Press‑Access Cuts as Health Cover

When senior leaders abruptly curtail interviews with major outlets and rely on tightly managed appearances, it can functionally serve to conceal cognitive or health decline rather than represent a mere media strategy. Tracking unusual drops in sit‑downs with legacy outlets, coupled with insider statements (e.g., staff counseling "don’t answer reporters"), is an early, checkable signal for institutional secrecy about leader fitness. — If true, this practice reshapes electoral accountability and the public’s ability to assess an incumbent’s fitness to govern.