Medical expert says Trump needs ‘psychiatric evaluation’ over hospital ‘joyride’

Health experts says if president was her patient she would ‘call security to restrain him’

An ex-health commissioner and CNN medical analyst, Dr Leana Wen, said Donald Trump needed a psychiatric assessment after he appeared in a motorcade whilst infected with coronavirus.

In a post on Twitter, the medical analyst argued that if the US president were her patient, she would have examined his mental state following the motorcade that took place on Sunday.

“If Donald Trump were my patient, in unstable condition and [with a] contagious illness, and he suddenly left the hospital to go for a car ride that endangers himself and others: I'd call security to restrain him,” wrote Dr Wen.

She added that she would have “then perform[ed] a psychiatric evaluation to examine his decision-making capacity,” amid widespread alarm over the presidential drive past around Walter Reed Medical Centre.  

The stunt has since been widely condemned by health professionals, some of whom have argued that Secret Service personnel were put in harm's way because of Mr Trump’s drive-by.

Whilst his aides have denied those claims, attending Walter Reed physician Dr James Phillips called on all those involved in Mr Trump’s drive past to now quarantine.

"They might get sick. They may die," he wrote on Twitter. "For political theater. Commanded by Trump to put their lives at risk for theater. This is insanity."

US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDc) guidelines currently ask anyone who comes into contact with someone infected with Covid-19 to self-isolate for two weeks.

Deputy White House press secretary Judd Deere said Mr Trump’s “short, last-minute motorcade ride” was approved by the president’s medical team.

“Appropriate precautions were taken in the execution of this movement to protect the President and all those supporting it, including PPE,” added the official.