Joe Biden has stage 4 prostate cancer. I seem to remember Ronald Reagan getting a couple of feet of cancerous colon sliced out of his midsection early in his 2nd term, after he had enjoyed four full years of “unrivaled” Presidential Medical Care.
Perhaps it’s all a myth. Like the idea that a $10,000/yr bespoke Primary Care Physician will do you any good.
I usually get that PSA test to check for prostate cancer about once every 3 years. I got one 2 months ago after I got my Covid booster and I had trouble urinating for about 24 hours afterwards. So far, everything is still normal.
Medical care is a two way street. The patient bears some responsibility to be aware of their bodies and seek out medical consultation when things aren’t right.
I would hazard a guess that US Presidents are generally terrible patients, and put off seeking medical care.
I’d also point out that the two cancers you mention (colon and prostate) often go without presenting symptoms until they are at advanced stages. Unfortunately, that does not mix well with patients who don’t seek out care.
Yup. Same with cholesterol. Seems everyone a doc can get his hands on, is screened, regardless whether there are any symptoms or not.
The reporting on the blood test for amyloid over the weekend said it’s only approved for people with symptoms. I bet that restriction doesn’t last long, before it’s opened to everyone, at least on Medicare. Especially as one study indicated treatment before there were symptoms delayed or avoided disease. The longer disability can be delayed, means that many fewer years in a nursing home.
During his time in office, Biden underwent regular physicals. His medical reports noted treatment for seasonal allergies and sleep apnea, as well as monitoring for skin cancer and consultations in neurology and orthopedics. However, there was no mention of prostate cancer screening or treatment, which Emanuel found surprising. “President Obama had this test, President Bush had this test. It is a little surprising that the doctor didn’t take it,” he said.
In Biden’s 2024 physical, his doctor described him as “a healthy, active, robust 81-year-old male, who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency.”
Doctor Bob, you are good at research. What type of medical issues is President Trump hiding ? Or is he a bastion of health ? Trump sure does not look healthy to me. I would like to see the same scrutiny applied to Trump as to Biden.
Until that happens, I’ll ease off on the moral outrage, in regards to Biden not keeping America appraised of all of his health woes. I’m thinking that Trump is covering up a whole lot more than Biden, but perhaps that’s just my bias against Trump coming out.
We don’t know what is hidden or how much is hidden or if there are things hidden. What we do now know is that Biden has had cancer (for years in order to get to this stage) while we were told he was healthy. I am not happy a) that this man was running for re-election with both strong mental and physical declines and b) the issues were covered up by the White House and largely ignored by the press. YMMV.
Also, another issue – as noted upthread – the president has access to the best medical attention in the country – rightly so. Biden was not some 80-year old Vietnam vet showing up at the VA after not having seen a doctor for 10 years.
Of course we do know a few things. We do know his diet under any food nutritionist’s advice is not particularly healthy. We do know he gets very little exercise even while golfing. We do know that he dictated a 2015 medical exam letter from his doctor, who admitted same, describing his blood pressure as ‘astonishingly excellent’ whatever that means (either your blood pressure is within normal bounds or it is not). He also had his doctor say “if elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”
So we do know that he will self-promote to the extent of lying and cheating about his health.
Presidents and their doctors always lie.
JFK & FDR had medical issues kept from the public. But our nation was lucky to have them in office. Roosevelt was circling the drain when he ran for the third term. Truman did a credible job finishing the FDR’s third term.
There’s rather a prosaic explanation for why Biden’s cancer was undetected until he exhibited symptoms: he’s fairly old. The standard of care for men over 70 years old is to not be regularly screened for prostate cancer. Men of that age will, on the whole, suffer more detrimental effects from overtreatment than from undetected prostate cancer. That’s because most of them will end up dying with prostate cancer rather from prostate cancer, and treating the prostate cancer often ends up shortening their life rather than extending it.
Of course, that “on the whole” does a lot of heavy lifting. While not screening will allow men over 70 to live longer on average than if they were all screened, there will obviously be some cases where the individual in question wouldn’t have been overtreated - they would have been treated for a cancer that will shorten their life.
We know he has bone spurs. We also “know” that he weighs 224 pounds…
Let the conspiracies begin! I’ve heard that Dr. Jill Biden must have known…ya know…because she’s a doctor. The outrage from the right is bonkers. Somebody should tell them they live in the largest glass house ever built.
I’m not happy that JB ran, it was obvious that he’d be unfit to serve another term. If there was a cover-up, it was probably the worst cover-up in the history of cover-ups. Polling consistently indicated that the majority of voters thought he wasn’t fit to run again.
The problem that needs to be addressed is this - both parties are providing cover instead of holding their leaders accountable. The future of the country will be controlled by the party that corrects this first.
All of that said, with his mental and physical decline, the country would still be better off with JB as president now. What does that say about the current guy?
What eldemonio said. AND, in the long long list of crucial constitutional (written and unwritten) reforms we likely will never do as the Republic sinks deeper into doodoo, the Chief Executive and Commander in Chief ought meet the same level of mandatory medical examinations as the Chairman of the JCS.
@tjscott0 almost as bad as “The World, A Family History of Humanity,” By Simon Sebag Montefiore that reported Pearl Harbor Day as December 8, 1941. It was an excellent book but he didn’t bother to check primary sources.
VAN JONES, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Everybody knew, but everyone was afraid to say – except for David Axelrod, for two years – that something was wrong here…
I was shocked to see his condition when he came out. And so was the world. And that wasn’t the first time he was in that condition. The book [Tapper’s ‘Original Sin’] makes it very, very clear. There are people who knew and said nothing. And that is a crime against this republic. And I think the Democrats are going to pay for a long time for being a part of what is now being revealed to be a massive cover-up.
I don’t know how much there was or was not a cover-up, but what I don’t understand is if there was, why didn’t someone leak it for their own personal/political gain? Certainly Kamala had everything to gain by getting it out much earlier - heck she very likely could be POTUS today if it was widely known prior. Also, all the other potential candidates - Pete, Newsom, etc had significant benefit to gain if it was known earlier enough to cause a primary.
And even the news agencies - they had eyeballs to sell - Pulitzer prizes to win. Sure, they might have a liberal bias but it doesn’t override their own bias toward their bottom line and there is no way that I would believe that all three networks and the vast majority of the cable news networks all conspired, against their own self interest, to keep such quiet.
All that leads me to believe there wasn’t as much of a cover-up as we are being lead to believe. Let’s be honest, the dems are not very good at keeping such secrets and Biden lacked the political capital, unlike Trump, in being able to bully people to silence.
Maybe I should clarify. I’m not suggesting this is the most scandalous cover-up, it was the most poorly executed. How can we honestly say that it was so scandalous when everybody and their mom knew there was a problem…including the majority of voters?
Crime against the this republic seems a little dramatic to describe this situation. We can say a lot of people were too afraid to say or do anything…that seems to be a very contagious problem.
Some disingenuous Ds will use the “cover-up” to explain their inaction. Many dishonest Rs will use this “scandal” to provide cover for their wart of a leader.
Thanks Van. Your bloviating about this crime against the republic will certainly shield the many others that are occurring each and every day under the current regime.