(NewsNation) — President Joe Biden displays Parkinsonian symptoms, but it is wrong to conclude that he has the disease, according to Dr. Drew Pinsky.
“It’s never fair to speculate about the diagnosis, but we are certainly at our liberty to describe what we see,” Pinsky said Monday on NewsNation’s “On Balance with Leland Vittert.”
He explained that, in medical school, observation through videos and images is paramount in identifying diseases in the field.
“A video that would be exemplary of movement disorder would be watching Joe Biden walk, watching his arms swing, watching his lack of facial expression,” Pinsky said. “These are a constellation of symptoms that are called Parkinsonian.”
“No one should be speculating what his diagnosis is. We don’t know,” he added. “A lot of things cause Parkinsonian features.”
Parkinsonian symptoms
Pinsky said he noticed the following symptoms in the president:
- Motoric slowing (delayed responsiveness)
- Festinating gait (short, quick steps while leaning forward)
- Masked facies (diminished facial expressivity)
- Slowed speech
“Let me just tell you what speech the Parkinson’s Foundation says is Parkinsonian speech: stuttering, mumbling, slurring words, using monotone, speaking softly, having trouble projecting voice,” Pinsky added.
Pinsky added that another symptom is tremor, which he has not noted in the president.
White House on Biden’s health
During a Monday media briefing, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre repeatedly refused to name a neurologist specializing in Parkinson’s disease who has regularly visited the White House, The Hill reports.
Visitor logs showed that specialist came eight times in eight months, though Jean-Pierre told reporters the president is not being treated for Parkinson’s nor taking medication for the disease.
In a White House press release from presidential physician Kevin O’Connor late Monday, the commander-in-chief’s primary doctor addressed the neurological specialist’s visit.
“I wanted to share with you background on why Dr. Kevin Cannard visited the White House … Many military personnel experience neurological issues related to their service, and Dr. Cannard regularly visits the WHMU as part of this General Neurology practice,” the release read.
O’Connor went into detail about Cannard’s background, saying his “qualities make him a valued and versatile consultant to assess and treat a wide variety of conditions.”
Jean-Pierre also mentioned the president’s February physical during her press briefing. The physical found Biden was fit for duty with no evidence of Parkinson’s, stroke or other condition.
O’Connor confirmed Cannard is the specialist who examined the president for each of his annual physicals.
“His findings have been made public each time I have released the results of the president’s annual physical,” O’Connor said. “President Biden has not seen a neurologist outside of his annual physical.”
Questions about the president’s mental sharpness and whether he’s up to handling the job for another four years have become commonplace following his poor performance at a June 27 debate, when Biden spoke haltingly and often struggled to complete his train of thought.
The Hill contributed to this report.