Former surgeon general C. Everett Koop was a towering figure in the world of public health. A pediatric surgeon with deeply held religious convictions, Koop was an iconoclast willing to challenge the accepted wisdom of both major political parties when their platforms contradicted the evidence. What could public health officials today learn from Koop's example?
Join host Cameron English as he sits down Dr. Chuck Dinerstein and ACSH contributor Barbara Pfeffer Billauer to break down these stories on episode 31 of the Science Dispatch podcast:
The recipe for good public health policy is like a souffle—simple ingredients combined in a complex manner. Done well, it’s a delight. Heavy-handed, using sour (outdated) ingredients, it’s a mess, even toxic.
Everett Koop was a man of morals. A religious man who read the bible. He was also a man of science. He got his job through politics. Yet he knew how to keep these forces separate. Nowhere was this more apparent than in his pushback against political pressures to oppose abortion on health grounds and to educate the populace about AIDS and tobacco use.