Dr. Marc Siegel: Trump coronavirus treatment likely 'precautionary', may continue for 'several days'

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President Trump resting comfortably at Walter Reed Medical Center

Fox News medical contributors Dr. Marc Siegel and Dr. Marty Makary share their thoughts on 'Fox News @ Night'

The course of medication given to President Trump for treatment of COVID-19 is likely "being done for precautionary reasons" and "may continue for the next several days," Fox News medical contributor Dr. Marc Siegel told "Fox News @ Night" Friday.

Late Friday, White House physician Dr. Sean Conley announced that Trump had completed an initial dose of Remdesivir therapy and was "resting comfortably" at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.

Earlier in the day, shortly before Trump went to the hospital, Conley said the president had received "a single 8 gram dose of Regeneron's polyclonal antibody cocktail," a treatment Siegel said had shown promise in patients over recent weeks.

"The[ir] goal is to decrease the amount of virus in the body," explained the doctor, who added that the Remdesivir Trump had received functioned as a "blocking agent" that works to decrease the amount of the virus in the body.

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"It decreases the recovery time from 14 to 11 days, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in May," Siegel added. "The goal here is to decrease the risk that he's going to develop inflammation [and] blood clotting, [which are] the more severe problems of COVID-19 we have seen. And the fact that he is sitting there without [supplemental] oxygen and comfortable, in good spirits, is definitely a positive sign."

In his Friday afternoon statement, Conley noted the president had been taking "zinc, vitamin D, famotidine, melatonin and a daily aspirin."

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When asked if Trump could be expected to take part in his scheduled Oct. 15 debate against Democratic nominee Joe Biden, Siegel warned that the president should listen to his doctors.

"If he is symptom-free, gets completely better, and he's feeling completely back to himself and then he does the two negative tests, that we might consider ... bringing him back to a normal routine with debates and things like that," he said.