Kerry had pneumonia in Feb 04 and it wasn't reported for 8 months. It would've been a “distraction"

[pnwmom]

according to his Chief of Staff. So they waited till after he lost the election to disclose it.

This isn’t about bashing John Kerry, who powered through pneumonia, just like Hillary tried to. This is about the different standard the media has applied to Hillary compared to male Presidential candidates.

In April 2004, Kerry’s doctor held a conference call with reporters to discuss his medical history. He reported that Kerry had had pneumonia once before his enlistment, twice during his enlistment, and “once since then.” He failed to mention that Kerry had just had pneumonia in February.

On November 14, 2004, after Kerry lost the election, Time magazine finally carried a story about his campaigning with pneumonia.

In 2008, Kerry talked about the 2004 campaign. He said his staff had been afraid he’d broken a rib because he’d been coughing so hard. But his campaign Chief of Staff said in 2016 that they had “never felt compelled to alert the media because it would've distracted from our message.”

NO ONE CARED. THE MEDIA HARDLY MADE A PEEP.

But he’s a guy, so . . . no biggie.

P.S. Based on his doctor’s report in 2004, Kerry, who has allergies, had already had pneumonia at least 4 or 5 times. Twelve years later, at 72, he’s still going strong.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/clinton-health-pneumonia-trump-secrecy-1.3759039

Sept. 12, 2016

Dave Wade, the former chief of staff to Secretary of State John Kerry, notes that Kerry also battled through walking pneumonia during his run in the 2004 primaries, as well as a broken collarbone from a cycling mishap.

"We never felt compelled to alert the media because it would've distracted from our message," Wade says.

"Running for president is a germ-contact sport. Candidates spend all day shaking thousands of hands on rope lines then flying millions of miles in Petri dish planes full of recycled air. They're up all night and rise at the crack of dawn. They get sick."

Although it has been tradition for both candidates to release medical records, Wade believes a reciprocal approach is the way to go. By no means should Clinton be the only candidate held to a standard, he says.


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/24/us/2004-campaign-medical-records-files-show-kerry-earned-medals-for-wounds-shrapnel.html

April 24, 2004

Senator John Kerry's presidential campaign offered a brief glimpse at his military medical file on Friday. The file showed that Mr. Kerry requested that his relatives not be notified after he was wounded in action and that he retains a piece of shrapnel in his left thigh.

The 36-page file was the latest section of Mr. Kerry's military record to be released under pressure from Republicans and news media. A small group of reporters traveling with the campaign was allowed to review the records for 30 minutes.

SNIP

The records also showed that Mr. Kerry suffered two bouts of pneumonia, two urinary tract infections and a severe skin rash in his two years and 10 months in the Navy.

SNIP

Dr. Doyle said his patient also had pneumonia once before his enlistment and once since then, a pattern he attributed to allergies.

''Fortunately, he has a good immune system, and any time he's had it, he's bounced back quickly,'' Dr. Doyle said in a conference call with the traveling reporters.


https://www.facebook.com/Newsweek/posts/10154395126331101

"’John Kerry was really ill. In November he had picked up a cold. By February he had walking pneumonia.’

“Here's the 2004 Newsweek story that revealed John Kerry's pneumonia, eight months later. It was barely mentioned or covered by the media.”


http://www.newsweek.com/trench-warfare-124809

11/14/04

John Kerry was really ill. In November he had picked up a cold, the ubiquitous campaign grippe, and by February he had walking pneumonia. He had lost his voice. He looked even gaunter than usual; Lincolnesque, maybe, but he was losing weight and he couldn't sleep. A week after the New Hampshire primary, while campaigning in Kansas City, Mo., he went back to the holding room after an event and lay on the conference table. "I'm really sick," he said. He couldn't seem to get up, making his staff very nervous. "I just want to lie here for a few minutes," he croaked. But then he got up, as he always did.

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/apr/26/nation/na-diners26

4/26/08

Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004, described the physical toll in an e-mail to The Times.

"No matter how old you are or what kind of shape you're in, the campaign trail is exhausting," Kerry wrote. "There's no break. You eat on the run, you sleep where you can and you have late nights and early mornings. You have to fight to preserve exercise time to clear your head. There's no such thing as having a sick day or slowing down.

"I remember on the bus in Iowa, my staff thought I'd broken a rib from coughing because my walking pneumonia was so bad."

[LisaL]

1. Exactly.

She found out on Friday. They disclosed on Sunday. As we can see, when a male candidate had pneumonia, campaign didn't disclose for months and nobody cared.

[karynnj]

11. I do not think it was male vs female - not to mention you forget that Kerry was attacked

by the Boston Globe when he called a press conference in February 2003 to explain that he had prostate cancer and to have his doctor explain what his intended treatment was. Kerry gave the first question to his hometown paper and Glen Johnson attacked him for having not admitted he was diagnosed with cancer a few weeks earlier when Johnson had asked him why he looked like hell, rather than expressing any sympathy or good wishes. (Kerry answered he had relatives and close friends he had not then told and wanted to get all the tests done and a treatment plan first.)

As to when he had pneumonia, he did not faint in public ... and have the campaign wait about 7 hours before explaining his diagnosis. Had that happened, I suspect that the papers would have been just as unsympathetic as they were to HRC. It clearly would have led to questions about his health.

Two side notes. 1) Around the time of the Iowa caucus, one of the other Democratic candidates (I never learned which one) commissioned a push poll that included "information" that Kerry was not being honest and his cancer was not in remission - noting his appearance. 2) In the general election, when Kerry had regained some needed weight and was better, the Republicans took a picture from when he was ill and contrasted it to a then recent picture and accused him of having used botox because he looked so much better.

Like Kerry 2004, there were stories from the sewer that HRC was unhealthy. In both cases - far from being a distraction - a quiet announcement that the candidate had pneumonia and was taking antibiotics and was altering the schedule to some degree might have been the better thing to do.

For HRC, it might have been MORE important to be open about this because there is a BIG prevailing meme that she is secretive and thus, not open and trustworthy. It is always said that things that fit existing memes hurt more than when they don't.

Incidentally, Glen Johnson was one of the first people hired by Kerry when he became Secretary of State - surprising most of us in DU JK who remembered him from 2003.

Getting back to HRC, I think her calls into the various shows yesterday was a fantastic response. For one, in all the calls I heard, she was speaking in what is likely her normal voice - not screaming over a crowd. In addition to sounding healthier than she had in the last week, she sounded warm and friendly (for lack of a better word).

I hope that she addresses some of the mixed rallies or fundraisers via technology -- just speaking to them about the issues that she would have spoken of in person, but more casually and in the same voice used in the calls. In addition, to alleviating any concern (real or faux) it would really really humanize her and increase the contrast with the pompous narcissistic bully she is running against.

[tymorial]

2. Oh I am sure the rightt (and the media)

Wishes Clinton were younger so they could launch accusations of PMS across the bow.

[betsuni]

3. Thank you for posting this, I didn't know.

The Clinton health bullshit reminds me of my husband. He won't agree to getting a pet of any kind because it will eventually die and then he'll be sad. The media apparently want us to think the same thing about presidents, but only if they are female humans, of course.

[Helen Borg]

4. If he knew about it

And he touched people who did not know that during his campaign, then it is highly unethical.

[blm]

7. Pneumonia, itself, doesn't transmit. It evolves from persistent colds or bronchial infections

that are transmitted in my experience. I now get the vaccine.

[pnwmom]

8. The vaccines only protect against a couple types -- and not the atypical bacteria,

mycoplasma bacteria, that is usually meant by the term, "walking pneumonia."

[MADem]

10. The poster to whom you are speaking will likely not believe you.

She didn't believe me...!

[Cosmocat]

5. THIS is the fucking shit I am talking about

Democrats need to flat out push back 100 percent against this shit.

In what fucking universe do we live in where Hillary Clinton needs to have a daily press release at 8 noting her current physical condition.

"Secretary Clinton has a mild case of gastro intestinal discomfort that required a longer than usual bowel movement 42 minutes earlier than her average daily bowel movement. She was 4 sneezes short of her average daily sneeze total, while she burped 1 more time than her normal burp total. We will continue to monitor these vital national security issues and will relay this information via all forms of electronic communication."

[betsuni]

6. That's exactly what I've been thinking: daily BM update.

Bowl concern, let's have a colon contest.

[pnwmom]

9. Exactly!

[karynnj]

12. I agree they had nothing they needed to announce on Friday, Sunday morning they had to

The difference was that she fainted and there was concern from supporters and glee from the RW sewer.

Had their first statement been the diagnosis, that she was on antibiotics and would be including more rest in her schedule, there would not have been 7 hours for this to explode on twitter, social media et al.