In the spring of 1790, a deadly wave of influenza was spreading through the newly formed United

States, and one person who got infected was George Washington.

His flu infection quickly developed into pneumonia and his doctor's fear the worst.

It was barely one year into the first presidency of the country's history.

Washington recovered, but it was an early reminder that presidents are of course human beings,

and they are just as susceptible to illness as anyone else.

Since President Trump's arrival into the hospital, his medical team has struggled to

balance patient privacy with the public's demand to know if the president's ability to serve

may be compromised.

So today, we're going to look at some of the medical issues that sitting presidents

have faced in the past.

We're also going to look at the long history of presidential administrations,

hiding the true state of a president's health from the public.

I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta,

CNN's chief medical correspondent, and this is coronavirus, fact versus fiction.

Traditionally, White houses are reluctant to share complete information

about the state of the president's health. I think that the history of medical

information from the White House is a history of incomplete and at times false information.

Tim Neftali is a clinical associate professor of history and public service at NYU.

He's also a CNN presidential historian.

I'm going to be turning things over to Tim for today's episode.

We're going to start off by looking at the presidency of Woodrow Wilson.

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