Of course, when a person falls while taking blood thinners, they’re not as likely to suffer a clot as a hemorrhage. And either would be unlikely. Among the least relevant considerations in an election year might be “How well would this candidate fare after a blow to the head?”

In Clinton’s case, though, she has a documented medical history of faring well. To prevent further blood clots, her physician, Lisa Bardack, writes that Clinton still takes the blood-thinning medication coumadin (along with more than 25 million other Americans). And after the incident, she did temporarily require special eyeglasses that included a type of lens called a Fresnel prism. (This prism is still today fodder for implication of conspiracy, including from television personality Drew “Dr. Drew” Pinsky just last week: “When she hit her head, she had to wear these prism glasses when she came out …. That is brain damage, and it’s affecting her balance. Now clearly, it hasn’t affected her cognition, but tell us a little more about that. That’s profound.”)

Having a blood clot in a vein adjacent to one’s brain can be significant, of course. Or it can dissolve (as Clinton’s has, according to Bardack), and the person can continue serving as Secretary of State. The Clinton campaign has indicated it will not be releasing further medical documentation, and the coughing episode yesterday was the result of allergies. That—or an upper respiratory virus—would be the vast statistical likelihood for any person coughing. Clinton also has a documented history of a pollen allergy and, as NBC notes, “Allergens were high in Northeast Ohio on Monday, according to pollen.com.”

Special attention may have been warranted if Clinton had lost consciousness during the spell, if she had coughed blood onto the podium, or if she had coughed to the point of becoming so lightheaded that she suggested Mexico will fund construction of a tremendous wall along our southern border.

I don’t say that lightly, but to make the point that a candidate’s health is relevant only insofar as it might influence or allude to their ability to govern. If there were reason to discuss Clinton’s cough, it would traditionally be as a story of resolution and determination—a public servant who refuses to be sidelined by some infirmity. Bob Dole persevered despite paralysis of his arm and hand to earn the Republican nomination in 1996. Ronald Reagan was praised for his resilience and re-elected to the presidency after a gunshot wound left him with an area of dead tissue and blood in his left lung that he had to forcibly cough out. And at another end of the coughing hero narrative, the fact that Michael Jordan played through “the flu” in 1997 turned a standard 38-point performance into one of the most legendary games in his career. (He later said, “I was scared; I didn't know what was happening to me. … I felt partially paralyzed.”)