28 February, 2013

Postscript: C. Everett Koop, 1916-2013 : The New Yorker

Postscript: C. Everett Koop, 1916-2013 : The New Yorker: Surgeons Generals have little actual power—and there were other wars to wage. I covered science policy at the time for the Washington Post and I expected Koop to generate a lot of news. But neither I, nor anyone else, could have envisioned that by the time he left office eight years later, he would have managed to transform his job into the most electrifying bully pulpit in medicine. And he did it in the most unexpected way: by telling the truth.