Trump, Clinton and our right to know about our leaders' health （799words）

By Michael Skapinker

“The president has cancer.” It is 31 years since Steven Rosenberg, a member of the surgical team that removed a tumour from President Ronald Reagan's colon, made that announcement to the world.

What I remember, from watching on television, is not only how calmly definitive Dr Rosenberg, chief of surgery at the US National Cancer Institute, was, but how clearly he described Reagan's condition and its consequences. “There are many forms of cancer,” he said. As this one had not spread, the president's chances of living a normal lifespan were “excellent”. Reagan lived another 19 years, dying in 2004 at the age of 93.

Harold Bornstein, Donald Trump's doctor, has been less authoritative. In a four-paragraph letter, addressed “to whom my (sic) concern”, which he says he wrote in five minutes while a Trump team car waited outside, he described the Republican candidate's health as “astonishingly excellent” and said that he would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency”.

Hillary Clinton's doctor wrote a more detailed account, mentioning the Democratic candidate's underactive thyroid and a concussion in 2012, but said she “was in excellent physical condition and fit to serve as President of the United States”. The only problem is that the letter was written more than a year ago.

Do we have a right to know the details of our political leaders' health? And does the same apply to business leaders, responsible for hiring, firing and making potentially far-reaching acquisition and disposal decisions? Should we hear when they become ill?

Apple attracted criticism for revealing too little about the pancreatic cancer that killed Steve Jobs, its founder, in 2011. But other chief executives have kept us up to date on their ailments.

In 2012, investor Warren Buffett announced that he had prostate cancer, that he would have daily radiation treatment for two months, but that his condition was “not remotely life-threatening or even debilitating in any meaningful way”.

In 2014, Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, announced that he had throat cancer and, five months later, after treatment, that his tests had come back “completely clear”.

Not all business leaders have curable conditions. In 2013, SABMiller announced that Graham Mackay, its chief executive, was stepping down three months early after undergoing surgery for a brain tumour. Mackay, who was SABMiller's leading figure as it turned itself from an apartheid-era South African company into an international brewer, returned briefly as non-executive chairman. He died that year.

When a previously robust person is suddenly presented with a shocking-sounding medical diagnosis, the desire to keep it private is often strong. What business is it of anyone else?

But in these corporate cases, disclosure seems to have been the better option. If people in the public eye appear to be under-par, as Jobs did, rumours start. It is better to get the truth out.

Apart from stopping the gossip, talking about illness serves two other positive purposes. It alerts people, whether employees or not, to possible problems with their own health. Mr Blankfein said he had felt unwell for several weeks before his lymphoma was discovered. Anyone reading that who felt similarly low might be encouraged to make an appointment with their doctor.

It might also aid their discussions with their doctors about what treatment they need, or if they need treatment at all.

Marc Garnick, a Harvard Medical School professor, wrote that if he had had an octogenarian patient with Mr Buffett's condition, he would have advised “active surveillance” rather than radiation treatment.

The second and more important reason for knowing about our leaders' health is that it breaks down the idea of the all-knowing imperial boss.

Leaders, like the rest of us, are incomplete. They are not always at their best. Illness reminds us of that. A chief executive slowing down while having hospital treatment is no bad thing. The next breakthrough will be when companies and their leaders feel they can be equally candid abut depression and mental health.

If chief executives need to step back because they are ill, they should, if they have done their jobs properly, have deputies who can take over, and teams that can take the strain.

The US presidency is the mightiest post on earth, invested with more authority than any reigning monarch's. Yet no president can function without a strong team, because commanders-in-chief have bad days too, and they suffer health problems.

As we live longer and work until we are older, top managers, along with everyone else, will discover there is more that can go wrong with their health.

There is no shame in that, provided they have people around them to help manage it. Mr Trump and Mrs Clinton should provide detailed up-to-date accounts of their health, preferably from doctors who can write in measured, professional tones.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1．How many years did Reagan live after the announcement?

A．1

B．19

C．31

D．93

答案

2．What's wrong with Hillary Clinton in 2012?

A．thyroid cancer

B．concussion

C．prostate cancer

D．cardiopathy

答案

3．Which one is not the positive purpose about getting the health truth out?

A．stop the gossip

B．alerts employees to take care of themselves

C．social sympathy

D．breaks down the idea of the all-knowing imperial boss

答案

4．Who is the mightiest man on earth in author's opinion?

A．the president's doctor

B．the president's wife

C．the US presidency

D．the US commanders-in-chief

答案