President Biden has selected his longtime primary care doctor to serve as the new head White House physician, a position that gained renewed prominence during the Trump administration.
Kevin O’Connor, who has been Biden’s personal doctor since 2009, will serve as the top doctor to the president, a White House official confirmed.
O’Connor served 22 years in the Army and for more than a decade at the White House. He was supposed to spend three years there, but extended his White House stint by eight years at Biden’s request.
Biden, who is 78, became the oldest individual to be sworn in as president last week.
O’Connor retired from the military at the conclusion of the Obama administration, but he remained as Biden’s doctor while simultaneously serving as the founding director of executive medicine at George Washington University.
He replaces Sean Conley, who spent roughly two years as former President Trump’s White House doctor. Conley faced intense criticism for his handling of Trump’s bout with the coronavirus, as he initially misled the public about whether the president had been given supplemental oxygen.
When Conley eventually disclosed that Trump was on oxygen briefly, he said he avoided saying so in the first place because he “didn’t want to give any information that might steer the course of illness in another direction.”
Conley replaced Ronny Jackson, who also generated controversy by delivering a briefing in which he declared Trump “might live to be 200 years old” if he had a healthier diet. Jackson was later tapped to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, but his nomination was withdrawn amid allegations of professional misconduct. Jackson was elected to the House in November and represents Texas’s 13th District.