Donald Trump says getting COVID-19 a 'blessing from God'
Washington: US President Donald Trump has described his COVID-19 infection as a "blessing from God" in a new video filmed at the White House in which he promises to make the experimental drug he received available for free to all Americans.
Introducing himself as "your favourite president", Trump said he regarded the experimental antibody treatment, made by pharma company Regeneron, as a "cure" for coronavirus.
There is no cure for the virus, according to medical experts.
"For me, I walked in, I didn’t feel so good and 24 hours later I was feeling great," Trump said in the five-minute video posted to Twitter on Thursday (AEST). "I wanted to get out of hospital."
He continued: "I feel great, I feel like perfect. I think this was a blessing from God that I caught it, this was a blessing in disguise."
When asked about the President's comments Democratic nominee Joe Biden told reporters: "I think it's a tragedy the president deals with COVID like it is something not to be worried about when already 210,000 people have died."
Trump returned to the White House on Tuesday (AEST) after three nights in the Walter Reed Medical Centre in Maryland.
"I think if I didn't catch it, we'd be looking at [the Regeneron treatment] like a number of other drugs," Trump said. "But it really did a fantastic job. I want to get for you what I got. I'm going to make it free, you're not going to pay for it."
In a previous video filmed after his return to the White House, Trump urged Americans not to be afraid of the virus or to dominate their lives - a statement that alarmed many medical experts given hundreds of Americans are still dying each day from COVID-19.
Regeneron chief executive Leonard Schleifer has been a member at Trump's golf club in Westchester, New York, and his company also received $US450 million in government funding in July as part of the president's Operation Warp Speed plan to develop a coronavirus vaccine.
In a statement to CNN Regeneron said: "Len and President Trump are acquaintances from both living in the Westchester area for many years but didn't have any regular contact until this year, when they've discussed matters around COVID on occasion."
Regeneron shares jumped 2.9 per cent in after-market trading on the president’s remarks. Eli Lilly & Co., which makes a competing antibody treatment also mentioned by Trump, climbed 1.7 per cent.
Trump has begun working again from the Oval Office even though he is probably still infectious with the disease. White House staff who come near the president must wear full personal protective equipment such as gowns, masks and goggles.
with Bloomberg.
Matthew Knott is North America correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.