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Gupta for Surgeon General? Cool.

By sb admin on January 6, 2009.

As my regular readers know, I recently lost my father-in-law. He was a terrific teacher and loved to brag about students who had done well. One of his favorite "brags" was Sanjay Gupta of CNN, and now, the Washington Post is reporting that Obama wants Sanjay to be the next Surgeon General.

Dick, I wish you were around to see it.

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Don't know a lot about Gupta, but my preferred neurosurgeon would have been Steven Novella!

I tend to agree with val that he lacks a bit of gravitas, and i am a bit worried about his journalism creds pushing him to "both sides-ism" but i see potential.

As soon as I heard about the Gupta pick, I came here assuming you doofuses would be all for it. I'm disappointed to learn I'm right. Gupta is a pharmaceutical industry hooker, & I find it ironic that someone who has "a special interest in the ways patients are deceived by charlatans" is actually in favor of this bonehead move.

I'm not saying the guy's a perfect choice, but before being an asshole slinging ad homs all over the tubes, you wanna give some data?

I have a vague memory that Gupta has been fairly tolerant of woo. Given your willingness to support him, I'm guessing that my memory about that is erroneous. Do you have any further information about Gupta's attitudes about the imaginary medicine disciplines?

By freelunch (not verified) on 07 Jan 2009 #permalink

Re Mike

Dr. Novella is a neurologist, not a neurosurgeon.

Re BDM

The tipoff that Mr. BDM is a crank comes from his use of the term "big pharma", in addition to his link to a quack website rawfoodinfo.

Re PalMD

Dr. Orac and Prof. Myers seem rather less enthusiastic about Dr. Gupta then Dr. PalMD.

um...citing "rawfoodinfo.com" isn't all that credible.

I was very mildly in favor of the choice, but if cranks like you are against it, i might have to start cheerleading for the guy.

Rawfoodinfo simply reprinted the piece, which originally ran on Counterpunch:
http://www.counterpunch.org/martens07202007.html

Is that as far as you got?
I didn't use the term "big pharm" to signal my allegiance with anyone; it is simply an abbreviation. I guess I should've used "pharmaceutical industry."
You obviously didn't follow the links, but rather looked for the easiest escape route by dismissing the rawfoodinfo url & calling me a "crank." Well, one ad hom deserves another, right?
If you want to play tit-for-tat, I concede. You win. If, on the other hand, you want to find out whether or not Gupta is a good pick for Surgeon General, follow the links.

If you're disturbed because Gupta endorsed Garasil, you are officially on my crank list.

I'm disturbed that Gupta began endorsing Garasil eight months before testing on the drug had even been completed. Even the AMA says Garasil's efficacy is modest at best. Gupta is promoting a product, not a treatment; his endorsement is an advertisement disguised as an objective scientific opinion, which I oppose. If that puts me on your crank list, then I'm proud to be a crank.

Re BDM

Counterpunch. The antisemitic far left wing counterpart to stormfront and rense.

Nice try, SLC. The issue at hand is whether Gupta is a sound choice for Surgeon General, which, in my opinion, he is not, especially considering all the "change" rhetoric from the Obama campaign. Alexander Cockburn's alleged anti-semitism is neither here nor there, since he didn't write the article I linked to above.
Honestly, the arguments you people employ simply to avoid conceding a point astonish me. I thought this was the Science Blogs.

If you want to play tit-for-tat, I concede. You win. If, on the other hand, you want to find out whether or not Gupta is a good pick for Surgeon General, follow the links.