President Donald Trump left the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to greet supporters from his vehicle Sunday in a move he has been widely criticized for.

Several well-known anti-Trump celebrities have not minced words about the stunt, with most labeling it irresponsible.

An attending physician at the hospital even called move “insanity” after the President put the health of Secret Service agents at risk by having them in a confined space with him while he has COVID-19.

Footage of the drive-by photo opportunity has been widely shared on social media since it was released.

Trump can be seen waving at supporters from the back seat of the black Chevrolet Suburban.

Stand up comedian Jim Gaffigan—who has been extremely critical of Trump in recent weeks—shared a clip of the drive-by and used it to urge his followers to vote.

“Sound on!!! This man yelling embodies all my fears and why this elections is so important. Please vote,” he tweeted.

The man yelling in the clip can be heard saying: “God bless our president, I will die for him.”

Another high profile Democrat, Alyssa Milano of Charmed fame deemed the stunt “dangerous” and “selfish.”

“I haven’t said an ill word about him since I heard about his diagnosis,” the 47-year-old wrote. “But what the f*** is he doing? Is he trying to kill people? He’s locked in a sealed SUV with members of secret service. No one told him this was a dangerous idea? A bad idea? A selfish idea? #TrumpCovid.”

Author Stephen King condemned Trump for “risking lives” for a “publicity stunt.”

“Trump risked the lives of the Secret Service personnel who were in the drive-by SUV with him. Lives risked for a publicity stunt,” the “It” author said. “They will need to quarantine for 14 days, doctors say.”

Comedian Rosie O’Donnell tweeted: “#AmericaOrTrump – a few dozen people – he rewards with a drive by – after a tan free tease – god this is absurd on every level – vote him out #AmericaOrTrump.”

Frequent Trump critic Bette Midler quoted Walter Reed physician Dr. James P. Phillips and tweeted: “‘Every person in the vehicle during that unnecessary Presidential ‘drive-by’ has to be quarantined for 14 days,’ Dr. Phillips, attending physician, Walter Reed. ‘They may get sick; they may die. For political theater. Commanded by Trump to risk their lives for theater. #INSANITY.'”

Singer Nancy Sinatra said of the President: “You know how he loves to put on shows. It’s all he does.”

Actor Billy Baldwin made a dark joke by tweeting: “Trump attends his own funeral procession.”

While Medium star Patricia Arquette also showed concern for the Secret Service agents tasked with accompanying the President during the photo op.

“The secret service put their lives at risk to protect the President,” she tweeted. “He should protect their lives too. Not put them directly at risk.”

TV presenter Caitlin McGee added: “As he drives by in an enclosed vehicle, symptomatic with a deadly virus, needlessly endangering the lives of those secret service men. All to stroke his own ego. I’ve never seen anything like this… he doesn’t care about anyone’s life but his own. Including his supporters.”

This latest round of criticism comes as Trump has started the steroid drug dexamethasone as part of his treatment at Walter Reed.

The incumbent is reported to be “doing really well” and “if everything continues to go well,” he could potentially be discharged as early as Monday to continue his treatment at the White House, doctors confirmed.

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President Donald Trump has been prescribed dexamethasone for COVID-19, a steroid that has a range of potential side effects including mental problems such as aggression, agitation, and anxiety.

At a press conference on Sunday at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where Trump is being treated for COVID-19, White House physician Dr. Sean Conley said the president was prescribed dexamethasone after the president’s blood oxygen levels dropped twice.

Dexamethasone is a steroid that suppresses the immune system to prevent the release of substances that can trigger inflammation. The drug was found to benefit critically ill patients in trials in the U.K., raising questions about the severity of the president’s condition.

The cheap, common medicine is used to treat inflammatory conditions including ulcerative colitis, arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, and breathing disorders.

Some of the more common side effects can affect a patient’s mental state, such as aggression, agitation, anxiety, irritability, depression, changes to mood, and nervousness. Trouble thinking, speaking or walking can also occur. Other common side effects include blurred vision, producing less urine, dizziness, an irregular heartbeat or pulse, headaches, and noisy breathing. Patients may also experience numbness or tingling in the limbs, swollen fingers, hands, feet or lower legs, pounding in the ears, difficulty breathing at rest, and weight gain.

There are a range of less common side effects, too, like stomach cramps, back ache, and bloody or tarry stools. Dexamethasone has also been linked to rare reports of grandiose delusions, psychosis, delirium, and hallucinations.

Dr. J. Michael Bostwick, a psychiatrist at the Mayo Clinic who has studied the psychiatric effects of steroids, told The New York Times steroids are mostly used without much concern for psychotropic effects, but patients should be monitored for changes to their mood, thinking or sleep. Steroids can trigger psychiatric side effects “at almost any dose,” he said.

As well as dexamethasone, the president is also having a monoclonal antibody therapy that mimics the proteins the body creates to fight infection, and the anitviral drug remdesivir. In addition to oxygen, he has also been given Zinc, vitamin D, famotidine, melatonin and aspirin.

Since he was diagnosed, Trump and the White House have portrayed the president as strong, and said on Friday his condition was mild. On Sunday afternoon, Trump left hospital for around 15 minutes, waving to supporters from the backseat of a vehicle. The day before, the White House released photos of the president working at hospital, prompting his daughter Ivanka Trump to tweet: “Nothing can stop him from working for the American people. RELENTLESS!” Dr. Brian Garibaldi who is treating the president said he may be discharged on Monday.

However, some experts have expressed concern about the combination of treatments the president is receiving.

Daniel Davis, professor of immunology at the University of Manchester, U.K. and the author of The Beautiful Cure, a book about the immune system, told Newsweek dexamethasone “is probably only really appropriate in treating people with severe symptoms of COVID-19″ as it prevents a person’s immune system being overly active and causing lung damage.

“It’s not clear why this drug would be useful in a patient with mild symptoms, because obviously you do want a person’s immune system to be able to fight off the virus itself,” he said.

Ian Hall, professor of molecular medicine at the University of Nottingham U.K., told Newsweek it is difficult to comment without all the relevant details, but requiring oxygen is a marker of more severe disease, and would mean Trump should benefit from dexamethasone.

“Dexamethasone works as an anti-inflammatory, so there is logic in combing it with an anti-viral drug as well, which I assume is why remdesivir was also given,” Hall said.

Regarding the use of the antibody therapy in addition to dexamethasone and remdesivir, Hall said this would not be done in the U.K. outside the context of a clinical trial “as clearly there are potential risks as well as potential benefits of treatment and hence using experimental drugs outside of a clinical trial is not logical in my view.”

Dr. Thomas McGinn, physician-in-chief at New York State health provider Northwell Health told The New York Times it appeared doctors were “throwing the kitchen sink at him” when it comes to the drugs they’re using.

“Is he sicker than we’re hearing, or are they being overly aggressive because he is the president, in a way that could be potentially harmful?” said McGinn.

According to the World Health Organization, dexamethasone reduces the risk of dying in patients on ventilators by about one third, and one fifth in patients only needing oxygen. Patients are generally given the drug when their condition appears to be deteriorating. McGinn said that prescription was the “most mystifying” of what the president has been given so far.

Regarding Trump’s oxygen levels, which fell to below 94 percent according to Conley, Carlos del Rio, an infectious-disease expert at Emory University, told Politico “Once you drop below 94 percent, by definition you have severe Covid.”

Vin Gupta, an affiliate assistant professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, tweeted on Sunday that doctors would not generally prescribe an experimental antibody cocktail, Remdesivir and dexamethasone to a patient who had drops in their oxygen levels “unless there’s COVID Pneumonia.”

He tweeted: “What did his chest imaging show? The American people deserve basic information on their President.”

This article has been updated with comment from Daniel Davis and Ian Hall.

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First Lady Melania Trump won’t visit President Donald Trump at Walter Reed medical center because she doesn’t want to potentially expose anyone else to COVID-19, according to a report from MSNBC.

The president and the first lady tested positive for the virus late on Thursday night and Trump was taken to hospital at Walter Reed on Friday. Melania Trump hasn’t yet visited him.

NBC News’ Deepa Shivaram told MSNBC’s The Week with Joshua Johnson on Sunday that the network understood the first lady wouldn’t visit Trump because of the risk that might pose to Secret Service agents and other White House personnel.

“We just did receive news from NBC’s Peter Alexander putting out a note that the first lady herself […] there’s a note saying the reason she hasn’t visited her husband at Walter Reed is because she didn’t want to put those Secret Service agents and driver in harms’ way and expose them to COVID,” Shivaram said.

Alexander, NBC News’ White House Correspondent, shared the information on Twitter shortly before the Sunday broadcast.

“Reminder: A White House official, on Saturday, told me the First Lady would not be visiting Trump at Walter Reed because ‘she has COVID and that would expose the agents who would drive her there,'” Alexander tweeted.

Shivaram, who is reporting on the 2020 election and is embedded with vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris‘ campaign, noted that the first lady’s approach was different to her husband’s.

The president briefly left the hospital on Sunday and went for a short drive where he waved at well-wishers gathered outside. There has been strong criticism of the decision.

“It’s an interesting contrast of the first lady showing some caution in this process while the president himself, you know, leaving the hospital after being diagnosed with COVID in a car with his Secret Service agents and the driver definitely not social distancing, you know, and putting those folks at risk here, too,” Shivaram said.

“He has been positive for the past couple of days now and very well could be contagious and very well could get others sick who he is close with. It’s a little bit of a two-fold situation going on.”

Dr. James P. Phillips, an attending physician at Walter Reed, took to Twitter to warn that the president’s drive could have endangered the people with him—exactly what Melania Trump is reportedly trying to avoid.

“Every single person in the vehicle during that completely unnecessary Presidential ‘drive-by’ just now has to be quarantined for 14 days, ” Phillips wrote. “They might get sick. They may die. For political theater. Commanded by Trump to put their lives at risk for theater. This is insanity.”

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