Nearly 50 years ago, I wrote a published letter objecting to the release of Gerald Ford’s full physical, including genitalia and rectal exam. I thought that was unseemly, and that expecting that level of disclosure would make it harder for women — and for a man with some irrelevant abnormality — to run for office. But I expected continuing disclosure of conditions that actually affected job performance or survival.
This year’s presidential campaigns have been a morass of misdirected attention and misleading communication. Kamala Harris gets off easy, since she disclosed enough medical information, and neither that report nor her behavior shows any particular health concerns. However, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have both been caught up in the maelstrom, though differently. In my half-century as a geriatric physician, I’ve served thousands of older adults. From my perspective, the public conversation about the effects of aging on political leaders has been maddening.
Biden was widely criticized for a slow pace in walking and talking, and for having trouble quickly finding words, including names. While he has a life-long challenge with stuttering, causing some slow speech, his fluency this year was clearly worse. Pundits attributed this to age, and some implied that it signaled inadequate intellectual skills, likely to progress, and probably associated with a diminished life expectancy.
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