{"id":7490,"date":"2014-12-16T04:25:05","date_gmt":"2014-12-16T04:25:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=7490"},"modified":"2014-12-16T04:25:05","modified_gmt":"2014-12-16T04:25:05","slug":"senate-approves-surgeon-general-finally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=7490","title":{"rendered":"Senate approves surgeon general … finally!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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For the first time in I don’t know how long, the United States has a top doctor.<\/p>\n

He is Vivek Murthy, who today was approved by the U.S. Senate to become the nation’s next surgeon general.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/news\/politics\/senate-approves-obama-pick-for-surgeon-general\/ar-BBgQAMd<\/p>\n

Despite his sparkling medical credentials and the work he has done to combat HIV\/AIDS, senators had held up his nomination because he has spoken out against gun violence, calling it a public health issue.<\/p>\n

Imagine that. A physician wanting to control gun violence because bullets injure and kill people.<\/p>\n

His confirmation vote today was 51-43, with Republicans overwhelmingly opposing him because he is no friend of gun-rights advocates. Some Democrats joined their Republican colleagues in opposing Dr. Murthy.<\/p>\n

One of them was Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who issued a statement opposing the doctor because, according to Manchin, his political views muddled his medical policy. I understand why Manchin joined other senators in opposing Murthy. It’s because he’s scared of gun-rights groups such as the National Rifle Association and the potent political power they possess.<\/p>\n

That doesn’t make it right.<\/p>\n

Vivek Murthy is perfectly qualified to serve as surgeon general. His views on gun control are well-known, but they do not infringe on his ability to help set medical policy or recommend measures to promote good health on behalf of the Obama administration.<\/p>\n

Indeed, had their been a surgeon general on board during the recent Ebola mini-scare, there might not have been a need for the president to appoint an “Ebola czar” to coordinate the administration’s response to the disease’s arrival in the United States.<\/p>\n

OK, so that task is done. We have a surgeon general. It’s good to know that at least 51 senators had the guts to vote in favor of hiring a chief medical officer to advise the nation on how to take better care of its health.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n

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For the first time in I don’t know how long, the United States has a top doctor. He is Vivek Murthy, who today was approved by the U.S. Senate to become the nation’s next surgeon general. http:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/news\/politics\/senate-approves-obama-pick-for-surgeon-general\/ar-BBgQAMd Despite his sparkling medical credentials and the work he has done to combat HIV\/AIDS, senators had held up … Continue reading Senate approves surgeon general … finally!<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,13,14],"tags":[540,2514,3342,4476,5123],"class_list":["post-7490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-medical-news","category-national-news","category-political-news","tag-barack-obama","tag-joe-manchin","tag-nra","tag-surgeon-general","tag-vivek-murthy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7490\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}