Surgeon general is removed by Trump administration, replaced by deputy for now
By Lenny Bernstein April 22 at 11:40 AM
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy has been removed by the Trump administration and replaced temporarily by his deputy, Rear Adm. Sylvia Trent-Adams.
Murthy, a holdover from the Obama administration, was asked to resign, according to a statement released Friday night by the Department of Health and Human Services. The statement said that “after assisting in a smooth transition into the new Trump administration,” Murthy “has been relieved of his duties.” Trent-Adams, a 24-year veteran of the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and a former chief nurse officer of the Public Health Service, will fill the role for now, the statement said.
In a post on Facebook, Murthy wrote that “for the grandson of a poor farmer from India to be asked by the President to look out for the health of an entire nation was a humbling and uniquely American story. I will always be grateful to our country for welcoming my immigrant family nearly 40 years ago and giving me this opportunity to serve.” His dismissal came on the eve of the March for Science, which drew thousands of demonstrators to the National Mall.
A physician, Murthy, 39, is a longtime believer that gun violence is a public-health issue, a view that stalled his nomination in the Senate for more than a year and probably did not align him well with the current administration. He took office in December 2014, and in an interview with The Washington Post four months later, he did not back off those views.
“The statements I've made in the past about gun violence being a public health issue, I stand by those comments because they're a fact,” he said then. “They're a fact that nearly every medical professional who's ever cared for a patient can attest to.”
His biggest accomplishment may have been the publication in November of a landmark report on drug and alcohol addiction, which placed that condition alongside smoking, AIDS and other public health crises of the past 50 years that previous surgeons general have tried to address. The report called the addiction epidemic “a moral test for America.” Murthy's office sent millions of letters to doctors asking for their help to combat the opioid crisis.
In 2015, amid a serious measles outbreak, Murthy urged parents to have their children vaccinated, adding his voice to the chorus trying to counter the small but burgeoning anti-vaccination movement. “The most important message I have is to please, please, please get your child vaccinated,” he said at the time. Later that year, he called for a walking campaign to combat chronic disease and obesity.
more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/04/22/surgeon-general-vivek-h-murthy-removed-by-trump-administration-replaced-by-deputy-for-now/?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_surgeon-general-12pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.98ed2fdb2b44
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