Dr. Sanjay Gupta asks Biden to undergo comprehensive cognitive tests

Indian American neurosurgeon says the consensus among doctors is that Biden to undergo neurological testing and share his results

After President Joe Biden’s disastrous performance in the first presidential debate, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a noted Indian American neurosurgeon and the chief medical correspondent for CNN, has called on him to undergo comprehensive cognitive tests.

“It’s time for President Biden to undergo detailed cognitive and neurological testing and share his results,” he wrote in an article on CNN Friday after hearing from several medical colleagues specializing in the brain.

When Biden “took the debate stage a week ago, it became apparent, even from his first answer, that this would not be the performance he hoped for,” Gupta noted. “For me as a brain specialist, it was concerning to watch President Joe Biden, and it quickly became clear that I was not alone in my reaction.”

“Over the past week, I received more than a dozen calls, texts and emails from medical colleagues who, like me, specialize in the brain,” Gupta wrote. “It wasn’t that what we noticed was necessarily new but that it was particularly pronounced, and right from the start of the debate.”

“From a neurological standpoint, we were concerned with his confused rambling; sudden loss of concentration in the middle of a sentence; halting speech and absence of facial animation, resulting at times in a flat, open-mouthed expression,” he wrote. “To be clear, these are only observations, not in any way diagnostic of something deeper, and none of these doctors wished to suggest that was the case.”

However, consensus from the doctors was that the president should be encouraged to undergo detailed cognitive and movement disorder testing, and those results should be made available to the public, Gupta wrote.

Biden was examined by his physician after the debate to check on a cold, the White House said, but it was a “brief check” and not a physical. When White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked this week whether Biden should receive and release the results of any kind of cognitive test, she replied that his medical team has said it’s “not necessary.”

Biden and his aides have said it was a “bad night.” The White House press team said Biden had a cold but did not take any medications to treat symptoms. After the debate, Jean-Pierre added that he had jet lag following overseas travel earlier in the month and worked late doing his presidential duties as well as preparing for the debate.

According to three sources briefed on these comments as cited by Gupta, Biden told Democratic governors during a meeting at the White House on Wednesday that he will stop scheduling events after 8 pm so he can get more sleep. The debate started at 9 pm Eastern.

“It’s a legitimate question” whether Biden’s debate performance was an “episode” or a “condition,” former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said during an MSNBC interview Tuesday.

“That is precisely why detailed testing is important. It can help determine whether there is a simpler explanation for the symptoms displayed or if there is something more concerning,” Gupta wrote.

“As a doctor, I would want to understand the possibility of underlying dementia because, over the past several years, we have learned that there are medical treatments and lifestyle changes that can delay and, in some cases, even reverse the symptoms of the disease,” he wrote. “These are hopeful days when it comes to dementia, and early diagnosis and treatment is better than it has ever been.”

“With an election looming in November, we don’t have answers about Biden,” Gupta wrote noting that watching the President gives the country “cause for concern — and a need for transparent testing.”