U.S. President Joe Biden will briefly switch energy to Vice-President Kamala Harris on Friday when he undergoes a “routine colonoscopy” at Walter Reed Nationwide Navy Medical Heart, the White Home stated.
Biden drove early Friday to the medical centre within the Washington suburbs for his first routine bodily examination as president. Press secretary Jen Psaki stated Biden can be below anesthesia in the course of the process and would switch energy to Harris.
“As was the case when President George W. Bush had the identical process in 2002 and 2007, and following the method set out within the Structure, President Biden will switch energy to the vice-president for the temporary time period when he’s below anesthesia,” she stated. “The vice-president will work from her workplace within the West Wing throughout this time.”
Biden, 78, had his final full examination in December 2019, when docs discovered the previous vice-president to be “wholesome, vigorous” and “match to efficiently execute the duties of the Presidency,” in line with a physician’s report on the time. Biden is the oldest particular person to function president, and curiosity in his well being has been excessive since he declared his candidacy for the White Home in 2019.
Harris, the primary girl to be vice-president, will likely be making historical past in the course of the quick time she is serving as performing president.
Close to-death expertise within the ’80s
Dr. Kevin O’Connor, who has been Biden’s major care doctor since 2009, wrote in a three-page observe that the then-presidential candidate was in general fine condition.
In that report, O’Connor stated that since 2003, Biden has had episodes of atrial fibrillation, a kind of irregular heartbeat that is doubtlessly severe however treatable. On the time, O’Connor cited an inventory of checks that confirmed Biden’s coronary heart was functioning usually and his solely wanted care was a blood thinner to stop probably the most worrisome threat, blood clots or stroke.
Biden had a brush with loss of life in 1988, requiring surgical procedure to restore two mind aneurysms, weak bulges in arteries, certainly one of them leaking. Biden has by no means had a recurrence, his physician stated, citing a take a look at in 2014 that examined his arteries.
When Biden took workplace, he introduced O’Connor again to the White Home to proceed serving as his physician, and O’Connor was anticipated to guide a crew of consultants in conducting Biden’s bodily examination Friday.
As soon as the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in early 2020, Biden’s crew took intense steps to maintain the then-candidate and now-president wholesome because the virus raged and took a disproportionate toll amongst older populations. Biden acquired his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccines in December 2020 and his second dose simply two weeks earlier than taking workplace. He acquired a booster dose, which regulators say offers extra enduring safety, in late September.
The White Home stated Biden would authorize the discharge of a medical report, as is customary for presidents and presidential candidates.
Former President Donald Trump, 75, was sharply criticized for releasing solely cursory particulars on his well being whereas working for and serving within the White Home, together with concealing the seriousness of his COVID-19 sickness a month earlier than the 2020 presidential election.