The director of White House security, Crede Bailey, became sick with covid-19 back in September and has kept a low profile during his health struggles since being hospitalized in early October. But a new report from Bloomberg News contains new details about Bailey’s medical hardships, including the fact that Bailey needed to have part of his right foot and lower leg amputated and that a friend of Bailey has started a GoFundMe page to pay for his “staggering medical bills.”
The GoFundMe crowdfunding page, created by a friend identified as Dawn McCrobie, says that Bailey’s medical bills from over two months of treatment have been substantial, given his need to spend so much time in the ICU. McCrobie writes that Bailey will also need money for physical rehabilitation and changes to his house to make it more accessible after he’s released.
“When he does make it home there will be major changes necessary to deal with his new, and permanent, disability,” McCrobie wrote.
The GoFundMe page has raised over $US50,000 ($66,335) as of Tuesday morning, surpassing the campaign’s initial goal. President Donald Trump has never spoken publicly about Bailey’s condition, though in fairness the president rarely talks about covid-19 in any context these days.
“Crede beat COVID-19 but it came at a significant cost: his big toe on his left foot as well as his right foot and lower leg had to be amputated,” McCrobie wrote on the GoFundMe page.
It’s not clear why amputations were necessary in Bailey’s case, but covid-19 can do an immense amount of damage to blood vessels throughout the body. Doctors around the world have seen blood clots and severe vascular disease in patients with covid-19, even in relatively young people.
McCrobie posted a recent update to the GoFundMe page encouraging friends of Bailey not to speak with the press.
From the GoFundMe campaign:
Many of you have already been contacted whereas others may soon be contacted. As much as you care for Crede, you might be asking yourself why the media wants to write about him? After all, he is a public servant – not a celebrity, a politician or someone in the public eye. So why him when there are hundreds of thousands of other people who are, or were sick with COVID-19, who lost a loved one; who lost their jobs? Perhaps the story isn’t really about Crede at all. I mean, their messages say it’s about him (and of course, how concerned they are for him) but maybe the stories are about something else and Crede’s experience just plays into those stories.
As the director of security at the White House, Bailey worked on visitor access and coordinated closely with the Secret Service, according to Bloomberg News.
There were very real concerns during the 2020 presidential campaign that President Trump’s large rallies were contributing to the spread of covid-19 throughout the country and even within his own circle more specifically. Dozens of people connected to the White House have tested positive for the coronavirus.
Bailey is said to be a staunch supporter of President Trump, so it’s understandable that he wouldn’t want to focus any negative attention on the Trump regime, but his condition and that of other White House staff has an impact on how the U.S. government functions on the world stage.
While it’s not clear how Bailey contracted the virus, the condition of White House security staff — whether it’s the people who give credentials to journalists or the officers carrying the nuclear football — is literally a matter of national security. At least one person whose sole job is to carry the nuclear codes everywhere the president goes has gotten the disease.
The U.S. has been the worst hit country during the covid-19 pandemic, with over 16.5 million confirmed cases and more than 300,494 deaths this year, according to Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. recorded over 193,000 news cases of covid-19 and 1,358 deaths on Monday alone, and 110,549 Americans are currently hospitalized with the disease, according to the Covid Tracking Project.