Dr. Kevin O’Connor, former President Joe Biden’s longtime private physician and reportedly someday family business associate, refused to answer questions about Biden’s well being at a Home Oversight and Authorities Reform Committee assembly on July 9. Requested to testify about Biden’s bodily and psychological situation, the physician invoked the Fifth Modification and declined to reply based mostly on doctor-patient confidentiality — or was it to not incriminate himself?
O’Connor’s lack of response solely raises extra doubts about Biden’s well being and his administration’s cover-up of it.
Based on a statement from O’Connor’s legal team, “On the recommendation of his authorized counsel, Dr. O’Connor refused to reply questions that invaded the well-established authorized privilege that protects confidential issues between physicians and their sufferers.”
Whereas the expectation of privateness within the doctor-patient relationship is prime and sacrosanct, that expectation is tremendously lowered after we’re speaking concerning the president, who lives in a glass White Home. Many points which might be usually no one’s enterprise develop into everyone’s enterprise on the subject of the president — and that features medical points.
On Feb. 28, 2024, O’Connor released to the public the outcomes of Biden’s most up-to-date (and final) presidential bodily. Though it has apparently been taken down from the White Home web site, it’s nonetheless available at the National Archives. It’s a public doc. If nothing else, O’Connor might have restricted his feedback to what’s revealed within the abstract of the bodily.
The document highlights the medical circumstances Biden was being handled for on the time: obstructive sleep apnea, non-valvular fibrillation, low lipid ranges, reflux, his “stiffened gait,” and several other different circumstances. No mental health assessment was made as a result of O’Connor thought it wasn’t mandatory. Or possibly it simply wasn’t prudent.
Within the abstract, O’Connor asserts the 2024 “Bodily examination is actually unchanged from baseline,” which presumably is referring to his first presidential examination in 2021. And he added at the release that Biden is a “wholesome, lively, strong 81-year-old.” However that conclusion is questionable, given Biden’s efficiency within the presidential debate simply 4 months later.
Whereas it might be completely inappropriate for a health care provider to publicly launch the outcomes of your or my bodily examination, the American folks have come to anticipate presidents to supply a abstract of their annual bodily. President Trump’s doctor, Dr. Sean P. Barbabella, released a summary of Trump’s bodily on April 13. And the White Home simply revealed Trump’s power vein downside, though it doesn’t have an effect on his job efficiency.
Folks wish to know if the particular person holding an important job on this planet is wholesome and able to doing the job. When a president goes underneath anesthesia for some medical process, reporters inform the general public. If the president contracts COVID-19, as each Trump and Biden did, the information stories it.
Be aware that Trump’s bodily included a PSA (prostate-specific antigen) take a look at, which may point out prostate most cancers. The outcome was regular. Biden’s launched outcomes didn’t embrace a PSA take a look at, and we lately found he has an aggressive type of prostate most cancers. Even former presidents could not have a lot of an expectation of privateness on medical points.
Whereas Biden’s medical circumstances can now not have an effect on presidential duties, it’s necessary to know whether or not there was a medical cowl up in order that, if there was, steps could be taken to prevent it in the future.
So, what can Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), who chairs the Home Oversight and Authorities Reform Committee, do about O’Connor’s stonewalling?
First, the best resolution is for Comer to ship Biden an official letter requesting him to permit O’Connor to debate outcomes of Biden’s physicals. If Biden offers his consent — which I doubt he’ll — O’Connor can stop hiding behind doctor-patient confidentiality.
If Biden refuses to present his consent, Comer ought to invite O’Connor again to debate Biden’s final two bodily exams. They’re public data, so O’Connor shouldn’t have any downside discussing the outcomes which have been made public.
If O’Connor refuses, Comer has another choice. When O’Connor initially launched the outcomes of the president’s bodily, he claimed that docs in a number of specialties, with out naming names, reviewed and signed off on O’Connor’s report.
Comer might ask for an inventory of the docs who reviewed the info and ask them to testify as to whether or not they had reviewed and confirmed the bodily’s outcomes.
Though such hearings would little doubt be partisan, there’s a broader coverage challenge at stake. The general public wants to have the ability to belief details about a president’s medical situation. Given what we’ve seen from the Biden administration, that’s not the case.
Merrill Matthews is a public coverage and political analyst and the co-author of “On the Edge: America Faces the Entitlements Cliff.”