[ad_1]
A secret working group develops a plan to establish a medical committee to oversee the health of the president in the hope of determining that President Trump is not fit for the position or to to stop another like him. .
The public face of the group of five people, most of whom decided to remain anonymous, is Dr. Bandy Lee, a Yale University psychiatrist who has published a controversial collection of essays concluding that Trump is dangerous for the country because he showed he is mentally unfit.
"Based on our experience with the current President, we are calling on candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency to take regular work aptitude tests, preferably as a prerequisite for their taking function and even preferably before their election, "Lee said.
Lee's group realizes that Congress will not impose such a requirement, which would include an annual review every year after winning the elections. Rather, he seeks to require that candidates voluntarily submit to an examination by the jury.
They plan to publish a proposal and argue that the medical group is needed to prevent people mentally unable to access high office.
"We would like this whole process to be as voluntary and confidential as possible, but also in a democracy, we believe that the public has the right to know if a dangerous person is holding the presidency," Lee said.
The book Lee published, The dangerous case of Donald Trump describes a model of independent medical committee. The idea in the book was that Congress creates the panel, but the group is now looking for a way to put it in place without legislation.
The expert group would have three neuropsychiatrists – a clinic, an academic and a military – a clinical psychologist, a neurologist and two internists. Mental and physical assessments would be confidential unless candidates choose to reveal them or insist on running despite their disability.
Medical experts would be appointed by an external organization, such as the highly respected National Academy of Medicine, and would be appointed for a six-year term, with one alternate and one alternate each year.
"It's like having a medical exam to make sure you qualify before you continue," Lee said. "Any reasonable person should be able to submit."
The Washington Examiner asks the campaigns of 10 Democrats who announced their candidacy when they would submit to it. medical examination and they planned to publish their medical records. Inquiries were also sent to the Trump campaign and to Howard Schultz, the former CEO of Starbucks, who said he was considering running as an independent.
The campaign in favor of Andrew Yang, former head of the Obama administration and technology entrepreneur, was the only one to respond.
"I do think that the president and the candidates for this post should be subjected to a physical and mental health examination," Yang said. "I would be happy to submit to a review by an independent body, whose general conclusion will be to publicly share the ability to serve." I also think that this should happen regularly throughout the presidency. "
Lee's book, argues that psychiatrists have a responsibility to warn the public when a president is dangerous, are controversial because psychiatrist associations incite members to never diagnose patients that they have not personally assessed, claiming that undermines the scientific rigor of the profession, claiming instead that Trump is showing signs of mental instability and dangerousness.
"We may sometimes have an obligation to report , an obligation to warn or to take steps to protect potential victims, including the public, "said Lee, 19659003] This state of mind is one of the driving forces of the working group. meet in person in June and discuss their plans over the phone, they met again on January 15 and plan to meet every three weeks thereafter in Washington, DC
presidential candidates since former President Ronald Reagan made public some of their medical records. Medical information is highly confidential and people who have access to it or who share it without the patient's consent risk losing their job and going to prison.
Older applicants are more likely to be closely scrutinized for their health. Trump and Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Will be over 70 at the time of the 2020 presidential election. Former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Have not yet announced their nominations, but they are also in their seventies.
Proponents of evaluating the fitness of politicians for fitness activities emphasize that it is common in other jobs. The members of the army who handle nuclear weapons are evaluated for their mental fitness. Airline pilots and truck drivers must also be cleared.
"Having presidents, who have millions of lives in their hands, not being subjected to an aptitude test, is simply abnormal," Lee said.
Arthur Caplan, founding director of the medical ethics division of the NYU School of Medicine, has been calling for decades an independent medical committee to evaluate the president and candidates, but does not believe that the efforts to create one will succeed. He believes that only factors that could affect a person's ability to perform the duties of president should be disclosed, whether to the public or to a congressional committee.
Something trivial like a mushroom on the toes would not need to be disclosed, nor would politically heavy issues, he said, for example if a person had been using drugs or if a candidate had an abortion.
"I do not think the system is so difficult to put in place," Caplan said. "It's just that politicians just do not want to do it. It's not lost in the details, but in the desire that it happen.
Caplan envisions something similar to what hospitals do when they evaluate business leaders. Dr. Donald Hensrud, who works at the Mayo Clinic's Executive Health Program in Rochester, Minnesota, said that when a person was released from the program, Mayo would send a "very short letter stating that we were not going to get it." Found no medical problems that could prevent this person from performing his duties. "If they find something embarrassing, they send a brief letter informing him that there is a medical situation that may interfere and that the patient decides how the details are to be disclosed.
Sometimes it is difficult to determine which conditions can hinder people who perform their work, such as the diagnosis of a life-threatening illness. Other times, they are less so.
"It happens all the time," said Hensrud. He explained that it was necessary to determine which health problems would affect a person's work, for example a history of depression. In Mayo, a team of doctors and specialists in occupational medicine work together to make a decision, seeking the input of specialists, if any, he said.
"We try to get as much objective data and expert advice as possible to facilitate the assessment," he said.
Presidents get medical exams from doctors employed by the White House, an arrangement that critics say offers an opportunity for concealment to keep a person in power. This has been the practice during history, that it is to hide the heart attack of Dwight D. Eisenhower or the magnitude of chronic pain that John F. Kennedy has been confronted.
Last year, the White House doctor, Dr. Ronny Jackson, read the results of Trump's physical analysis to the public and answered questions from reporters. He stated that the president needed to lose weight, but had declared "fit for duty".
Members of the media openly guessed the results, and Jackson was later questioned about his credibility following rumors from anonymous sources. who said that he would get drunk at work and that he was prescribing medicine to the White House staff. Jackson, who had been appointed by Trump as the head of the Department of Veterans Affairs, fiercely denied the charges but ended up withdrew from the list .
Trump's second medical examination as president is scheduled for Friday. The White House has not committed to holding a press conference after that. If they do, Dr. Sean Conley, the current White House doctor, will probably deliver it.
"I will not listen," Caplan said.
[ad_2]
Source link
