Hillary Clinton’s Health Is Not, And Never Has Been, A Private Issue

Hillary Clinton’s health has been a big topic of conversation lately, especially since Sunday, when she collapsed while being helped into her van. All over social media, a debate rages among her supporters and basically everyone else who isn’t voting for her. Bernie Sanders supporters made the #BringBernieBack Twitter hashtag trend, while Trump supporters are advancing conspiracy theories that she might actually be dead. Clinton’s supporters, meanwhile, are insisting she is suffering a temporary illness and are urging us to leave Hillary alone.

And then there are those people who believe that anyone who questions Clinton’s health is a secret foreign operative working for Trump’s campaign.

The thing is, Clinton’s health is not, and never has been, a private issue. She and her handlers can try to close the curtain on the truth about what ails her, but it is not fair or ethical to do so. As a candidate running for the highest office in the United States, Hillary Clinton’s health should be a matter of public record.

Sure, back in the 60s, JFK hid his Addison’s disease, and FDR used leg braces in public instead of his wheelchair. Roosevelt’s physical disability was well-known before he was in office. Kennedy’s multiple ailments were hidden from the public at large, and although the public generally views him as a great president, he had his share of health issues that could have put our national security at risk.

According to New York Magazine JFK’s personal doctor, Max Jacobson prescribed him a large amount of drugs to treat a variety of illness including venereal disease.

“Kennedy took a crazy-quilt array of drugs, including corticosteroids, both oral and implanted as pellets, procaine and other painkillers, and intermittent but huge doses of antibiotics. Plus amphetamines and a slurry of other goodies from Max Jacobson, the original ‘Dr. Feelgood.'”

NPR reports that Woodrow Wilson had a stroke while in office. For the last 18 months of his life, he was essentially non-functioning, and his wife, Edith, took over his duties.

Yes, several previous presidents experienced life-threatening, long-term illnesses that they kept hidden from the public. That secrecy, however, also put the nation at risk, and possibly caused us economic harm. Ronald Reagan was in the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s disease as president, and look at the lovely mess he left. A high deficit, the disastrous “trickle down economics,” and the Christian Right.

And speaking of cleaning up, George H.W. Bush vomited on the Prime Minister of Japan in 1992 as a result of a nasty bout of the flu. Guess what happened? Bush was pilloried in the press as being weak, unfit for office, while his general election opponent, Bill Clinton, was hailed as the young and healthy savior this country needed.

Hillary Clinton is not even president, but her health is very much a national security issue, especially if she continues to run and is elected. During campaign stops she has experienced moments of uncontrollable coughing fits. When Clinton collapsed Sunday, she literally had to be dragged into the van after leaving a 9/11 memorial in New York City.

After her medical episode, her campaign tried to play it off as mere fainting or feeling woozy, but then a video came out by citizen journalist who goes by the Twitter handle @ZdenekGazda filmed Hillary falling into the van. The video revealed a disturbing sight; Hillary’s health appeared to be so poor that she could not move her legs, she fell over into the van, and basically had zero control over her body.

Hillary Clinton 9/11 NYC pic.twitter.com/q9YnsjTxss

— Zdenek Gazda (@zgazda66) September 11, 2016

After the video emerged, Clinton’s doctor admitted that the presidential candidate had pneumonia, and a report out in People magazine Monday says that the illness is the result of a “debilitating bug” going around her campaign staff. And later reports revealed that she had a bacterial pneumonia. Great Britain’s National Health Service describes the bacterial version of pneumonia as contagious.

And if Clinton is, indeed, suffering from a contagious form of bacterial pneumonia, she should not have been out giving speeches, hugging people — including children — and exposing them to an infectious illness.

In the days since Clinton’s health became a glaring election issue, social media has exploded with theories about what happened, who actually emerged from Chelsea’s apartment, and who will replace Clinton should her health prevent her from continuing to run.

Hillary Clinton has not been in good health for some time. Her coughing fits go back years, and in recent months, they have become worse and worse. After Clinton emerged from her daughter’s apartment nearly two hours later, she was looking surprisingly chipper. Conspiracy theorists commented on how thin she looked after emerging, how young she appeared, and that she seemed to have lost weight in her hips, even. As a result, speculation has arisen that it was not Hillary who emerged from Chelsea’s apartment, but a body double.

Heavy reports that Clinton was heading home to Chappaqua, but no press were allowed to tag along. This is reasonable. She should have the opportunity to recover from whatever illness she has in the privacy of her own home; that’s a no-brainer. However, Hillary does not have the luxury of hiding major illnesses that have the potential to kill her simply because she is a private person.

Even the New York Times indicates that Hillary Clinton’s secrecy surrounding her health issues puts her campaign at risk. As a public servant, Clinton’s health, or lack thereof, is of utmost importance, to herself, to the American people, and most of all, to our national security.

We’ve already seen the mess she left after leaving her job as Secretary of State. We’ve been subjected to national security breaches because she didn’t seem to comprehend that using a private server was not a wise decision. As president, Hillary Clinton’s decisions will be even more crucial to the future of this world, and we cannot afford to have a leader whose health is compromised by serious ailments.

[Photo by Andrew Harnik/AP Images]