Hidden in plain sight
They see but are blind
With a few more characters for my bio than I’m allowed on my Substack profile, which has been patiently sitting, waiting for me to get off my butt, I’m a Bernese Mountain Dog dad, binationally-married to my hubby, and living on a mountain in the woods in Northern California. A long time Hematologist/Oncologist, now Internal Medicine pays for the kibble (so I tell him). I’m also a Navy DADT Veteran, gardener, runner, atheist, union member, & self-taught not too shabby of a cook/foodie. I believe strongly in facial topiary, and I may occasionally curse.
Oh the stories I can, and will, tell….
What’s finally pushed me past writer’s inertia you ask? Democracy, and unfortunately, a relatively unique, medical perspective I have on this.
Yes, I find myself perpetually irritated at the medical talking heads and “Best Sellers,” who remain quiet on matters of grave national importance in their lane, though they could settle those matters in a NY second to their audiences. If they wanted to do that. Apparently, their lives are too comfortable for that.
Remember when so many pundits nationwide were unsure if water boarding was actually torture? 2016. No one said it worse than Senator Ted Cruz,“Well under the definition of torture, no it’s not. Under the law, torture is excruciating pain that is equivalent to losing organs and systems.” How did Sigourney Weaver not kill that spawn at birth? Most people probably do know instinctively that waterboarding is torture, but medically, we know the answer: If, for example, someone puts toothpicks under your fingernails (torture, in the Ted Cruziest sense), and then they take away your ability to breathe, you will forget all about the toothpicks they put under your fingernails. If you don’t breathe, nothing else matters. Just ask any near-drowning survivor, or someone with severe emphysema or asthma. They’ll tell you what torture it is not to breathe. So, why was that waterboarding manufactured conundrum not shut down immediately by an unending line of celebrity medical professionals willing to spend their reputation explaining this to The People? Crickets.
Fast forward to today’s incessant drum-beating of the media and their sponges about President Biden being old. Yes, chronologically, this is absolutely a fact. He is old. He knows it. What is the average life expectancy of an American 83 year-old? Over 7 years, average. By the way, the UN considers 60 and over to be old. And the WHO considers 50 and over in developing countries (Mississippi?) to be old, well, because context. In the field of Oncology however, we have understood for many decades that “Performance Status” is much more predictive of prognosis than is chronologic age, and that’s not restricted to oncologic matters. Frankly, I’m embarrassed for the great majority of medical providers who do not consider this. Though also intuitive, this principle has been proven time and again.
Anecdote time: My 40 year-old methamphetamine abuser? Really not a good organ transplant candidate. My 89 year-old dancing, swimming, hiking guy with breast cancer? Absolute star patient! My 59 year-old relative missing a leg from Vietnam, still smoking and hooked on opiates? Well that donor’s kidney lasted all of 6 months, which, by the way, is the average life expectancy of a 118 year-old. My 83 year-old museum docent, bike-riding, card-sharking guy with esophageal cancer? Flew right through that tough treatment, sadly noted that many of his same aged friends were dead, but also that 70 year-olds were boring, and 60 year-olds were lazy, so he went back to volunteering.
So let’s ask the question. What is Joe Biden’s Performance Status? We already have measures of political performance status. How’s that going for Biden? No problem there -he’s been more progressive than his young progressive predecessor, President Obama, who I happen to admire deeply. Say, did you happen to know that President Obama, the Constitutional Law professor was politely schooled in Brown v Board of Education with respect to Marriage Equality by… VP Biden? But I digress from time to time. How is chronologically-old Joe Biden doing health performance-wise? From what we can see, and that really is sufficient for this simple measure, the medical answer is that he’s doing very well, and would be a better candidate for many medical treatments that much chronologically younger Americans should not receive — because their performance status is poor, not because they are young.
America, we have an implicit bias problem with ageism, and not just older people. We treat both the chronologically young and old inappropriately, and it’s past time to recognize that and learn from it.
So, do you still want to die on the Young President Hill? Or do you want a President who can perform, regardless of age? Though I do think we need younger politicians, I want the latter for President, and intuitively, so do you.
https://www.politico.com/blogs/new-hampshire-primary-2016-live-updates/2016/02/ted-cruz-waterboarding-2016-debate-218879
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6792426/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_age
https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/table4c6.html
https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2014/07/16/joe-biden-suggests-his-obama-administration-legacy-is-same-sex-marriage