by Gary Charles Berliner

Created on: April 02, 2009

Upon reflection on the health topics and the actual testimony covered by Dr. Carmona in his appearance before Congress, I would conclude that Dr. Carmona's report actually reflects his own personal political agenda, rather than any objective evaluation of the overall health directives delivered to the Surgeon General's office during the past 8 years. His claims of "suppression of vital health information" is simple hyperbole designed to demonize the former Bush administration's legitimate disagreement with Dr. Carmona's personal views on the science and medicine priorities in their previous Public Health programs.

The first fallacy embodied within Dr. Carmona's testimony is his promulgating the assumption that the office of Surgeon General is an apolitical appointment designed to further the general health and welfare of US citizens at the behest of the appointee. Nothing could be further from the truth. The office of Surgeon General was designed, from the beginning, for the office holder to be a spokes-piece for their administration's showcased Public Health policies, with the intent that implementation of these policies were not simply for the benefit of the public at large, but also served to promote that particular administration's own civil agenda. Toward that end, the Surgeon General has never necessarily represented his own, or some larger objective view of medicine and science, but rather has always served at the bidding of the President, and by that token should reflect the President's views, or recuse themselves from their post.

Past Surgeon Generals have been roundly critiqued and even removed from their appointments for failing to represent their administration's views on Public Health Policy. Most notorious was Dr. Jocelyn Elders during the Clinton administration, who famously advocated masturbation as an alternative to sexual intercourse for a means to reduce unwanted pregnancy, and sexually transmitted disease. While her's was not a true advocacy of abstinence, the approach she took none the less provoked the ire of the Clinton White House and resulted in Dr. Elders' dismissal, not for the illegitimacy of her ideas, but for their variance with implementation of President Clinton's desired Public policies on birth control and family planning.

Other Surgeon Generals have been equally stymied in their attempts to implement science and medicine into Public Policy. For example we see the graduated warnings successively placed on cigarette packages and

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