John F Kennedy was America’s first Catholic president, and his public image was the very embodiment of youthfulness and vigour. In recent decades, though, the truth has emerged about his lifelong medical conditions. He was already a very sick man by the time he took over the White House. Besides the most serious, such as the once-fatal Addison’s disease, which involved the malfunctioning of the adrenal glands, and colitis, an ulcerous inflammation of the upper bowel, he suffered from myriad other illnesses including a chronic bad back and a degenerative bone disease. He was mostly deaf in one ear and had to take any number of medications, some of which were self-medicated. By today’s definition, he would qualify as a drug addict. His lifelong use of corticosteroids might have caused his overly stimulated sex drive, an endless source of potential scandals that were well-suppressed at the time, thanks largely to a cooperative press. For many years after his death, the American public knew less about his medical conditions than his sexual adventurism and assassination, the last being a source and paradigmatic example of endless conspiracy theories of the 20th century. Joe Biden’s motorcade flashed by ‘large, naked Scotsman’ And no wonder. The sex, sleaze and violent death titillated and distracted public attention; his medical conditions pertained directly to the US Constitution and democracy itself. With respect to US democratic politics, it would have been almost impossible for Kennedy to be elected president had the full extent of his ill health been known to voters. And the seriousness of his incapacitating illnesses could have raised the possibility of his being replaced as president under a constitutional provision. No wonder such extraordinary efforts were made to cover them up, even after his death. Comparable issues now haunt Joe Biden , America’s second Catholic president and also its oldest. Though largely ignored or under-reported by the US mainstream news media, incidents about uncontrolled bodily functions now seem to be more than mere rumours. And they could well relate to degenerative diseases associated with old age. Biden is 78. People may well snicker and laugh at what the Daily Mail and The Independent reported about a rather embarrassing encounter between Biden and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, at the sidelines of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow. It involved an incident of alleged presidential flatulence. The report was also carried in the New York Post and India’s News 18, among others. “It was long and loud and impossible to ignore,” an unnamed source told the Daily Mail . “Camilla hasn’t stopped talking about it.” Traditional British etiquette especially puts people on guard against uncontrolled flatulence, an absolute social no-no if ever there is one that would certainly invite contempt and ridicule. Meanwhile, the US president, nicknamed “Sleepy Joe” by his predecessor Donald Trump, appeared to have dozed off during the opening addresses of the COP26 global conference. To give context to global warming and the special relations between Britain and the US, the Daily Mai l added: “This summer, [Boris] Johnson praised Biden as being ‘a big breath of fresh air’ on climate change compared to his predecessor. “Appropriately, Biden has urged world leaders to cut methane gas emissions by 30 per cent by the end of the decade. Cows and other livestock contribute substantially to global methane levels.” Johnson himself might have had a similar experience as Camilla during a recent state visit to the White House. During a meet-the-press session at the Oval Office on September 22, White House staff cut Johnson off in mid-sentence and unceremoniously pushed out all the journalists present. That was an unmistakable breach of diplomatic protocol, but Johnson and his senior staff had kept mum about it. Several reporters present claimed to have smelled a foul odour before being kicked out. Late last month, after an unusually long closed-door meeting with the pope at the Vatican, Twitter was set ablaze by the hashtag #poopypantsbiden. Similar allegations have dogged Biden since he was a presidential candidate. After his first election debate with Trump, people had questioned why he had to call a break every 30 minutes for a 90-minute televised event. Xi Jinping makes ‘big mistake’ by not showing up at COP26, says Biden According to the International Foundation for Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders, faecal incontinence affects up to 17 million people, the vast majority of them elderly, in the United States. The most common cause is “impaired rectal sensation”, which means the person is unaware of the need to use the toilet. It may also indicate the onset of dementia. For such patients, according to the British Alzheimer’s Society, incontinence may develop because messages passing between the brain and the bladder or bowel don’t signal properly. Biden’s state of health is no laughing matter. It raises, or ought to raise, serious political and constitutional issues. The original Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the US Constitution as well as the 25th amendment deal with the reasons for removing the president from office, including the inability to discharge his powers and duties. The president’s aides and allies, the Democratic Party and the liberal press are understandably reluctant to address the issue and open a can of worms. They may soon have a constitutional duty to do so.