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Ben Carson Says He Was 'Desperately Ill' With The Coronavirus

Ben Carson, here in June, posted about his recovery from COVID-19 on Facebook on Friday.
Evan Vucci
/
AP
Ben Carson, here in June, posted about his recovery from COVID-19 on Facebook on Friday.

Ben Carson, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, took to Facebook on Friday to report he has been "extremely sick" with the coronavirus. But Carson, one of several individuals in the Trump administration who recently contracted the virus, said the worst is behind him.

Carson said his initial symptoms were light, but then he became "desperately ill," and noted that he has "several co-morbidities" that played a role.

"President Trump was following my condition and cleared me for the monoclonal antibody therapy that he had previously received, which I am convinced saved my life," Carson wrote. He said he is now "out of the woods."

In October, Trump credited his recovery to antibody treatments from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.

Last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Eli Lilly's monoclonal antibody therapy Bamlanivimab for emergency use authorization. Regeneron is still awaiting emergency use authorization.

In his post, Carson said he hoped that "we can stop playing politics with medicine." He asked for patience with the process of bringing anti-coronavirus drugs to the market.

"There are a number of promising treatments that need to be tested, approved, and distributed (sooner rather than later) so that the economy can be re-opened and we can all return to a semblance of normalcy," Carson wrote.

He urged people not to "cause alarm" by saying "dangerous shortcuts" have been taken in developing a coronavirus vaccine.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Dustin Jones is a reporter for NPR's digital news desk. He mainly covers breaking news, but enjoys working on long-form narrative pieces.

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.

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