Biden says he feels ‘much better’ than he sounds after catching COVID

The president's doctors said his mild COVID-19 symptoms were improving, as the White House worked to portray the image of a president still on the job despite his illness.

COVID-19 symptoms left President Joe Biden with a raspy voice and cough as he met Friday via videoconference with his top economic team. But the president tried to strike a reassuring tone, declaring, “I feel much better than I sound.”

Biden took off a mask and sipped water as he opened the meeting to discuss the decline in gas prices in recent weeks. Reporters were allowed into a White House auditorium to view a few minutes of the proceedings, and when they asked how Biden was feeling, he flashed a thumb’s up.

The president’s doctors said his mild COVID symptoms were improving and he was responding well to treatment, as the White House worked to portray the image of a president still on the job despite his illness. He received his presidential daily security briefing via video call while, separately, Chinese President Xi Jinping wished Biden a “speedy recovery.”

Biden had an elevated temperature of 99.4 F on Thursday, but that went down with Tylenol, according to a new note from Dr. Kevin O’Connor, the president’s personal physician. Biden also used an inhaler a few times but hasn’t experienced shortness of breath.

The president completed his first full day of Paxlovid, the antiviral therapy treatment meant to reduce the severity of COVID, and Biden’s primary symptoms were a runny noise, fatigue and a loose cough. Other metrics, such as pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate and oxygen saturation were normal, O’Connor said, although the White House did not release specific figures.

“The president is doing better,” White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha, who spoke to the president via video call, said during a Friday briefing with reporters. He noted that Biden was in a good mood, had slept well, ate a full breakfast and lunch and even showed off his empty plate, while joking that his only regret was that, despite being sick, “his appetite had not changed.”

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden told her he was working an “8-plus hours a day.” She said 17 people were determined to have been in close contact with Biden when he might have been contagious, including including members of his senior staff. None have tested positive, she said.

Jha said Biden will remain in isolation in the White House living quarters for five days and then be tested anew. He plans to return to work once he tests negative.