The White House announced that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was released today (Monday) from a hospital in Washington, after being treated for two weeks for prostate cancer.
According to the White House Statement, Austin will work from home at the advice of his doctors, and will later return to fully working at the Pentagon. The statement also said that his cancer was treated early and effectively, and no further treatment is planned aside from ordinary follow up treatment.
Austin had been hospitalized at Walter Reed military hospital in Washington, DC on January 1, and only returned to his job this week. Austin’s hospitalization was kept a secret at first, and caused a firestorm when it was reported that President Joe Biden and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan weren’t updated on his condition. Even after the story broke, the Pentagon only stated that he was hospitalized due to “complications” due to a non-emergency medical procedure, without elaborating further.
Secretary Austin addressed the criticism by taking full responsibility for his decisions regarding making his health problems public and said he understood he could have done better to ensure the public is properly kept up to date.