So far, there’s no defense for Lloyd Austin’s hospital silence

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who remains hospitalized after concealing his condition from President Biden and White House officials for at least three days, owes the public more answers about his health. That includes the nature of the elective procedure he received on Dec. 22 and the complications that led to him being taken by ambulance to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center’s intensive care unit on New Year’s Day. The public timeline that the Pentagon has so far released is unsettlingly vague: The secretary was experiencing “severe pain,” it says, but someone doesn’t typically take an ambulance to an ICU for a minor issue, even if they’re a VIP.

We wish Mr. Austin a full and swift recovery regardless of his precise condition. We would also appreciate more information. So far, there has been no plausible explanation for the lack of transparency with which all of the above proceeded in real time. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff found out about Mr. Austin’s hospitalization on Jan. 2, but the White House — the ultimate civilian authority under the Constitution — was kept in the dark for an additional 48 hours, until the afternoon of Jan. 4. (That same day, the U.S. military conducted an airstrike against Islamist militants in Baghdad.) National security adviser Jake Sullivan alerted the president, but the Pentagon waited to announce the hospitalization until after 5 p.m. on Jan. 5 — a Friday-night news dump — in a statement that claimed the secretary had resumed his duties. Mr. Biden did not speak with his defense chief until the evening of Jan. 6.