We’ve had the better part of a week to digest and mull over the events at the 9/11 memorial service where Hillary Clinton “stumbled on her way to the car” (if you listen to many media outlets) or simply collapsed and had to be shoved into her vehicle like a sack of potatoes (if you watch the video). I understand that it’s been discussed pretty much everywhere since then, but there are two points which I keep coming back to and simply can’t shake out of my mind. The second one, which we’ll get to below, deals with some contradictory medical information. The first, on the other hand, is going to come off as totally sexist, so all of you feminists can get your brickbats ready because we’re going to go there anyway.

It all comes down to this one picture which was on pretty much every television screen after the event.

Here comes the sexist part, just so I don’t keep you waiting too long. The story of Clinton’s “stumble” pushes the idea that she was “overheated” and needed some help getting into the car. In the process of “being helped” her shoe obviously came off. Now tell me… what woman who spends the amount of money on clothing that the former Secretary of State is known to do and is so conscious of her appearance at all times would leave a shoe on the sidewalk? When she was seated in the car (assuming she was sitting up), does anyone actually believe that she wouldn’t notice that one of her shoes was off? She has aides attending her constantly. What are the chances that, even in an overheated and tired state, she wouldn’t have said to one of them, “Hey. My shoe fell off. Would you jump out and grab it for me please?”

I’m not buying it. Even if this was the sole piece of evidence we had (pun intended) I would conclude that Clinton was either unconscious in the car or so close to it that she was not functionally communicative.

Moving on, we get to the question of what caused Clinton to either be overheated or unconscious, depending on your preferences. This is the other niggling aspect of the recent coverage of Clinton’s 9/11 collapse which has me questioning precisely how “full and transparent” this new medical information release has been. What’s the excuse we’ve been given for her nearly falling to the ground and being shoved into the car like excess luggage? It was pneumonia, right? That’s what we’re being told. (WaPo)

Hillary Clinton’s campaign released a letter from her doctor Wednesday describing her treatment for “mild” bacterial pneumonia and painting an overall picture of good health in an attempt to put to rest concerns about her medical condition following her illness over the weekend.

“Mild bacterial pneumonia.” Keep that in mind.

Note that this wasn’t just any pneumonia. Her physician, Dr. Lisa Bardack, went out of her way in the full report to point out that this was a non-contagious form of the disease, no doubt in response to various questions raised about her hugging a young girl outside of Chelsea’s apartment. That showed up in much of the Clinton supporting coverage. (LA Times, emphasis added)

The letter says that Clinton has been evaluated by Bardack several times since she nearly collapsed after becoming overheated, dehydrated and dizzy during a 9/11 memorial event at ground zero on Sunday. Before the incident, a noncontrast chest CT scan revealed that Clinton had a small right middle-lobe pneumonia, according to Bardack. It is a mild, noncontagious form of the bacterial infection, the doctor wrote.

Now, I’m not a doctor but I’ve had pneumonia and I remember being told not to go to the office. There are a few different types of the disease, however, and some of them aren’t contagious. Dr. Charles Patrick Davis (MD, PhD) breaks it down for medicine.net.

Because pneumonia is caused mainly by infectious microbes, pneumonia can be contagious. Pneumonia caused by chemical fumes or other poisons not made by infectious agents is not contagious. Many contagious pneumonias have names, such as bacterial pneumonia, viral pneumonia, Mycoplasma pneumonia, and MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) pneumonia, that indicate the type of pathogen infecting the lung.

This is in direct contradiction to what Clinton’s doctor released to the press and what they dutifully reported to the country. If Clinton’s pneumonia was bacterial it sounds like it was, by definition, contagious. And yet this medical expert who the entire press corps is relying on seems to have stated something which shouldn’t be possible. How much of the rest of what we’re being told is accurate as opposed to sound bites which poll tested the best?