Hospitals, Policy

GOP unhappy with Ebola Czar (not a doctor) and Surgeon General nominee (an actual doctor)

Sign posted at @Drsforamerica national conference. #dr4a pic.twitter.com/1l5cGsp3gR — Vivek Murthy (@vivek_murthy) April 21, 2013 […]


As the Ebola crisis continues, the lack of a Surgeon General another problem with the federal government’s management of the disease. Although the GOP acknowledges that the position needs to be filled eventually after being vacant for more than a year, they refuse to get on board with the nomination of Dr. Vivek Murthy. They aren’t crazy about Ron Klain’s appointment as the Ebola czar either. But who’s to blame?

The GOP firmly believes the finger should be pointed directly at President Obama on all fronts, according to MSNBC. During an interview with CNN’s Candy Crowley on Sunday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) spelled out pretty clearly where the party is coming from on this.

Crowely asked the senator, “Do you think it would have helped … had there been a surgeon general in place to kind of calm what has become the fear of Ebola?” Cruz responded, “Look – look, of course we should have a surgeon general in place. And we don’t have one because President Obama, instead of nominating a health professional, he nominated someone who is an anti-gun activist.”

Murthy does believe that gun violence is a public health concern, which clearly conflicts with the NRA/Republican view, but saying he’s not a health professional is wrong. Murthy is currently an attending physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and an instructor at Harvard Medical School. He’s also the founder of TrialNetworks and the president and cofounder of Doctors for America. The non-profit is group of physicians and medical students that supports the ACA.

Some of the criticism of Murthy seems to be that he’s young and has enough media savvy to have a Twitter account (although apparently he has been scared off Twitter because his last tweet is from September 2013). Not enough gravitas for some senators, apparently, even though Murthy has years of experience in research and public health.

As for the GOP’s opposition to Ron Klain as the Ebola czar, again, the president is to blame. Their argument is that someone with a political background shouldn’t be the one to fill that role. Instead, it should be, you guessed it, a health professional.

As for a time table for approving Murthy’s nomination, it doesn’t look good. “There is little time on the calendar to approve a surgeon general after senators return from their recess in November,” Politico reports. “Lawmakers have to approve a budget and have other high-profile posts like the attorney general and Secret Service director to potentially fill. There is also a chance that party control of the Senate isn’t decided until January because of run-off elections — a likely complication in scheduling a vote on Murthy.”

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