President Joe Biden has not seen a neurologist outside of his annual exams, White House physician Kevin O’Connor said in a letter released Monday night addressing White House visits from a Parkinson’s disease specialist.
Visits from expert Dr. Kevin Cannard raised questions that White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had left unanswered earlier in the day. Biden has been on the defensive trying to reassure Americans and Democratic legislators that he can run and win later a poor performance in the debate last month.
NBC News previously confirmed New York Post report That said a Parkinson’s specialist from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center visited the White House at least eight times in eight months, according to public visitor records.
O’Connor’s letter detailed Cannard’s experience as a neurology specialist and noted that he has been a neurology consultant at the White House Medical Unit since 2012. Cannard was the one who examined Biden for each of his annual physical exams, including the most recent in February. , O’Connor wrote.
Before the Covid pandemic, the letter said, Cannard held regular neurology clinics at the White House Medical Clinic for the thousands of active-duty military personnel assigned to support White House operations.
“Seeing patients at the White House is something Dr. Cannard has been doing for twelve years,” O’Connor wrote. “Dr. Cannard was chosen for this responsibility not because he is an expert in movement disorders, but because he is a highly trained and highly regarded neurologist here at Walter Reed and throughout the Military Health System, with a very broad experience that makes him flexible to see a variety of patients and problems.” Jean-Pierre said at a press conference on Monday that Biden has a comprehensive annual physical that includes appointments with a neurologist and that the results have been shared publicly. She did not release names, citing what she said were security concerns.
The White House Medical Unit has thousands of patients and typically does not release the names of the doctors it works with, O’Connor wrote in the letteraddressed to Jean-Pierre.
“However, in the interest of accuracy, I have obtained permission from the President and Dr. Cannard to confirm the details I am sharing,” he wrote.
O’Connor also wrote that Biden had a physical exam in February and that he showed no signs of any neurological disorder, including Parkinson’s disease.
“The results of this year’s examination were detailed in my letter of February 28: ‘An extremely detailed neurological examination was again reassuring as there were no results that were consistent with any cerebellar disorder or other central neurological disorder such as stroke, sclerosis multiple, Parkinson’s, or lateral ascending sclerosis, nor are there any signs of cervical myelopathy,’” O’Connor wrote.
Doubts about Biden’s health come later a poor performance in the debate that left people, including some Democratic lawmakersquestioning whether he should step aside and allow someone else to run.
Biden resisted these calls and on Monday he repeated that he will continue in the race.
This article was originally published in NBCNews. with
