The Uncomfortable Question of Bernie Sanders's Life Expectancy [View all]

[highplainsdem]

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/02/28/the-uncomfortable-question-of-bernie-sanders-life-expectancy/

A longtime reader who was a senior official government in a previous Democratic administration sent me this:

I’m sorry if this question strikes people as impolite. A 78-year old man who had a heart attack less than five months ago and refuses to release his complete medical records is the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination. If Bernie Sanders is nominated and elected president, what are the odds he can complete a full term? The answer is about 50-50.

A team of nine cardiologists recently published a study in the Journal of the American Heart Association that can help answer that question.Their study tracked the expected mortality and life expectancy of people who survive a first heart attack (myocardial infarction) at ages 65 and older. The scientists’ data are comprehensive, covering what happened to 22,295 heart attack patients admitted to U.S. hospitals from October 2004 to December 2006.

Their analysis provides two ways to estimate a person’s expected mortality and life-expectancy based on age and cardiac history. Both methods produced nearly identical results. The likelihood that a person of Senator Sanders’ age and heart history will die within one year – that takes us through September 2020 – is 25 percent. Further, the median period of survival for those patients is about five years, so the likelihood that someone of Senator Sanders’ age and heart history will survive through the next presidential term is about 50-50.

-snip-

This piece goes on to note that the CDC says that "the odds that a 78-year old American will die within one year are just over 4 percent, and the odds over five years are less than 23 percent."

So Sanders is a much greater risk for voters, in terms of his health, than either Biden or Bloomberg.

It's also noted that we could get a better idea of Sanders' prospects if he'd release his medical records, especially his heart's ejection fraction.

But Sanders is withholding this crucial information, despite his earlier promise to release it.

Because of this, the piece points out, voters will have to consider Sanders' VP choice very carefully, given the odds that his VP could become president before Sanders could serve a full term.

I believe Sanders owes it to voters to release his complete medical records NOW.

I also believe that if any of his rivals had suffered a recent heart attack, Sanders would be making more noise than anyone else DEMANDING that full medical records be released.