Tag: Surgeon General

Line graph showing views on alcohol consumption's health impact from 2002 to 2024. The percentage who think it's bad increases sharply to 45% in 2024, while those thinking it's good or makes no difference decrease steadily to 8% and 43%, respectively.

Surgeon General Alcohol Warning

In 1964 the US Surgeon General released its first report on the health risks of smoking and tobacco use. This turned out to be a landmark move, paving the way for the following decades of progressively more restrictive regulation of public tobacco use and marketing. In 1964 smoking was at its peak in the US, when 42% of Americans smoked. Today the...

/ January 8, 2025
RFK Jr. and Donald Trump's health picks vs. vaccination

Antivaxxers, grifters, and quacks: RFK Jr.’s MAHA takes over federal health agencies

President-Elect Donald Trump has now announced most of picks to lead critical federal health agencies. These picks predictably prioritize grift, quackery, and antivax ideology.

/ November 25, 2024

The new Surgeon General nominee and CAM: Is there a problem here?

Our fearless leader, Steve Novella, has informed me that he is traveling today. Unfortunately, I am preparing a talk for later today, and no one else seemed able to come up with a post; so I decided to adapt a recent post from my not-so-super-secret other blog and see what a different readership thought of it. I realize that I’m risking subjecting...

/ November 20, 2013

Where Does Sanjay Gupta Register On The Quackometer?

Four weeks ago I wrote a blog post about Sanjay Gupta’s nomination by the Obama administration as our potential new Surgeon General. Many of you voiced concerns about Sanjay’s nomination, specifically because of his poor handling of the Raelians’ Clonaid fiasco, his inability to counter Michael Moore’s health statistics as presented in Sicko and his relationship to the pharmaceutical industry. As I...

/ February 5, 2009

Who Should Ascend To The Office Of Surgeon General?

President-elect Obama’s nomination of CNN medical correspondent, Sanjay Gupta, for the Office of Surgeon General of the United States has ignited a firestorm of debate across the Internet. Some argue that he is not qualified for the position, others say that his charisma would be a boon to public health communications, though the lay majority appear to have mixed feelings. It is...

/ January 8, 2009