Jan 06 2009
Sanjay Gupta for Surgeon General? How Awesome Would That Be!?
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2009/01/06/sanjay-gupta-surgeon-general/
Seriously!? You mean – the President Elect really meant it when he said change is going to be partly OUR responsibility too???
The Surgeon General hasn’t been well represented since the glory days of C. Everett Koop, who I absolutely adored, and who fulfilled a critical function at a dire time in American health history. I will never forget the line “…the best protection against infection right now, barring abstinence, is the use of a condom.” Both profoundly moral, and profoundly practical – Koop set the bar high for both visibility and principled independence in the capacity of spokesman for public health issues. Since then, perhaps the role has suffered from lack of a major health crisis requiring such a landmark pronouncement, but it has also suffered from lack of flair or even much interest in capturing the attention of the American people. Bringing star power to the role of Surgeon General, and at that, TRUSTED star power, at a time when the nation’s health care system is going to be overhauled, and wellness and PREVENTION emphasized, makes all the sense in the world.
I hope that this does happen, and I hope we see great things from Dr. Gupta in the role.
QT
2 Responses to “Sanjay Gupta for Surgeon General? How Awesome Would That Be!?”
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I like it too, QT. He is medically qualified (not that hard to find) but also has the skills to communicate with the public honestly and in understandable terms without talking down (a combination that isn’t as easy to find). And as a female I have to say that I remember Koop–a good one–but Gupta screams of hot where Koop did not. Sorry…couldn’t help myself there. I’ve been “tainted” by the girls at The Bob.
LOL! DP, ‘fraid I got some of that same taint! LOL!
QT