Former N.Y. congresswoman and MD says recovery ‘odds are overwhelmingly in the president’s favor’

Dr. Nan Hayworth said Friday that the current version of the coronavirus strain, which is ever mutating, is highly contagious but not as severe to people. 

"It's very important ... to recognize that the odds are overwhelmingly in the president's favor, that he will survive this and have no complications that will be effective in the long term," Hayworth told "Just the News AM" with host Carrie Sheffield after the news that Trump had tested positive.

Hayworth, the first female medical doctor to serve a full term in Congress, said the "survival rate for patients in the 75-plus age group is 94% and they're certainly the age group demographically that has the more challenging situation,” she told host Carrie Sheffield.

Trump is 74. Hayworth said the president's robust health should play in his favor. 

She also distinguished the statistics reported "from" COVID versus "with" COVID. 

"There are a lot of reasons why those statistics could be skewed, rendered inaccurate or less accurate than we'd like them to be," Hayworth said. "There have been plenty of examples, Carrie, of deaths that have been attributed to COVID in patients who clearly had other conditions that were responsible for their demise."

Hayward also commented on the economy, telling viewers that "we cannot run this economy, we cannot run public health, on a sole variable, that being COVID-19."