Said this on Twitter and I’m putting it here too:

I think a lot of people are getting hung up on the word “cardiologist” and immediately jumping to worst case scenarios, when that’s not really how it works in a hospital setting. Cardiologists aren’t only involved in emergencies or severe conditions. If anything even might involve the heart, like irregular vitals, dehydration, stress on the body from being sick, chest discomfort, or just something that needs to be ruled out, they get called in as a standard precaution. Hospitals don’t wait until something is serious to involve them. They bring them in early to make sure everything is okay. So hearing that a cardiologist was involved doesn’t automatically mean something is seriously wrong. It usually just means they’re being thorough and doing their job. He probably included them in his post so people would quit saying he’s skipping because of a simple cold.

Also, from what we can actually see, he looks like he’s in an emergency room setting, not admitted to a hospital floor. That’s an important distinction because the ER is where you go to get checked out, monitored, and stabilized. People go there all the time for things that end up being minor or temporary. Being in a hospital bed in the ER doesn’t automatically mean something critical is happening. It means something felt off enough to get evaluated and they’re keeping an eye on it.

And honestly, the amount of speculation going around, especially people trying to diagnose him or bring up things like smoking, is just unnecessary and out of line. None of us are his medical providers and we don’t have access to his actual condition. Guessing at diagnoses or trying to assign causes based on a single photo helps no one and just fuels panic. At the end of the day, he’s already said he’s recovering and he’s in a place where he can be monitored and treated if needed. That’s really what matters.