Daring Trump, Harris’ campaign releases medical information

Vice President Kamala Harris released a letter on Saturday from her White House doctor, who said she is in “excellent health” and is successfully managing some minor health issues.

Harris, 59, has seasonal allergies, mild near-sightedness and skin hives that she treats with over-the-counter and prescription medication, wrote Joshua R. Simmons, the physician to the vice president.

“Vice President Harris remains in excellent health,” Simmons wrote in a two-page letter that appeared to be a summary but not a complete medical report. “She possesses the physical and mental resiliency required to successfully execute the duties of the presidency, to include those as chief executive, head of state and commander in chief.”

Harris has not had diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis or neurological disorders, Simmons wrote.

The release of Harris’ medical information comes as her opponent, former president Donald Trump, who at 78 is the oldest person to become a presidential nominee, has refused to reveal similar basic health information. Neither candidate for the White House has allowed journalists to ask additional questions of their physicians.

Because presidential candidates are under no requirement to share health records – their medical information is as private as any other citizen’s – campaign-season medical reports are often used to paint the rosiest picture possible of a person running for office. With only weeks until election day, Harris’ campaign will no doubt try to contrast the release of her medical information with Trump’s refusal to do so.

Speaking to reporters Saturday (US time), Harris did exactly that, suggesting Trump and his team did not “want the American people to really see what he is doing and if he is fit to be the president”.

Asked if his mental acuity had declined, she replied: “I invite the public to watch his rallies and be the decision-maker.”

Steven Cheung, communications director for the Trump campaign, said in a statement on Saturday that the former president’s physicians have said he is in “perfect and excellent health”. The Trump campaign did not respond to a question about whether Trump would release his records.

In Simmons’ letter, which came under White House Military Office letterhead, he wrote that he has treated Harris since she became vice president and performed her most recent health exam in April.

He described her as “a healthy 59-year-old female” who suffers from hay fever, allergies triggered by seasonal pollen and skin hives. She takes Allegra, a common medication, along with eye drops and nasal sprays to address both the allergies and the hives, Simmons wrote, and is not inhibited by her condition, which he described as mild.

While the letter did not reveal her height or weight, the letter really is “pretty complete”, said Dr Gordon Guyatt, a specialist in internal medicine at McMaster University in Canada. Her blood pressure, at 124/74, and heart rate of 78, are normal and she exercises regularly and does strength training.

Her allergies “are the only thing you could call abnormal,” Guyatt said, adding that she is being treated and “seems to be doing well”, with them.

Dr David Maron, professor of medicine at Stanford University, called it “an excellent report”, but added that he would have liked to see her height and weight and sleep habits. “Height and weight are considered vital signs and are typically noted in a history and physical,” he said. But all in all, Maron said, his impression from the letter is that Harris “is in good health”.

Dr Marschall Runge, dean of the University of Michigan Medical School, had a similar reaction. “Her labs are good, her blood pressure is good, she has wonderful health habits,” he said. And Dr Daniel Soffer, an internal medicine specialist at the University of Pennsylvania, said he saw “no red flags of concern”.

Simmons wrote in the letter that the vice president is slightly nearsighted and wears contact lenses, though she is able to read comfortably without them. Her vision without contacts is 20/40 in her left eye and 20/25 in her right eye, he wrote. With contacts or glasses, she has 20/20 vision.

The letter reveals for the first time that, as a three-year-old girl, Harris had her appendix removed as part of procedure to correct a blockage in her intestine. It was the only surgical procedure she has undergone, Simmons wrote.

Harris takes a vitamin D3 supplement and maintains “a vigorous daily aerobic exercise routine and core strength training”, Simmons wrote. During an interview this past week with Howard Stern, Harris said each morning she spends 30 to 45 minutes working out on an elliptical machine.

Simmons described Harris’ diet as “very healthy”, said she does not “use tobacco products” and said she drinks alcohol “only occasionally and in moderation”.

Trump has declined requests to release new information about his health even though he has promised to. When he was grazed by a would-be assassin’s bullet at a rally over the summer, his campaign did not provide a briefing, release hospital records or make the emergency physicians who treated him available for interviews.

As president, Trump was hospitalised in 2020 when he contracted COVID-19, and his doctors at the time did not share the full extent of his illness with the public. The limited information about his health contrasts with the picture his former physician shared of him as a candidate in 2015, declaring that he would be “the healthiest person ever elected to the presidency”.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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