Vivek Murthy Quotes

As surgeon general I always seemed to be issuing a "Surgeon General's Warning" about one thing after another that threatened the health of the American people: cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, AIDS, Reye's syndrome, violence, and a host of others. In each case I had to be certain that the science behind the health warning was impeccable and able to withstand the critics who sought to dismiss the warnings. But I also needed to ensure that the science made sense on a personal level. I had to listen to the American people as well as to talk (sternly) to them.

A lot of people have misconceptions about what the surgeon general does.

As 17th U.S. Surgeon General, I was privileged to serve as the nation's doctor. I focused much of my time on promoting proven programs and individual steps that lead to good health.

The overarching issue, really, is our surgeon general should be able to communicate transparently and honestly with the American public on all issues.

There is simply not enough money available to support a system in which the lion's share of expenditures is devoted to acute care, with virtually nothing being spent on preventive medicine, i.e. health care.

[Public Health] means the saving and lengthening of lives of thousands of citizens, the extension of the vigorous working period well into old age, and the prevention of inefficiency, misery, and suffering. These advances can be made by organized social effort. Public health is purchasable.

A prevention-based society is one in which every institution, whether they're a hospital or a clinic, or a school, an employer or a faith-based organization, recognizes and embraces the role that it can play in improving health.

I want to thank the efforts of the American Public Health Association and its 200-plus partners who have organized events around the Nation that serve to raise everyone's awareness of the need to improve public health.

For years, many public health campaigns that aimed at changing habits have been failures.

The Surgeon General's job is a bully pulpit and not much else.

I think the problem with the country is that we operate on a sickness model, not a wellness model... Basically, we treat people who become ill. What we don't do is do a very good job in keeping them healthy in the first place...

We must form public-private partnerships to collectively improve children's health.

The Medical Society of Sedgwick County, the Kansas Hospital Association and doctors have really done some remarkable work on wellness-related issues.

I loved clinical practice, but in public health, you can impact more than one person at a time. The whole society is your patient.

By the way, what happened to our surgeon general who warned us about AIDS and smoking? That position has been completely stripped of power.

Every year, my mom makes sure I have my checkups and everything, which is probably a really good idea. She's great with all that health stuff.

Well, the responsibility of the surgeon general is to make sure that the public has access to science and access to it in a way that is understandable and that is applicable to their everyday lives.

Why don't we just get our population healthier so we don't need medical care?

Health care is vital to all of us some of the time, but public health is vital to all of us all of the time

Surgeon general's job is to protect, promote and advance the health, safety and security of the nation.

To her [Florence Nightingale] chiefly I owed the awakening to the fact that sanitation is the supreme goal of medicine its foundation and its crown.

It doesn't take a brain surgeon... or a cardiologist... or a pediatrician... or even a policy wonk to figure out that a penny's worth of preventive care is worth many dollars of sick care.

No good is ever done to society by the pictorial representation of its diseases.

The best way to reduce the cost of medical care is to reduce the illness.

When I jump into something, I really do it to the fullest extent that my time and energy will allow me. I'm from Texas, and to see so many people that are obese and with disorders that are preventable. They haven't been shown or told. I'm really passionate about making sure my fellow countrymen are healthy. It's a shame.