Opinion, from Dr. Celine Gounder: Parkinson’s, seizures, sedatives - wild rumors about the Democratic candidate’s health signal fear among Trump supporters that they’re heading for defeat.  Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s health has been under scrutiny in recent weeks, not by medical professionals but by politicians and supposed pundits playing doctor on TV. Clinton’s personal physician, Dr Lisa Bardack, has repeatedly said: “Secretary Clinton is in excellent health and fit to serve as president of the United States.” Meanwhile, conspiracy theories about Clinton’s supposed ill health have gone viral. There’s no evidence these claims are true.  I’m a doctor. I don’t play at being a doctor. I don’t diagnose patients in the absence of unbiased, reliable information, such as performing a physical exam or reviewing tests. When I write or am interviewed on television or the radio, I’ll talk about what new research will mean for patients and the science behind the latest guidelines. I’ll explain why we’re seeing increasing rates of certain diseases and whether policies to combat them make sense. I don’t talk about individuals except to say what one might expect more generally with regard to a particular medical illness.  But the scientist in me understands that the real issue here isn’t Clinton’s health. Conspiracy theories signal fear; in this case, Trump’s realization that Clinton may well be the next president of the United States.  This is not the first time rumors of illness have been deployed to attack a seemingly untouchable political adversary. At a time when Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis had a 10-point lead over then vice-president George HW Bush in the polls, reports circulated that Dukakis suffered severe depression after losing his first re-election campaign. When asked if Dukakis should release his complete medical records, Ronald Reagan did little to dispel those rumors,saying: “Look, I’m not going to pick on an invalid.”  Some Trump surrogates are also calling on Clinton to release her medical records. Trump has not released his, and a letter from his physician reads as if Trump had written it himself: little in the way of detail but plenty of superlatives like “astonishingly excellent” and “extraordinary”. Meanwhile, in contrast to Clinton and every other presidential candidate in the last 40 years except Gerald R Ford, Trump has yet to release his tax returns.  The scientist in me knows that attempts to debunk conspiracy theories – whether they’re about Clinton’s health or the myth that vaccines cause autism – are at best futile and may in fact backfire. We pick and choose those facts that add up to the truth we’ve already chosen to believe. The more someone tries to disprove the reality we’ve constructed, the more we dig in our heels.  In 2008, questions about President Obama’s citizenship intensified with his likelihood of clinching the Democratic nomination. So long as the odds of winning the election remain in Clinton’s favor, we can expect to see more conspiracy theories emerge between now and November.
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