Obama's transition team has approached CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta for the position of Surgeon General:
The Obama transition team approached Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent, about becoming U.S. surgeon general, according to sources inside the transition and at CNN.
Gupta was in Chicago, Illinois, in November to meet with President-elect Barack Obama on the matter, sources said.
Gupta has declined comment.The transition team is impressed with the combination of Gupta's past government experience, as a White House fellow in 1997 and a special adviser to then-first lady Hillary Clinton, along with his medical career as a neurosurgeon and his communication skills, the transition source said.
Gupta is a member of the staff and faculty of the Department of Neurosurgery at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. He regularly performs surgery at Emory University Hospital and at Grady Memorial Hospital, where he serves as associate chief of neurosurgery.
I ambivalent about the choice. On the one hand, as Abel points out, a lot of people trust Gupta to provide them with health information. The Surgeon General job is basically that of a good health cheerleader -- informing people of risks and urging them to lead healthier lives. Aside from leading the Public Health Service, their most important job is to issue warnings. So I could see how Gupta would be effective in that role.
On the other hand, Gupta and CNN in general have in my opinion dropped the ball on a lot of health-related issues. Chris mentions to whole business with Clonaid. I would add that he has continually waffled on the issue of vaccines and autism, saying we need to do more research because we don't know for certain. Hogwash. Every scientific and medical body is this nation is in solid agreement that vaccines do not cause autism. Question over.
It is clear to me that in his role as journalist, he has attempted to provide both sides of the autism story -- in a manner similar to the way politics is presented. He shows more anecdotes than evidence because that is what people want to see on the news. But as a health advisor to the nation, it doesn't work that way. 1) You have to make a decision. 2) If you lend credence to cranks, you are going to confuse everyone AND look like a jackass doing it.
It is my hope that in becoming the Surgeon General, he would abandon his journalistic impulse toward parity in time and embrace solid, evidence-based scientific recommendations. I guess, we'll just have to see...
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Hmm - maybe Dr. Gupta has already made his decision, Jake.
My guess is that he's only been lending credence to the cranks at the CDC in order to keep his job at CNN.
In this new position, he'll be better able to expose the real jackasses behind the autism epidemic.
Also there was the controversy of Gupta "mugging .. Michael Moore over Sicko. You don't have to like Moore or his film; but Gupta specifically claimed that Moore 'fudged his facts', when the truth was that on every one of the allegedly fudged facts, Moore was actually right and CNN was wrong." described by Paul Krugman in
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/06/the-trouble-with-sanjay-gup…
(detailed in a reference in Comment # 9 to Schwitzer's health news blog:
https://blog.lib.umn.edu/cgi-bin/mt-search.cgi?IncludeBlogs=704&search=… ).
Completely agree with the only commenter here. Jake, you are grossly missinformed on vaccines and autism. You don't want to look like one of the few remaining jackasses on this issue, more than pedantry on your part but utter ignorance. I recommend you check the following;
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/top-federal-autism-panel_b_15…
Jake is right. Gupta waffled. Vaccines do not cause autism. Autism is simply a term from the psychiatric DSM-IV manual. It's nothing but a smokescreen. It provides an alibi for the drug companies who added mercury to vaccines at levels 250 times higher than hazardous waste levels (based on toxicity characteristics). It provides an alibi for the CDC, FDA, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the other drug company cronies who are responsible for the safety of our children. It provides an alibi for the people who administered this poison. It provides an alibi for health insurance companies so they don't have to pay for treatment for these sick kids. It provides an alibi for psychiatrists so they can force powerfull anti-psychotic drugs on these kids who are already terribly confused.
There will never be an identifiable cause for autism. There are though 11 published papers which identify the underlying medical condition of autism as neuroinflammatory disease. My favorite is "Neuroglial activation and Neuroinflammation in the Brain of Patients with Autism". Now, do you want to debate whether mercury, a known neurotoxin, added to childhood vaccines at levels 250 times higher than what the EPA identifies as hazardous waste, causes neuroinflammatory disease? Do you want to debate whether brain damaged kids behave in a way so that some psychiatrist can label them as somewhere on the "spectrum"?
"Hogwash. Every scientific and medical body is this nation is in solid agreement that vaccines do not cause autism. Question over."
Someone should inform Dr. Bernardine Healy, former director of the US National Institutes of Health and the American Red Cross. Dr. Healy pointed out that the epidemiological studies do not look at vulnerable sub sets of children who might be at greater risk of reaction to thimerosal. She also pointed out that US vaccines still contain thimerosal (a point which can also be confirmed by visiting the FDA web site.) Of particular concern was the provision of thimoseral containing flu vaccines to pregnant women. If you read the 2004 IOM report on the vaccine autism issue you will find acknowledgement that the studies to that date were all epidemiological, not clinical, and that lab and clinical research were discouraged by that report as a matter of public policy ie. the importance of vaccination programs.
Of course you can simply send an email to Dr Healy in which you repeat your blog comments and put the word HOGWASH in large bold all caps. It is a much more persuasive argument that way.
It's sad to see that you are a MD/PhD student as you are already being brainwashed about vaccines. Have you seen the list of "added ingredidents" in vaccines? Mercury still exists in the flu vaccine which is recommended for women during pregnancy when their fetuses are developing and for young children. Mercury also still exists in RhoGam which is given at 26 weeks of pregnancy when the baby is at its peak development. They tell pregnant women to avoid mercury-containing fishes like tuna, yet they recommend mercury in shots. Totally hypocrisy. These shots also contain aluminum, antifreeze, formaldehyde, antifungals, antibiotics, formalin, the list goes on. To think injecting yourself with antifreeze, formaldehyde or formalin, and with studies showing aluminum can cause Alzheimer's disease (which have big similarities to some symptoms of autism), there should be great cause for concern. The truth of the matter is vaccines are big money for pharmaceutical companies. Look at the HPV vaccine. How many young girls have now died from this injection yet the FDA gave Merck a thumbs up after the Vioxx mess. Every time I hear the commercial "one less" I think, yes, one less life on this planet. If one does research, one can prevent HPV and one can recover from HPV. The fact that states are now criminalizing parents who out of good conscience or religious beliefs wish to apply for an exemption (diploid cells of aborted human fetuses were involved in the development of the vaccines) no longer have the right. What happened to freedom of religion? The crap that is given that my unvaccinated child makes your vaccinated child at-risk is ridiculous because if you have such faith in your vaccine, then if my child happens to get something, your child should be fine. Also the mess that has now been created with the chicken pox vaccine in that adults are not getting a natural immune boost to chicken pox being around kids who get chicken pox are now having to get the peddled shingles vaccine because the rate of shingles is going up as a direct result of children no longer getting chicken pox the natural way. I will have to live with my decision to vaccine my child that ultimately caused his autism (and I have the pictures and videotape to prove the gross change in his affect). I should be able to decide what is best for my child and the government needs to stay out of my business. Pharmaceutical companies are also creating more vaccines because it shields them from being sued. HPV vaccine is not allowed to be brought forth in Vaccine Court either. What a nice loophole for them.
PBMOM. FREE YOURSELF.
AS THIMEROSOL LEVELS IN CACCINES GO DOWN
RATES ARE STILL GOING UP
NOT YUR FAULT.
ALSO EAR CANDLING DORSNT WORK.
Scientific studies versus waffling, hum. For more than two decades, the science was that smoking was safe, that asbestos was safe. The science is too often a product of politics and economic loyalties. Medical journals are often accused of running editorial content that surprise was written by a doctor on someone elses payroll to lend the aura of objectivity and good science to the product being pushed, often a pharmaceutical drug. The press likes to quote Dr. Paul Offit, chief of infectious diseases at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, who says the connection between vaccines and autism is nothing more than a sad coincidence. Of course. He is one of the patent holders of the rotavirus vaccine, the recipient of a $350,000 grant from Merck for its development, and a consultant to Merck Pharmaceuticals. His opinions are not good science. Nor is it good science to say cell phones, genetically modified food, high fructose corn syrup, BPA in plastics are of no concern.
Gupta like most of the MDs, are too influenced by the pharmaceutical industry. But at least he is listening waffling as it is called to the dangers of cell phones and vaccines.
Every scientific and medical body is this nation is in solid agreement that vaccines do not cause autism. Go back and look again. There is quite a growing body of thought that autism is the result of a number of environmental assaults. In many cases, the 5 vaccines in one day were simply the straw that breaks the camels back. The CDC and Environmental Working group have both confirmed that babies marinate in a toxic stew in the mothers womb; the come into the world with more than 200 chemicals in their bloodstream pesticides, fire retardant, Teflon, etc. It is no wonder that the stats for this generation of children are dismal:
Cancer is now the leading cause of death in children, aged 1-14.
The U.S. government reports that 1 out of every 6 children has a developmental disability.
The CDC reports that 1 in 150 children have autism. About 1 in 10 children in public schools has ADHD.
America now uses 90% of the world's Ritalin - more than five times the rest of the world combined. Emergency room visits by children ages 10-14 involving Ritalin intoxication have now reached the same level as those for cocaine.
The CDC reports asthma is the leading chronic illness of children in the United States. Asthma has more than doubled since 1980 affecting 1 in 4; asthma is the third-ranking cause of hospitalization among those younger than 15 years of age.
The rate of premature births increased nearly 31 percent between 1981 and 2003; the U.S. has the second worst infant mortality among 33 industrialized nations (2006).
Children and adolescents now being treated for bipolar has increased 40-fold since 1994.
According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (July 2007), "new epidemics in chronic health conditions among children and youth will translate into major demands on public health and welfare in the coming decades". The study found "from 15 to 18 percent of children and adolescents have some sort of chronic health condition, nearly half of whom could be considered disabled."
So much of what I read says Gupta is a good pick because hes a strong communicator. Koop wasnt necessarily a strong communicator, but he used his strength to do what tobacco-funded politicians could not get the American public to understand that smoking was bad for their health. This kind of leadership is what the Surgeon General should be about. He shouldnt be an advocate for the drug makers, we already have the FDA for that. We need an advocate for health, for our childrens health.
"Cancer is now the leading cause of death in children, aged 1-14."
Why is that "dismal"?
Something has to be the leading cause - would you prefer that it be murder, suicide, heart disease?
Infectious diseases used to be the leading cause of death, guess what was a major part of reducing death from infectious disease - vaccination.
Appreciate your balanced assessment of Gupta. Sorry you've drawn the fire of antivaxer hysterics.
"Cancer is now the leading cause of death in children, aged 1-14."
Why is that "dismal"?
Because cancer is an environmental disease, meaning it is preventable. A study funded in part by the Susan G. Komen Foundation and released in the spring of 2007 documented how environmental toxins are so pervasive, they overwhelm our immune system. Only someone who has never been in a children's cancer ward can be so callus as to suggest that children dying of cancer is not dismal.
We do not have, frankly, good approaches in mainstream medicine to cancer treatment. We use heavy doses of extremely toxic drugs and radiation which, as the saying goes, will hopefully kill the cancer before it kills you.
Children with cancer = an awful way to die. When infectious diseases and accidents were the way most young lives were snuffed out, death generally was quicker, less painful.
We must not take one fact and make a big picture of it. We must see the big picture and understand how to balance risks and benefits, and how to maximize the human potential.
The fact that cancer is the number one killer of children is a sad commentary on our environment. Notice how many parents are waking up and buying organic to avoid pesticides, buying toxic-free home products. The human instinct to survive will do what no lobbyist-influenced political body will do.