Let’s get the facts about “walking pneumonia.” It is a common illness that people often “walk around with” because it doesn’t manifest itself in a way that is debilitating. It is easily treatable with antibiotics but can lead to dehydration and exhaustion.

Hillary Clinton is not the only candidate to experience this illness. In 2004 John Kerry also developed “walking pneumonia.”

From an email he wrote to the New York Times in 2008, “I remember on the bus in Iowa, my staff thought I’d broken a rib from coughing because my walking pneumonia was so bad.”

But because of the conspiracy theorists that have been alleging that Hillary Clinton has all kinds of illness the mainstream media is once again not putting this episode in its proper perspective. This morning on Morning Joe David Ignacious of the New York Times proclaimed that it is now a “real” campaign issue and others on the show faulted her for not being transparent enough about her health, seeing it once again as an opportunity to challenged her trustworthiness.

When researching the coverage of John Kerry’s illness, I could find nothing that was written about it when it happened. It was only after the election that there were just a few articles that mentioned that he had it.

For those that might forget, it is twelve years later and Kerry is now Secretary of the United States and is 72 years old.

Good thing for him he wasn’t a woman.

-Jan Harrison