Transparency regarding the health of a U.S. president has never been unheard of; quite the opposite is true. But transparency is essential for the American people to assess the health of their leader, give them legitimacy to vote for them, and have confidence that they are able to carry out the duties they were elected to perform.
I interviewed President Trump after he contracted COVID-19 in late 2020. It seemed to open “I felt like a person with a weaker personality shouldn’t feel like a president of the United States should feel,” Trump said of his vulnerability. White House physician Dr. Sean Connolly quickly provided me with details of Trump’s illness and recovery, and the treatment he received, including steroids and monoclonal antibodies for “pulmonary congestion” confirmed by a CT scan.
To be fair, the former president’s opponents have questioned his transparency about his diet, stress levels, lack of sleep and exercise. But Trump plays golf regularly and Low blood pressure, I don’t drink or smoke,and Low Cholesterol He was on medication. He was normal. Exercise stress testing During his presidency, he was asked 30 questions. Cognitive testing And it worked. His Latest Health Report Details were scarce, but they were brilliant.
I have called for a full and transparent assessment of the current President’s health since before he took office, and the results of his annual medical examinations, including the most recent one, reported by Dr. Kevin O’Connor are worded in exquisite terms. Mid-February) is medically unconvincing: the president frequently has memory problems, is disoriented and cannot complete sentences, yet the report makes no mention of cognitive testing or an MRI scan of his brain.
Clearly, confusion is brewing.
Many in the media have focused on Parkinson’s disease as a possible cause, despite O’Connor denying it during the president’s two previous physicals and again at a press conference this week. letterThe president also does not have many of the physical characteristics of Parkinson’s disease, such as tremors, a shuffling gait, cogwheel rigidity and pill rolling.
I am inclined to believe what O’Connor wrote in the official documents and will pay more attention to what he left out.
President Biden has beenthe history ofIn 1988, I had surgery for atrial fibrillation (irregular heart rhythm) and a brain aneurysm, which puts me at risk for silent strokes and cognitive impairment (possibly due to vascular insufficiency, a lack of blood flow). This could very well be the problem.
Unfortunately, there is a long history of presidents and their staffs hiding health conditions from the public, but these cover-ups undermine the very foundations of our democracy.
In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson Spanish FluWhile Wilson suffered a 103-degree fever, a terrible cough and weakness, his doctor, Cary Grayson, lied to reporters, saying he just had a bad cold. Like COVID a century later, this new pathogen had post-viral syndrome, including horrific neurological complications.
At the Paris Peace Conference after World War I between French President Georges Clemenceau and British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, Wilson was in a weakened state and in fact Hallucinations At one point, the French Foreign Legion was threatened with arrest. Wilson eventually recovered, but he lacked his usual fortitude and energy and was unable to defend the rights of Germany and its people as planned. As a result, Clemenceau launched a severe economic crackdown on Germany, which ultimately led to World War II.
Wilson then suffered a severe stroke and, during his final days as president, whispered instructions to his wife, who ran the country without the public’s knowledge.
History repeated itself during President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s fourth term.Suffered[HesufferedfromuncontrolledbloodpressureandfatigueforseveralmonthsbeforesufferingafatalcerebralhemorrhageonApril121945ChurchillandStalinwereawareofthisanddidtheirbesttosupporthishealthtowardstheendofWorldWarIIbuttheAmericanpublicwasagainunaware[1945年4月12日に致命的な脳出血を起こす前の数か月間、彼は血圧の制御不能と疲労に悩まされていた。チャーチルとスターリンはこれに気づき、第二次世界大戦の終わりに向けて彼の健康をサポートするために最善を尽くしたが、アメリカ国民はまたもやそのことに気づかなかった。
Roosevelt’s death forced Harry Truman, an inexperienced leader, to assume the presidency and oversee the end of World War II (including the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan).
President EisenhowerHospitalized for heart attackIn September 1955, Dr. Paul Dudley White, a leading cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, not only spoke frankly to the American public about the risks and recovery from a heart attack, but also used the incident as a lesson to educate Americans about heart attacks in general.
This was meant to be a turning point in terms of transparency, but unfortunately it was not. Back pain and Addison’s diseasereported cocktail Mood stabilizers President Nixon’s alleged involvement in Blood loss The pain that Reagan endured when he was shot.
People have a right to know, and knowing helps distinguish a true democracy from a banana republic.
Mark Siegel, MD, is a professor of medicine at New York University Langone Health and medical director of DoctorRadio. He is a medical correspondent for Fox News and author of the new book, “COVID: The politics of fear and the power of science.”
