Thanks for the insights. While ordinary confidentiality applies to those with outsized fame, most patients don't have media braying at the entrances. When a hospital's function is impeded by the presence of a famous patient, by necessity a compromise must happen.

What presently ensues with the President reflects a decades-long trend whereby formally staid or serious events are reduced to spectacle. Recent days illustrate how said trend has become outright morbid, with health (i.e. the most valuable thing anyone has) denigrated in favour of - as AMB says - a Great Media Event.

In NPA terms, I think recent events encapsulate how extreme narcissism impinges on the function of society. Whereas we might associate extreme aggression with destruction or death, many leaders contemporary and historical demonstrate how the reckless disregard native to malignant narcissism also has much to answer for in this department.