Without mandatory independent assessments of a candidate’s fitness, all we have is the voluntary release of letters from the candidate’s personal physician. The physician is well known for praising Trump’s “incredible genes.” In 2016, a letter was released apparently written by Trump’s previous personal physician, Harold Borstein, a gastroenterologist. On both sides of the political aisle, plenty of health professionals take to the media to share their medical guessworkSuch speculation is unhelpful. The best way to move beyond sycophantic letters from personal physicians and the gossipy musings of cable news medical contributors is to have a standardized, independent, transparent, multi-disciplinary assessment of the presidential candidates by a non-partisan body that commits to publishing the results. The idea of forming a standing medical commission to conduct this kind of assessment has been around for three decades.

Source: The Guardian August 02, 2024 07:58 UTC