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| There is no legal requirement to disclose information from the President's medical examination. Doug Mills |
When Barack Obama underwent a routine physical exam as president, his doctor noticed he had switched from cigarettes to nicotine gum. I pleaded not.
There were no legal requirements to follow regarding presidential health checks, and the amount of information released was always up to the president himself. But Thursday's presidential exam will bring him extra scrutiny because at his 80-year-old he is America's oldest president.
Biden's trial was postponed for several weeks due to scheduling issues, officials said. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the administration would follow the same procedures as Biden's previous physical examinations.
In 2021, after undergoing a physical and colonoscopy at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, White's House declared him fit to do so by the president's physician, Kevin O'Connor. increase. Confirmed that the president has released the letter. his duty.
He said at the time that the president's tendency to cough during speeches had become "more pronounced" and that age-related changes in his spine had made his gait more rigid.
Dr. O'Connor did not mention in his report whether Mr. Biden had taken a cognitive test. Political historian Matthew Dalek said many doctors recommend testing for older people, but the president needs to regularly publicize such tests.
But given Biden's age, "the more positive information Biden can present to the public in clean health, the more comfortable people will feel," Dalek said.
Nikki Haley, who announced her presidential run on Tuesday, called for a "mandatory mental aptitude test for politicians over the age of 75," including both Biden and Donald J. Trump. The address is "unsuitable".
Mr. Biden brushed off those concerns, telling voters only to "be careful."
The tradition of making the results of presidential health checks public goes back to Nixon, but expectations vary as to how much information to release.
Dalek said Biden's level of transparency was "almost in line" with that of Presidents George W. Bush and Obama, who provided information on height, weight, and cholesterol. Stating that he occasionally smoked cigars, Obama's doctor even said the president took Nexium and daily vitamin D pills for "occasional acid reflux symptoms."
In 2018, the Trump administration sent a former White House doctor, Dr. He declares that he was enjoying good health. His health memorandum, released in 2019, did not detail Trump's medical examinations or results, as White House doctors did for Obama.
Some presidential candidates have gone to great lengths to answer age and health questions. field.
The reporters were given two stacks of medical reports totaling over 1,000 pages, including lab results, clinical notes, pathology reports, physician orders and anesthesia reports, handwritten notes, and insurance information. Many of these were from the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona. , he was treated for cancer.
Still, Dr. Blazer warned that standard physical reports provide limited information about the president.