A day of dizzying events had some of the President’s critics suggesting his health may be influencing his political choices

Bright, the former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research & Development Authority, said that normally, someone who had undergone Covid-19 experimental therapies would be still be in a hospital bed.

“It’s very dangerous. He’s in charge of a lot of things, makes a lot of important decisions for our country and the world, actually,” said Bright, who spoke out publicly after resigning from the National Institutes of Health this week. “If he’s not in the right sound mind to make decisions rationally, then he could be very reckless for the country and the world.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, meanwhile, questioned Thursday whether the President is in an “altered state” during an interview with Bloomberg TV, alluding to his sudden decision to halt stimulus negotiations. She noted that doctors have said that the steroid medication Trump was taking can affect a patient’s judgment.

“When the President did his strange tweet that said, ‘We’re walking away from the negotiations,’ it was, like, ‘What?'” Pelosi said during her weekly news conference. “We’ve all been working very hard to find our common ground.”

Debate over debates

Conley’s statement on Trump’s health was especially convenient since the President spent the day locked in a test of wills with Biden’s campaign and the Commission on Presidential Debates over next Thursday’s planned second head-to-head clash. The timing will only add to concerns that Conley is being browbeaten by a President who is driven exclusively by his own political fate.

Trump first said he refused to show up to a virtual showdown, which was planned due to fears he was still infectious. Then the Trump camp demanded the last two debates each be delayed a week. Then, following Conley’s evening bulletin, Trump’s team insisted the debate could take as place as planned next week in Miami despite fears over whether the President is still contagious.

The President’s latest gambit reflects the fact that he is now at risk of losing one of the last chances to turn his campaign around — purely because he ignored social distancing measures and got sick. And he offered Biden, who would be happy to avoid risks in the closing days, an opening to accuse him of backing out.

Trump also made a complete reversal on Thursday after blowing up talks on an economic rescue package with House Democrats earlier in the week in a fresh sign of his increasingly head-spinning behavior since leaving Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

Trump touts Covid ‘cure’

The President is trying to turn the campaign away from his mismanagement of the pandemic by making exaggerated promises about the coming availability of an antibody treatment made by Regeneron that he is touting as a “cure” — even though it still lacks Food and Drug Administration approval. And his post-hospital warnings that Americans must not let the disease “dominate” them are complicating public health officials’ efforts to promote public safety measures like wearing masks and avoiding crowded areas.

Earlier this week, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease specialist, warned that the country could see as many as 400,000 deaths from coronavirus by this winter.

“The models tell us that if we do not do the kinds of things that we’re talking about in the cold of the fall and the winter, we could have from 300,000 to 400,000 deaths,” Fauci said during a discussion with American University students Tuesday. “That would be just so tragic, if that happens.”

On Thursday, Fauci tried to clear up Trump’s falsehood on social media this week that the flu is more lethal than Covid-19.

“There’s absolutely no doubt, no doubt at all, that this Covid-19, with its 210,000 deaths in the United States, one million deaths globally, seven-plus million infections in the United States, is far more serious than a seasonal flu, no doubt about that,” Fauci said on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports.”

White House cover-up over Trump’s last negative test

With no medical expertise, the President is insisting he’s no longer contagious. The White House is also unconvincingly arguing that privacy concerns prevent them from sharing details of the timing of the President’s last negative Covid-19 test.

That information is important to assess whether the President recklessly went on with public events — including last week’s first presidential debate — while possibly infected. The date of the test could establish whether the White House was telling the truth when it says Trump was regularly tested — an important consideration as the presidential complex became a raging coronavirus hotspot. Knowing the date of the test is also key to evaluating the President’s claims to no longer be contagious as he agitates to get back on to the campaign trail and resume the packed rallies that risk the health of supporters and anyone they may later encounter.

Trump on Thursday also used shocking racist, sexist and McCarthyite smears to claim Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris behaved like a “monster” and a communist in her debate with Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday.

Trump’s wild behavior is coinciding with signs that the long-feared fall spike in the pandemic is gathering speed.

Coronavirus cases as of are rising in 23 states, based on the average of new cases over the past seven days. The number of new cases hit nearly 50,000 alone on Thursday with another 850 deaths giving the lie to the President’s claim that people who fall ill with the pathogen simply get over it.

Yet there is no sign of a coordinated government health offensive to prepare Americans for a grim winter before vaccines become widely available.