Health
Biden health concerns persist as he makes first appearance after ending campaign
President Biden was seen boarding Air Force One in Delaware on Tuesday, marking the first time he has been seen in public since being diagnosed with COVID-19 on July 17.
The president held a mask in one hand as he gave onlookers a thumbs-up and a salute before disappearing into the plane.
“His walking on the stairs looks fine, better than usual, but it’s strange that he didn’t say hello to anyone,” Dr. Marc Siegel, clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center and a Fox News medical contributor, told Fox News Digital. “All his energy went into walking.”
The president is headed to Washington, D.C., where he is scheduled to make a speech to the American public on Wednesday night.
DOCTORS EXPRESS CONCERN ABOUT BIDEN’S APPARENT COGNITIVE ISSUES DURING DEBATE: ‘TROUBLING INDICATORS’
Biden’s personal physician, Kevin C. O’Connor, released the latest update on the president’s health on Monday, July 22, reporting that the president had completed his 10th dose of Paxlovid and that his symptoms have “almost resolved completely.”
President Biden boards Air Force One as he departs Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on July 23, 2024. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
There has been a renewed emphasis on the president’s health – both physically and cognitively – in recent weeks, stemming from his concerning performance at the June 27 presidential debate and culminating in his July 21 announcement that he was ending his campaign for re-election.
Cognitive concerns
The first presidential debate of 2024 left many Americans, and even some traditional Democrat allies, wondering about Biden’s mental fitness for office based on what appeared to be his unclear train of thought and lack of coherence.
President Biden gestures as he boards Air Force One at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Tuesday, July 23, 2024. (Ken Cedeno/Reuters)
“President Biden’s performance in [the] debate reignited longstanding discussions about his cognitive abilities and his overall leadership capacity,” Dr. Brett Osborn, a Florida neurosurgeon who specializes in cognitive function, told Fox News Digital after the debate.
“Biden struggled to maintain a coherent narrative, often losing his train of thought mid-sentence and providing vague, rambling and undecipherable answers to highly critical questions,” Osborn continued, expressing his professional opinion.
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The doctor, who has not treated the president, also called out Biden’s frequent pauses, struggle to find words and reliance on the notes he was writing as points of concern.
“President Biden lacks the mental sharpness required for the highest office in the land … especially amid [today’s] current national and international crises,” Osborn said.
The neurosurgeon also mentioned that the 46th president has undergone multiple surgeries for brain aneurysms.
President Biden boards Air Force One at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Tuesday, July 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
There is a famous saying in neurosurgery, Osborn noted: “When the air hits your brain, you’re never the same.”
The doctor said, “It is medically probable that when he took office in 2020, he was afflicted by mild cognitive impairment, a gateway syndrome to Alzheimer’s disease and potentially Parkinsonism – not necessarily Parkinson’s disease itself.”
Health’s potential role in Biden’s exit?
After Biden’s announcement on Sunday that he was dropping out of the 2024 presidential race, doctors shared their thoughts about what that action meant in terms of his ongoing cognitive health.
Given signs of his “ailing cognitive status, President Biden’s decision to step down from the race seems prudent,” said Osborn.
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“By stepping down, President Biden can prioritize his health and potentially mitigate further cognitive decline while also ensuring the leadership role is filled by someone fully capable of handling the demanding responsibilities of the position.”
Siegel also told Fox News Digital that he believes Biden’s decision may be best for the president’s health.
The first presidential debate of 2024 left many Americans wondering about Biden’s mental fitness for office based on what appeared to be his unclear train of thought and lack of coherence. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
“The stress of the race could have definitely made cognition worse, but it will progress anyway if there is a cognitive issue, and fitness is a big concern,” the doctor told Fox News Digital on Sunday.
Siegel has said on multiple occasions that he has not examined or treated the president and that he cannot make any definitive diagnoses.
Tested positive for COVID
The president tested positive for COVID-19 on July 17, sparking concerns about the risk the virus poses to older adults.
The White House released an announcement of Biden’s positive COVID test, noting that the president had been vaccinated and boosted and was “experiencing mild symptoms.”
Dr. Marc Siegel joined “Fox & Friends” on June 28 to discuss concerns sparked by Biden’s performance at the June 27 presidential debate against former President Trump. (Kevin D. Liles for the Washington Post via Getty Images | Fox News)
His upper respiratory symptoms included “rhinorhea (runny nose) and non-productive cough, with general malaise,” according to a statement on the White House’s website.
Doctors shared their concerns about the potential long-term effect COVID could have on Biden.
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“Post-COVID syndromes and long COVID have been shown to affect underlying neurological conditions,” Siegel warned.
“This can also come from recurrent COVID.”
“By stepping down, President Biden can prioritize his health and potentially mitigate further cognitive decline.”
Osborn noted that the virus has been shown to have potential long-term effects on cognitive function, often referred to as “brain fog.”
“These effects can include difficulties with memory, attention and executive function,” he said.
“In someone with pre-existing cognitive issues like President Biden, contracting COVID-19 could exacerbate these symptoms – via neuroinflammation – and lead to a more rapid decline.”
President Biden walks down the steps of Air Force One at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on July 17, 2024. (Susan Walsh/AP)
As of July 22, Biden had received his 10th dose of Paxlovid.
“His symptoms have almost resolved completely,” O’Connor, the president’s doctor, wrote in a July 22 briefing.
“His pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate and temperature remain absolutely normal. His oxygen saturation continues to be excellent on room air. His lungs remain clear.”
Health as a qualifying factor
Along with meeting the official requirements for president, Siegel and Osborn agreed that whoever holds the office should also be physically and cognitively healthy.
“It is extremely important,” Siegel told Fox News Digital. “We have a right to it as a country.”
The role of president involves making complex and high-stakes decisions, often under significant pressure, Osborn noted.
Dr. Brett Osborn, a Florida neurosurgeon who specializes in cognitive function, has shared his concerns about Biden’s cognitive fitness. (Dr. Brett Osborn)
“Cognitive health is essential for clear thinking, effective communication and sound decision-making, all things President Biden lacks,” he said, sharing his viewpoint.
Physical health is also essential, Osborn said, as the role also requires long hours, frequent travel and crisis management.
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“A healthy president is better equipped to handle the demands of the office and to lead the nation effectively through various challenges,” he added.
In light of Biden’s announcement to exit the race, Siegel said the decision “should be accompanied by a full health disclosure.”
Doctors have called for thorough health evaluations for presidential candidates, and sitting presidents, to ensure they can perform their required duties. (Getty Images)
He said, “They should admit to what they know and reveal full neurological results.”
The situation highlights the need for thorough health evaluations for presidential candidates – and sitting presidents – to ensure they can perform their required duties, according to Osborn.
“Routine testing – physical and mental – should be made nonnegotiable instead of being thwarted by the governing party,” he said.
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In response to outreach from Fox News Digital, the White House press office stated that “health was not a factor” in the president’s decision to withdraw from the race.
“He looks forward to finishing his term and delivering more historic results for the American people,” the White House said in its statement.
Over the two and a half years following the 2022 rollout of the 988 national suicide prevention hotline, the rate of suicides among young people in the United States dropped 11 percent below projections, decreasing most sharply in states with a higher volume of answered 988 calls, a new study has found.
The findings, published today as a research letter in JAMA, compared suicide deaths from July 2022 to December 2024 with sophisticated mathematical projections that were based on historical trends. This yielded good news, with 4,372 fewer suicides of adolescents and young adults, ages 15 to 34, than had been projected.
To ensure that the decline was related to the use of the hotline, researchers at Harvard Medical School teased out the trends in states with high and low usage of the hotline. The findings were striking: The 10 states with the largest increases in 988 calls experienced an 18.2 percent reduction in observed suicides compared with expected suicides; in the 10 states with the lowest uptake, the reduction was smaller, 10.6 percent.
The results suggest that the government’s investment in the 988 rollout has translated into “a measurable reduction of deaths,” said Dr. Vishal Patel, a resident physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and one of the authors of the study.
“What our study has added,” he said, “is evidence for the deeper benefit of the program, and that is, that at the population level, among young people at least, suicide mortality is lower than it would have been without the program.”
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Are you concerned for your teen? If you worry that your teen might be experiencing depression or suicidal thoughts, there are a few things you can do to help. Dr. Christine Moutier, the chief medical officer of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, suggests these steps:
He added, “The implication of that is that sustained funding for this program matters.”
The United States rolled out the three-digit hotline with bipartisan support in July 2022, replacing a 10-digit hotline number, and augmented it with a $1.5 billion investment in crisis center capacity. Since its inception, the service has fielded more than 25 million contacts, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. The agency has asked Congress for $534.6 million to fund the program for 2027.
Last summer, the Trump administration terminated one element of the hotline, the Press 3 option for L.G.B.T.Q.+ callers. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration said that the Press 3 option was being discontinued because it had exhausted its funding from Congress and that the hotline would “focus on serving all help seekers.”
But advocacy groups and policymakers protested the decision, and in testimony before the Senate on Tuesday, the health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said his agency was planning to restore the Press 3 option.
Dr. Patel said his group had become curious about measuring the program’s effectiveness after Press 3 was eliminated. While call volume and satisfaction surveys suggested that 988 was succeeding, he said, the harder question was, “Did the creation of this 988 program, the transition from the old hotline to this hotline, actually move the needle on suicide mortality?”
Experts said it was difficult to tease out the beneficial effect of 988 from other things that changed in 2022, the year that the new hotline was created. Around that time, suicide prevention programs were being introduced in schools, in faith communities and on social media, but more important, the pandemic was ending.
“We were finally out of this crazy time, and there was a sense of optimism and hope,” said Jonathan B. Singer, a professor of social work at Loyola University Chicago and a co-author of “Suicide in Schools.” He called the downward trend in youth suicides “encouraging, but it is tempered by the fact that we don’t have a good explanation as to why.”
The authors acknowledged that their findings could not account for the influence of social and economic changes, changes in mental health services or public awareness about services.
But they did make comparisons to exclude other possible explanations. The authors looked for similar effects among American adults over 65, who are less likely to use the hotline. In that group, there was a reduction in suicides that exceeded expectations, but it was smaller, at just 4.5 percent.
To ensure the decline in suicides did not reflect a general improvement in young-adult mortality, the researchers tracked cancer deaths, and found there was no change. They also looked at the rates of suicide among young people in England, where no change had been made to the national crisis line in that time period; they found no reduction in youth suicides there.
Hannah Wesolowski, chief advocacy officer for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said she was persuaded that the hotline had contributed to the improvement in suicide rates, in part because it did not appear among English youths or in older Americans.
“To me, that really helps hone in that this might really be the differentiator,” she said. “We are seeing potentially a pretty significant decline in suicides among young people. For public policy, this is strong evidence to double down on that we are doing.”
Emily Hilliard, a senior press secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, said H.H.S. and SAMHSA are “committed to ensuring that all Americans have access” the 988 line, which she said “clearly provides lifesaving support, helping millions of people every year.”
If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.
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A highly contagious digestive virus is surging across the U.S., experts warn.
Rotavirus, a double-stranded RNA virus, causes acute gastroenteritis — inflammation of the stomach and intestines — which can lead to severe diarrhea, vomiting, fever and stomach pain.
The virus primarily affects infants and young children, but there have also been outbreaks in elderly populations, such as nursing homes.
AT LEAST 46 CHILDREN DEAD AMID MEASLES OUTBREAK AS VIRUS SPREADS GLOBALLY
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that in the week ending April 4, out of 2,329 rotavirus tests, 7.3% were positive for the infection. Last year’s highest infection rate was 6.77% as of the week ending April 19.
Rotavirus, a double-stranded RNA virus, causes acute gastroenteritis — inflammation of the stomach and intestines — which can lead to severe diarrhea, vomiting, fever and stomach pain. (iStock)
“We’re seeing a lot of rotavirus in the wastewater right now,” Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News senior medical analyst, confirmed to Fox News Digital. “Testing for rotavirus is way down, but the percentage of positive tests is up.”
While the virus typically peaks in the spring, it is not currently slowing down, he noted.
Why cases may be rising
Patricia Pinto-Garcia, M.D., a medical editor at GoodRx who is based in California, said there are several possible reasons for the rotavirus spike.
“Vaccine rates are down overall among young children, as they decreased during COVID,” she told Fox News Digital. “This means there’s a growing number of infants and young children who are vulnerable to infection.”
The rotavirus vaccine series must be completed by the time a child is 8 months old, she noted.
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As a result of the declining vaccinations, herd immunity isn’t protecting vulnerable children, according to Pinto-Garcia. “Children who haven’t finished the vaccine series yet, are too young to get vaccinated, or can’t get the vaccine due to medical illness are more likely to get exposed to the illness because other children aren’t vaccinated,” she said.
Siegel noted that before the vaccine became available, rotavirus resulted in 55,000 to 70,000 in the U.S. per year.
“Vaccine rates are down overall among young children, as they decreased during COVID,” a doctor told Fox News Digital. “This means there’s a growing number of infants and young children who are vulnerable to infection.” (iStock)
“I am concerned that the vaccination rate has been declining over the past seven years and is continuing to decline in the current climate of vaccine skepticism,” he said.
Surveillance methods are also much better than they used to be, Pinto-Garcia noted, which means public health experts are able to pick up and track cases better than ever before.
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“But we see that rotavirus-related healthcare visits are also up, so improved detection is not the only reason we are seeing this spike,” she said.
The COVID pandemic also disrupted the pattern of infections, according to Pinto-Garcia, so it’s “tricky” to compare the current levels against older cycles.
“It’s possible that what we are seeing is still some post-pandemic rebound, but it’s unlikely that this year’s pattern is fully explained by just this factor,” she added.
Transmission and risk
Dr. Zachary Hoy, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Pediatrix Medical Group based in Nashville, Tennessee, often sees young patients with rotavirus.
“Rotavirus is spread via the fecal-oral route, meaning that a person comes into contact with virus droplets from contact with other children or adults, or from contact with objects such as toys that have been contaminated with the virus from someone who is sick,” he told Fox News Digital. “This can lead to outbreaks, especially at schools where many young children share the same toys.”
“It’s possible that what we are seeing is still some post-pandemic rebound, but it’s unlikely that this year’s pattern is fully explained by just this factor.”
Rotavirus is associated with many dehydration cases in the hospital due to the degree of diarrhea, according to Hoy.
In some severe cases, the virus can lead to seizures due to electrolyte imbalances from dehydration and loss of electrolytes in the stool.
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“Younger children do not have the reserves that older children and adults have, so they can become more dehydrated quicker and develop more severe electrolyte imbalances, leading to more severe infections,” Hoy said.
“Patients with problems with their immune systems or on medications that can decrease their immune systems can have more severe and prolonged infections, too.”
Treatment and care
Because rotavirus is a viral infection, antibiotics are not effective against it. There is no specific antiviral treatment for the condition, with doctors typically recommending supportive care.
“The mainstay of treatment is hospitalization for rehydration via intravenous (IV) fluids,” Hoy told Fox News Digital. “Sometimes it can take up to two to three days of IV fluids to help get patients rehydrated.”
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Blood draws are often necessary to evaluate patients’ electrolyte levels, such as sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium, according to the doctor.
“If these electrolyte levels are significantly low, sometimes patients need special IV solutions or individual electrolyte medications,” he added.
“The mainstay of treatment is hospitalization for rehydration via intravenous (IV) fluids,” a doctor told Fox News Digital. (iStock)
Dr. Daniel Park, medical director of the Pediatric Emergency Department at UNC Health in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, noted that most children recover with supportive care, but parents should seek medical attention if a child shows signs of dehydration. Those include decreased urination, lethargy or inability to keep fluids down.
“While rare, rotavirus can be life-threatening in vulnerable populations, especially very young infants or children with underlying medical conditions,” Park told Fox News Digital.
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Prevention strategies
Given the lack of antiviral medications for rotavirus, doctors emphasize the importance of prevention, primarily the vaccine.
There are two rotavirus vaccines – Rotateq (a three-dose series) and Rotarix (a two-dose series). They are given starting at age 2 months as oral drops, not injections, according to Hoy.
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“It’s important to get the rotavirus vaccines on schedule, because these younger infants are at greatest risk if they get rotavirus,” he advised.
Other recommended prevention methods include handwashing with soap and water.
Every day we’re faced with a zillion small choices: Go to sleep early, or watch one more episode of that Netflix drama. Call an old friend to catch up, or cruise social media. Of course, no single action will guarantee a long, healthy life or doom you to an early grave. But those little daily decisions do add up, and over the long term they can make a difference when it comes to both your longevity and your health span, the amount of life spent in relatively good health.
Scroll through this theoretical “day in the life” and select the option that best fits your typical day. Not every situation will apply perfectly, but think about which choice you’d be most likely to make. This isn’t a formal scientific assessment. The goal here isn’t to assign you a “good” or “bad” score, but to help you understand the central factors that shape the way we age and how long we live.
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