WASHINGTON - Doctors declared US President Joe Biden, 80, healthy and “fit for duty” on Thursday after a physical examination that included removing a lesion from his chest and declaring him free of symptoms of long-Covid after testing positive last year for the coronavirus.
“The president remains fit for duty, and fully executes all of his responsibilities without any exemptions or accommodations,” White House physician Kevin O’Connor said in a summary of the health exam. Mr Biden is a “healthy, vigorous, 80-year-old male,” he wrote.
Mr Biden underwent a closely watched physical examination on Thursday morning ahead of an expected announcement that he is seeking a second four-year term. The summary said Mr Biden did not have any “long Covid” symptoms and that his stiff gait has not worsened since his last exam in November 2012.
Mr Biden’s three-hour session with doctors at Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre in the Washington suburb of Bethesda, Maryland, was his second extensive exam since taking office in January 2021.
Mr Biden’s last physical and colonoscopy, in November 2021, showed the president to be a “healthy, vigorous, 78-year-old male,” his doctors said at the time.
He had a polyp removed from his colon and his contact lens prescription updated, the doctors’ six-page memo said.
Mr Biden, the oldest person ever to serve as US president, has waved off questions about his age.
With Mr Biden expected to launch his re-election campaign in the near future, polls indicate that voters have concerns about his ability to serve four more years if he wins in 2024.
Asked about the concerns on Mr Biden’s age, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said: “This is a president that works day in and day out, you know, in a gruelling fashion with a gruelling schedule, and delivers.”
About three-quarters of Americans - including more than half of Democrats and the vast majority of Republicans - say Mr Biden is too old to work in government, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted Feb 6-13.
Most Democratic respondents said the president remains mentally sharp, but about half of them said he cannot handle the physical toll of the presidency.
Mr Biden would be 86 by the end of a prospective second term, making him 13 years older than the average life expectancy of an American male, according to 2020 US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data.
At his last exam, Mr Biden’s White House physician, Dr Kevin O’Connor, declared him fit for duty and able to execute his responsibilities. Dr O’Connor attributed Mr Biden’s stiff gait to spinal arthritis and “peripheral neuropathy,” or some loss of sensation in the feet.
Mr Biden’s physical probably would include a neurological exam, as is typical with people in his age group who are more vulnerable to falls, associate professor of neurology Borna Bonakdarpour, of Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, told Reuters.
Mr Biden’s eyes and hearing would also likely be checked, along with “anything else he may complain about,” Prof Bonakdarpour said. Mr Biden’s cognition seemed good during the recent State of the Union address, the doctor said.
Mr Biden said during a PBS interview last week that any Americans concerned about his age should “watch me” perform the duties of the presidency.
First Lady Jill Biden, 71, last month had cancerous skin lesions removed. REUTERS
