Does He Get to Keep the Costume?
Jacob Sullum | August 8, 2006, 5:17pm
According to The Washington Post, Surgeon General Richard Carmona quietly resigned last week—so quietly that I didn't notice until now. During his four-year tenure, the Arizona surgeon showed a propensity either to lie in the name of "the public health" or to be so clueless that he did not know when he was misrepresenting the facts. He was a bit less pompous than C. Everett Koop, although he wore the same silly uniform. Unlike Koop, who went after smokers first and later turned his attention to fatties, Carmona went after fatties and later turned his attention to smokers.
According to the Post, Carmona "said it would be all worth it if one student he talked to was dissuaded from making bad health choices, or if one mother quit smoking to improve her child's health." If that's all it takes to prevent the appointment of another national health scold, won't a teenage mother somewhere volunteer to stop smoking? Do it for your country.
keith | August 9, 2006, 11:13am | #
Great Ape:
Why, here you go -- The Surgeon General and the Commissioned Public Health Corps are a remnant of the US Marine Hospital Service, reorganized around the Spanish - American War. Being in uniform allows the doctors of this service (and the surveyors of the NOAA Corps, themselves a fascinating bit of Federal trivia) go about their business in traditional war zones without being at risk of being shot as spies.
Duties of the Surgeon General
To administer the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) Commissioned Corps, which is a uniquely expert, diverse, flexible, and committed career force of public health professionals who can respond to both current and long-term health needs of the Nation;
To provide leadership and management oversight for PHS Commissioned Corps involvement in Departmental emergency preparedness and response activities;
To protect and advance the health of the Nation through educating the public; advocating for effective disease prevention and health promotion programs and activities; and, provide a highly recognized symbol of national commitment to protecting and improving the public's health;
To articulate scientifically based health policy analysis and advice to the President and the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) on the full range of critical public health, medical, and health system issues facing the Nation;
To provide leadership in promoting special Departmental health initiatives, e.g., tobacco and HIV prevention efforts, with other governmental and non-governmental entities, both domestically and internationally;
To elevate the quality of public health practice in the professional disciplines through the advancement of appropriate standards and research priorities; and
To fulfill statutory and customary Departmental representational functions on a wide variety of Federal boards and governing bodies of non-Federal health organizations, including the Board of Regents of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, the National Library of Medicine, the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States, and the American Medical Association.
