- This should most certainly and most deservedly open the
door for Dr. Howard Dean, whom I always felt would be the best possible
choice for HHS.
-
- Even being FDA Commissioner would be a large enough and
challenging enough job for this great American, who singlehandedly rebuilt
the Democratic Party, and like the analysis or not, helped to hand the
Presidency to Obama.
-
- Although Governor Sebelius has been given the HHS job,
it is not too late to read about the alternative, as now the Surgeon General
position might be looking good for Dr. Dean. I am glad to see mainstream
media beginning to report on this, both internationally (Reuters and AFP),
and domestically (US News and World Report and Washington Post), instead
of merely dismissing it as impossible, as did Huffington Post a few days
ago.
-
- Here are three of my prior articles on Howard Dean for
HHS: http://www.opednews.com/articles/Vermont-Senator-Bernie-San-by- Silla-Brush-
090209-701.html
-
- and
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- http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-United-States-Needs-Dr-by-
Stephen-Fox- 090203-382.html
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- and
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- http://www.opednews.com/articles/Why-Howard-Dean-MD-would-by-
Stephen-Fox- 081109-258.html
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- Please take the time to email both President Obama and
VP Biden in support of Dr. Dean as Surgeon General; I truly believe the
very future of American Health and Illness Prevention is at stake, given
the corporate onslaught into the regulatory processes we are supposed
to trust and depend on in our naive and deluded faith that the FDA "is
there to protect us."
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- Dean is a graduate of Albert Einstein College of Medicine,
former Governor of Vermont, a true progressive, and one of the brightest
minds in public service at this time. He has practiced Family Medicine
in Burlington, Vermont, and his wife, Judith Sternberg M.D., has her own
practice of medicine in the Burlington area.
-
- Anyone with half a brain, from either or both political
parties, realizes that Health Care Reform without launching a fierce illness
prevention program is as doomed to failure as would be putting a nice new
box of bandaids on an open wound infected with gangrene, which described
well the wreckage of American health at the hands of Big Pharma and Big
Junk Food, and Big Television dumbing down the survival instinct for the
past 60 years.
-
- Big changes are coming, I believe, especially with the
excellent Supreme Court decision in the past few days denying Big Pharma
their favorite hiding place from liability suits, the fact that they obtained
FDA approval, and this clearly will put a far greater onus on the FDA
to get things right to begin with, instead of continuing to rubber stamp
what industry wants from the FDA, from scientists who are then offered
a way out the revolving door into a cushy corporate spot working for the
firms they once regulated.
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- I could easily see a new consortium of some high powered
legislators who are both interested in and cognizant of the problems in
the FDA, the Health and Human Services Department, and in the office of
the Surgeon General, if Dr. Dean were given that job by Obama in a long
overdue gesture of appreciation, not just for his political services,
but for his capacity to solve extremely serious and growing problems in
American Health Care and prevention.
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- These legislators include Congressman Bart Stupak of
Michigan, Congresswomen Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, and Senator Charles
Grassley of Iowa.
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- Think about it. Who else would you trust for designing
a complete overhaul of the FDA, the Department of Health, and the Surgeon
General's functions more than Dr. Howard Dean?
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- Stephen Fox, Editor, New Mexico Sun News stephen@santafefineart.com
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