It happened again on Wednesday: Joe Biden stumbled during a speech in Massachusetts and it sounded like he was saying he had cancer. According to all studies, Biden does not suffer from this. His slip of the tongue was immediately interpreted the next morning as a symptom of another disease: Biden contracted the corona virus, as it became known on Thursday. He was probably confused in Massachusetts, a doctor commented on the right-wing Fox News television station. That fits with Covid, which can trigger a “brain fog”.
However, a foggy brain has not yet been one of the Covid symptoms that Biden suffers from, as the White House announced on Thursday morning. Presidential Physician Kevin O’Connor confirmed Biden’s rapid test diagnosis with a PCR test. In a short report to the White House, he stated that the President had slept poorly on Thursday night, that he had a dry cough, his nose was running and that he felt tired.
Biden is now taking Paxlovid, an antiviral drug designed to slow the spread of the Sars-CoV-2 virus in the body. Biden is double-vaccinated and has received two boosters, according to his doctor. He is now isolating himself in the White House and will continue to carry out his official business, said his spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre at a media conference scheduled at short notice. She vowed to keep the public updated on the president’s health.
It is not yet known which virus mutant Biden caught. However, there are many indications of BA.5, the variant that is currently rampant in the capital Washington and, like in Europe, is causing the number of infections to explode. According to doctors, this would tend to be good news for Biden because BA.5 tends to affect the upper respiratory tract and does not attack the lungs as severely as previous variants of the virus.
The Democrats are at a low in the polls
However, Biden suffers from several risk factors: For example, he has atrial fibrillation, which can cause cardiac arrhythmias, and therefore takes blood thinners. The most obvious risk factor is his advanced age of 79 years. There is a lively discussion about this these days anyway. The midterm elections are approaching, Joe Biden and his party are at a low in the polls, so even many Democrats are already demanding that the party build an alternative for the 2024 elections. An infection with the corona virus comes at the worst possible time.
Even Texas Senator Ted Cruz, otherwise a harsh critic, wished Biden a speedy recovery and promised he and his wife would now pray for him. At most, the president will be given a reprieve: In the coming weeks he will be under even closer scrutiny, and the Republicans will mercilessly exploit any sign of weakness. Even the Democrats had given Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump nothing when he fell ill with Covid in October 2020 and even had to be treated briefly in the Walter Reed military hospital – with Trump provoking malicious comments with his nonchalance.
It was only earlier this week that the White House had to justify that Joe Biden was not heard or seen in public for two days. The President returned from a strenuous four-day trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia just after one in the morning on Sunday. Republicans have already viewed every slip of the tongue and every stumble by the president as evidence that he is not up to the job. They often had the opportunity to do so. While Biden has largely gotten a stutter from his youth under control, it occasionally pushes through. Apparently it bothers him that he keeps having to clear his throat because of heartburn; an acid blocker seems to help, but not always. Finally, Biden suffers from partial numbness in his feet, a common ailment at his age.
Biden’s Covid disease will cause conspiracy theorists in the United States to get excited. The thesis has long been circulating among them that Biden was only chosen as a puppet and would eventually be put aside so that a dark-skinned woman could take his place in Vice President Kamala Harris. According to the constitution, Harris would assume office if Biden could no longer exercise it. On Tuesday she was still sitting at a meeting with Biden. When Biden’s infection became public, she was on her way to visit North Carolina, which she continued as planned. Your Covid test came back negative. First Lady Jill Biden has not been infected either. It was very different with Donald Trump: He fell ill in October 2020 at the same time as First Lady Melania Trump.
The fact that two US presidents have already been infected with the virus shows how deeply the virus has penetrated American society, said an astonished presenter at Fox News on Thursday, the right-wing broadcaster that often downplayed the Covid pandemic. After all, Biden’s Covid disease seems to clear up the “brain fog” of third parties a bit.