U.S. Surgeon General 1981-1989
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- Up one level
- 1986: AIDS, Crack, and C. Everett Koop
Mark William Osler, University of St. Thomas - School of Law (Minnesota). 65 Rutgers Law Review (2014), U of St. Thomas (Minnesota) Legal Studies Research Paper No. 14-31. Posted: 30 Sep 2014 In 1986, Ronald Reagan’s America confronted twin public health crises: AIDS and crack. There were striking similarities between the two, in that both developed quietly before public alarms were raised; both were identified with traditionally oppressed groups; both spread in a similar pattern; and both created fear in the American public. Where they differed, though, was in the reaction. After initial missteps, AIDS was approached through problem-solving doctors and researchers rather than quarantine. In contrast, crack was confronted with a heavy retributive hand. AIDS was transformed to a chronic, treatable illness. In contrast, crack not only continued to plague communities, but the use of mass incarceration created new problems.
- Health and Health Care for the 21st Century: For All the People
C. Everett Koop, American Journal of Public Health, December 2006 As I reflect on my more than 6 decades of public health service, I am awed at what has been achieved and shocked at what has not. We can prevent and treat diseases formerly considered capricious death sentences. Yet many proven strategies for preventing disease and disability sit on the shelves. The gaping holes in our health care coverage net leave approximately 47 million Americans without coverage.1 Our capability to prevent and treat disease seems to exceed our willingness to apply our interventions.
- Protecting Medicine in the 21st Century
Science 25 Sep 1998;281(5385):1952-1953 I am hopeful, but not certain, that what is in the best interest of the patient will begin to prevail over what is in the best interest of the health care company investors. This attitude must support medical research as well as medical care. The issues of managed care, patient rights, physician professionalism, medical research, and health care in America need to be lifted from the bottom line to our highest aspirations.
- Reagan, Clinton, Tobacco, And Children: An Interview With C. Everett Koop
Interview with Fitzhugh Mullan. Health Affairs. September 2004;23(5):180-187 At eighty-seven years of age, former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop has an extraordinary perspective on health and medicine in America. He reflects on child health from his thirty-five years as a pediatric surgeon; AIDS from his position as Surgeon General at the outset of the epidemic; Presidents Reagan and Clinton, with whom he worked extensively; and smoking from his long battle first in government and then later as public antagonist to what he sees as the duplicitous and deceptive “killer” industry: tobacco.
- Whatever happened to the human race? Revised edition.
C. Everett Koop and Francis A. Schaeffer. Crossway Books, Wheaton IL. 1979,1983.