On Tuesday's broadcast of CNN's “The Situation Room,” Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a professor at the George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences and CNN medical analyst, also served as an advisor to the White House medical team under President George W. Bush. Regarding the Biden administration's national defense policy, he said: Secretary Lloyd Austin's hospitalization “starts to get really confusing when you think about the Secretary of Defense being in intensive care without informing other members of the chain of command, because he would have been potentially unstable. , potentially taking painkillers.'' It would have been very difficult for him to make complex recommendations during a national crisis. And Austin's admission to the ICU “suggests that he was unstable.”
Reiner said, “First of all, it appears that the Secretary had an abscess about a week after surgery. It was fluid that was present in his abdomen, which they explained, and that he was not allowed to heal.'' It would have needed to be drained to help. And I think he's currently in the hospital and continuing to take antibiotics, but it's unclear whether he'll need them in the future. And the urology. It also depends on whether there are complications associated with the surgery itself, prostate healing, urine flow, etc. However, it is important to note that hospitalization is very consuming. It looks like, but he's 70 years old. And I tell people it takes about three times as long to recover from an illness compared to being hospitalized. So if he's in the hospital for 8 days now. , it could take a month to recover.”
Host Wolf Blitzer then asked, “As you know, he was readmitted last week after originally undergoing surgery for prostate cancer. What does that mean to you?” .
Reiner said, “Well, it shows that he was sick, and more importantly, that he was admitted to the intensive care unit suggests that he was unstable. And this story really starts to fall apart when you think about the Secretary of Defense being in intensive care without notifying the rest of the chain of command, because he's potentially unstable and potentially on painkillers. That made it very difficult to make complex recommendations during a national crisis. So this part of the story is very difficult to understand.”
Reiner said, “If he's no longer on painkillers, just on antibiotics, maybe in physical therapy, and overall resting at home, then yeah, he's… “He must be very capable of reading e-mail, participating in conference calls, and advising white people.” Stay home unless you need pain medication. ”
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