Hillary Clinton was diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday, according to her doctor, who made the statement Sunday following the Democratic presidential candidate’s collapse at the 9/11 memorial in New York.
Dr. Lisa Bardack, Clinton’s personal doctor since 2001, released a statement through the Clinton campaign which said the former secretary of state had been diagnosed with pneumonia during a follow-up examination regarding her prolonged cough.
Clinton has been “advised to rest and modify her schedule,” and was put on antibiotics on Friday, Bardack said.
“She is now re-hydrated and recovering nicely,” said the doctor, referring to the earlier explanation of “overheating and dehydration” given for Clinton’s abrupt departure from the 9/11 commemoration event.
The media expressed suspicion over Clinton’s exit from the event after there were accounts that she had stumbled and had to be helped into her car. Video footage later emerged corroborating this.
“Secretary Clinton attended the September 11 Commemoration Ceremony for just an hour and 30 minutes this morning to pay her respects and greet some of the families of the fallen,” campaign spokesman Nick Merrill said. “During the ceremony, she felt overheated so departed to go to her daughter’s apartment, and is feeling much better.”
The candidate was driven to her daughter Chelsea’s home. She later appeared outside and was driven to her own home in Cappaqua.
Clinton’s diagnosis has already thrown her scheduled campaign appearances into disarray.
An HRC campaign official confirmed to Reuters that Clinton canceled her Monday morning trip to California because of her illness. She was set to appear at events in both San Francisco and Los Angeles on Monday and Tuesday, and at a rally in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Wednesday.
‘Clinton campaign keeps legitimate health questions hushed’
Clinton’s health became the subject of numerous articles and conspiracies long before the 9/11 episode. Critics have said that the Democratic campaign has failed to be transparent on the subject, adding that this could worsen the impact of the news on the election’s outcome.
Former US diplomat Jim Jatras told RT a candidate’s health issues should be deemed a “legitimate question” as the voters are entitled to know if their pick is 100 percent ready for the role. He believes that the US leader should not be “somebody who seems feeble and frail and not up to the job,” adding that Clinton’s health issues are obviously playing to her disadvantage in the presidential race.
Jatras believes that despite the current uproar the Clinton campaign is not going to change its tactics and will try to downplay the candidate's health troubles, instead accusing the media of blowing them out of proportion.
“They are going to give out dribs and drabs of information, that try to create the best possible interpretation of her health situation,” Jatras said, adding that Clinton’s team try to “keep a cocoon” out of fear that some unpleasant facts can get leaked to the press.
“What's short-lived in this context is how many episodes have there been that we haven’t seen on camera, we don’t know that anything they are telling us is the truth,” he argued.
Clinton’s diagnosis has reignited the #HillaryHealth trend on Twitter, with both opponents and supporters battling it out in posts and comments about who is now a better fit for president.
While there was no immediate reaction from Clinton’s Republican rival Donald Trump, he had already used the health issue to score some points, including during Hillary’s recent “hacking,” or coughing, attack.
Mentions of former Democratic nominee Bernie Sanders have re-emerged, with his supporters questioning whether Clinton’s hypothetical exit from the race could enable Sanders to claim his candidacy back. The most hopeful even postulated that Bernie never technically gave up his candidacy when endorsing Clinton.
With much of the Twitter storm descending into a stream of “we told you so” tweets, some also identified a pattern of the Democratic camp downplaying serious Clinton issues, first with her email scandal, and then with her health.
Some became outraged at the scene of pneumonia-stricken Clinton talking with and hugging a little girl seen approaching the candidate during her “I’m feeling great” announcement.
Meanwhile, Hillary’s supporters chimed in arguing that Clinton’s lapse in health does not make Trump a better candidate, as her condition is “curable,” unlike the personality of the flamboyant Republican nominee.