Health experts call for Biden, Trump to pass cognitive tests

Reliable diagnoses can’t be made from afar, they warn

As Mr Joe Biden's verbal gaffes, shaky voice and other troubling signs have brought an intense focus on the US President's mental acuity, health experts are calling on him and rival Donald Trump to pass additional cognitive tests, even while warning against leaping to conclusions.

Such tests, experts said, could either help repudiate speculation that the 81-year-old President's mental state is in worrying decline - or else confirm it - and could enlighten voters on the mental abilities of Trump, who has had his own share of verbal lapses.

But reliable diagnoses, they caution, cannot be made from afar.

Since Mr Biden's disastrous performance in his debate with Trump on June 27, the Democrat's campaign has faced fierce opposition. A growing number of officials in his own party are questioning his ability to lead the country for four more years.

And it did not help when at a summit in Washington last week, Mr Biden mistakenly introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as his foe Vladimir Putin, before quickly correcting himself.

Professor Dennis Selkoe, a neurologist at Harvard Medical School, said the fundamental issue is whether Mr Biden is suffering from "a normal age-related process" or "something that represents a neurologic disease".

"Making a mistake with a name is not automatically a sign of dementia or of Alzheimer's," he told AFP.