On Monday, The New York Times ran an article detailing visits to the White House from a neurologist described as a specialist in Parkinson’s disease. Similar stories appeared on CNN, ABC News, and other outlets.
These stories follow a story that ran on Saturday in the Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post, which noted that neurologist Dr. Kevin Cannard made several visits to the White House over the past year. This included a Jan. 17 meeting with Biden’s personal physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor.
The Post described their report emerging “as questions continue to swirl about the 81-year-old president’s mental health in the wake of his debate debacle last week with former President Trump.”
None of the articles explicitly state that Cannard was at the White House to treat Biden for Parkinson’s, but all of them insinuate that Cannard was visiting for that purpose. The Times article adds reports from anonymous neurologists insisting that Biden is demonstrating symptoms of Parkinson’s.
And when it came time for a press conference on Monday, reporters seemed angry at White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre for refusing to help in fueling their speculation.
Normally, more reputable outlets would have some qualms about mimicking the tabloid stylings of the New York Post. However, in this case, the openings of the stories are all astoundingly similar.
New York Post: “A top Washington D.C. neurologist had a meeting with President Biden’s personal doctor at the White House earlier this year, visitor logs reviewed by The Post show.”
CNN: “A top Parkinson’s disease specialist held a meeting with President Joe Biden’s physician at the White House earlier this year, according to records, though the circumstances of the meeting are unclear.”
The New York Times: “An expert on Parkinson’s disease from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center visited the White House eight times in eight months from last summer through this spring, including at least once for a meeting with President Biden’s physician, according to official visitor logs.”
It’s true enough that the White House visitor logs show Cannard stopping by the White House on eight occasions since July 2023. However, most of these articles eventually get around to revealing that Cannard has been a member of a White House medical unit since 2008 and has made relatively frequent visits to the White House for over a decade.
That a member of the White House medical staff visited the White House on a few occasions over the last year might not seem like news, and it wouldn’t be—unless you add a good dose of speculation, such as in this paragraph from the Times report.
An array of neurologists who have not personally examined Mr. Biden said they observed symptoms in his public appearances that were consistent with Parkinson’s or a related disease, such as hypophonic speech, forward flexed posture, a shuffling gait, masked face and irregular speech pattern. But they emphasized that a specific diagnosis could not be given without firsthand examination.
The Times article also seems to lean on what appears to be coincidence. It notes that “around the time of the first meetings,” Cannard published a research paper on potential Parkinson’s treatments. That paper appeared in August 2023, around the time of the New York Post’s arbitrarily selected time period, not when logs show that Cannard met with O’Conner in January 2024, or when Cannard is first noted on the visitor logs, in 2012. And that’s ignoring the fact that, as a peer-reviewed paper in a scientific journal, it was surely submitted months earlier.
This isn’t the first time that anyone has suggested Biden might have Parkinson’s. On June 28, a story in The New Yorker speculated that Biden’s facial expressions during the debate had the appearance of Parkinson’s according to unspecified “observers.” Right-wing pundits have pushed the idea of Biden having Parkinson’s for years. It’s also in heavy rotation on social media and in subscription newsletters, such as a recent offering from commentator Simon Rosenberg:
All of these articles ignore information that has been public for some time, as discussed in this article from a geriatrician published last summer.
President Biden’s stiffened gait is explained by arthritis of the spine, old sports injuries, and a relatively recent right midfoot fracture. A neurological examination showed “no findings which would be consistent with any cerebellar or other central neurological disorder, such as stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s or ascending lateral sclerosis.” His workup did reveal that the president has esophageal reflux—a benign, common condition—as a cause of his throat-clearing.
That was Biden in 2023. It’s still Biden in 2024; the description from this year’s report is unchanged.
On Monday evening, O’Connor released a letter noting that Cannard had seen Biden but only as a standard part of his annual physical examinations. Those examinations found, just as they did last year, that there were “no findings which would be consistent with any cerebellar or other central nervous system disorder such as stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, or ascending lateral sclerosis.”
It’s not surprising that the news outlets would publish stories about Biden’s health. Reporters and pundits, like everyone else, should be concerned about the president’s health and should be interested in relaying the most complete and accurate picture of his health to the public. We are all concerned.
Even so, following the New York Post down a pig trough of speculation and innuendo is certainly not the best way to provide that information. Neither is badgering Jean-Pierre when she refuses to feed that rank speculation.
Many media reports over the last few days have been, at best, simply tacky and well below what should be the standards of the press
There is no evidence that Biden has Parkinson’s. But don’t expect an end to the speculation. Or for there to be any apologies.
