The White House denied on Monday that US President Joe Biden is being treated for Parkinson’s disease after visitor records showed that a leading neurologist who specializes in the disease visited the executive mansion eight times in as many months.
The records, available to the public on the White House website, show that Dr. Kevin Cannard visited the seat of the US president eight times between August 2023 and March of this year. Due to the lack of updating of the data, it is not clear whether Cannard visited him in the past four months.
Cannard’s LinkedIn profile lists him as a neurologist who “supports the White House Medical Unit.”
Another public profile on the medical professional networking website Doximity says Cannard was working on a therapy for early Parkinson’s disease. Since leaving the US Army as a colonel in 2008, he has worked at Walter Reed Medical Center, which provides medical care to presidents.
Cannard’s White House meetings include one with Biden’s physician, Kevin O’Connor, at a residential clinic in January.
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre denied that Biden is being treated for Parkinson’s disease, but declined to answer questions about the visits. She went so far as to refuse to even confirm whether Cannard had visited the White House compound, citing visitors’ right to privacy, even though the White House releases the names of visitors, including Cannard, in its publicly available records.
“I can’t confirm any of that because we have to protect their privacy. I think they would appreciate that as well. We have to protect their privacy,” Jean-Pierre said.
