The emergency room doctor who openly condemned President Donald Trump's decision to wave at the supporters from a car while getting treatment for the coronavirus or COVID-19 has been removed from the Walter Reed National Medical Center's schedule. The sources who are familiar with the situation informed CBS News on Monday that Dr. James Phillips is going to be taken off the hospital rota from January in the coming year.
After almost two days in the facility in October, Trump was driven around outside of the medical center by his protective detail as he waved to the supporters who waited for him after he got admitted to the hospital. Pictured in the car with Trump were two members of the protective detail who were wearing face masks and eye protection whereas the president was also seen having a face covering in the back seat of the vehicle.
COVID-19 in US
Phillips, who is the chief of disaster medicine at George Washington University and also serves as an attending physician on a contract with the Walter Reed, was the only doctor at the facility to publicly criticize Trump for the activity. In a now-deleted tweet from October 4, Phillips wrote, "Every single person ... in the vehicle during that completely unnecessary Presidential 'drive-by' just now has to be quarantined for 14 days. They might get sick. They may die. For political theatre. Commanded by Trump to put their lives at risk for theatre. This is insanity."
Officials of the Walter Reed did not agree to CBS on Monday that they took the decision to pull the doctor off the schedule. The stated that the hospital gives requirements for contract positions and the schedule are determined by the contractor. "There was no decision made by anyone at WRNMMC to remove Dr. Phillips from the schedule."
The contractor of Phillips GW Medical Faculty Associates did not give any response to a request for comment from The Independent. The colleagues of Phillips also stated that they were surprised he was taken off schedule amidst the rise of coronavirus cases in Maryland and all over the US.
After the start of the pandemic, Maryland has confirmed at least 218,000 coronavirus cases and over 4,800 deaths, as per the latest updates. As per a tracking project by Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University, there are now over 14.9 million people who tested positive for the deadly virus in the US. The death toll has gone over 280,000.
