Read on Twitter
Recently, a best friend of mine showed me a YouTube video of Joe Biden stuttering over some words in a 30 min video without context. He then emphatically told me that Joe Biden has Alzheimer's disease. I just looked at him. In that moment, I realized he forgot I am a neurologist
I fought the urge to ask him which of the 6 or 7 components of memory he felt Biden was lacking. Semantic? Episodic? Short-term? Long-term? Explicit? Procedural? Implicit? Phonemic memory? I just kept staring and didn't condescend him. It just reminded me
How tired I am of people manipulating medicine for their personal and political gains recently. I have watched a ton of videos of Biden. I would never assume a diagnosis about a person based on internet videos but this is the world we now live in. I can imagine asking people
What components of memory are lost in early Alzheimer's disease and how much of a diagnostic workup is needed to make this diagnosis. I would have asked what videos on the internet make people so confident in the visuospatial and short term memory losses that would signify
Early Alzheimer's-like changes. Does he have apraxia? Does he have postural instability? Does he have autonomic issues? What parts of his executive dysfunction have you seen in YouTube videos? I found myself not answering in the end as I couldn't find a way to answer
Without forcing my medical opinion into a social conversation with someone who I know is going to vote for Biden anyways because of the alternative. Still, I found myself so frustrated about the abuse of the intricate parts of science and medicine the public has ignored
Over the last 6 months. Its really very discouraging for me and many in my field. To even consider having a conversation about the specific components of memory and their overlap is laughable at this point with most of the people I see commenting on social media.
