“The U.S. Surgeon General Has One Last Piece of Advice”

Dr. Vivek Murthy served as the 19th and 21st Surgeon General of the United States, under Presidents Obama and then Biden. His tenure was marked by his efforts to address a wide range of public health issues, including the ongoing youth mental health crisis, the proliferation of health misinformation, and the well-being of health workers. He emphasized the importance of addressing social isolation and loneliness, releasing significant reports on e-cigarettes and youth and the first Surgeon General’s report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health.

I recently read his interview in Time magazine, and many things came to mind:

“What’s driving the deeper pain, the unhappiness I was seeing for years across the country?”

“Loss of community is a place where we have relationships, help each other, and where we find purpose in each other.”

“I saw very clearly in my first term that mental health was a profound challenge for the country, and it continued to get worse, particularly for young people. I knew coming into the second term that while COVID-19 was a major public health emergency, the pandemic would make the mental-health struggles we were seeing even worse—so we needed to focus on that as much as possible.”

As I read these sentences, I wondered why he so fervently supported the closure of schools during the pandemic when his colleague at the CDC, Dr. Robert Redfield, so plainly stated that over 7 million children receive mental health services at their schools.

It’s great that he increased awareness of this problem affecting everyone, but not much was done to address the problems head-on. For example, we lose about 40 service members and veterans every single day to suicide. That’s like a fully loaded Airbus hitting the ground daily, all souls lost. Every administration since Nixon has signed “executive orders” to form a suicide task force to combat veteran suicide, yet the problem’s only gotten worse. The same could be echoed for chronic disease, diabetes, and cancer.

Back to veterans, we have a drug, MDMA, that showed much promise in the phase-3 trial at Johns Hopkins when combined with therapy to address the PTSD that veterans face, especially when coming back from war. It’s unconscionable that we didn’t give this medication a chance. On top of that, the pharmaceutical industry made the drug so expensive it would have been out of reach for most in any case. That’s what our pharmaceutical companies do, just look up the Shkreli Awards. This is one reason I continue to support the use of ketamine along with effective psychotherapy to treat our soldiers and first responders suffering from PTSD.

“How can health officials rebuild the public’s trust in science and health institutions?

“We have to ask ourselves how we can do better so people don’t feel judged when they have a different point of view, and how we can be even more transparent with the reasoning behind decisions or recommendations.”

This was an interesting answer from Murthy, providing a soapbox explanation for the erosion of public trust. Apart from the White House employing nearly 100 officials to regulate speech on Twitter (now X), apart from the explosion in chronic diseases such as obesity and diabetes, increased healthcare costs, and the list continues.

One key point Murthy missed is acknowledging that science is broken from its fundamentals. The high stakes of what’s published in medical journals reflect that we’re no longer interested in the truth. In science, a scientist’s primary aim must be the truth. The truth lies in the scientific models of prediction. The recent article about The Broken Science Initiative, addresses many of these faults in our current science. Indeed, not all science is broken, but the kind of science that says products like Lucky Charms are healthier than eggs, the malfeasance that has occurred with cancer studies like what happened with the Dana Farber Institute, where research misconduct led to the retraction of several high-profile papers, or cases of plagiarism cases, such as with Claudine Gay.

“I asked my kids, who are 6 and 8, what I should do after being Surgeon General. It probably says something about me: I’m looking for career advice from a 6- and 8-year-old. They looked at me, smiled, and said, ‘Papa, we think you should spend more time playing with us.’ I thought that was the right advice.”

This was the most honest part of his article. Humans must play to survive at every level, or we die. Famed psychologist Jean Piaget showed this conclusively. We are taking away the opportunity for kids to play when we stick them on a smartphone or tablet. Our fundamental interactions are formed through play. Adults are just there to guide and settle disputes so that the play can continue. Psychologists Jordan Peterson and Jonathan Haidt have spoken about the high likelihood that social media and smartphones have inhibited our kids from playing, and this has impeded identity formation, leading to the reason why so many kids claim they are “gender-confused” today. Watch his We Who Wrestle With God trailer for a deep dive into identity. Most people don’t realize that when they play “house” as children and take on various roles, this impacts how they act and play in their marriages and other relationships later in life.

“I find myself learning a lot by watching my kids. I find that kids, especially when they are really young, tend to be authentic, vulnerable, kind, and generous.”

I thought this remark showed Murthy’s naiveté. Kids are inherently vicious little humans who find out very quickly that lying, cheating, and other malfeasance quickly and temporarily get them ahead in life. If you have any questions, please refer to Jean Piaget’s work on children. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. By falling to the bottom, kids learn to aim up and become good humans. Perhaps this is a Jungian model. Kids must learn to deal with their inherently dark psyches to become better humans. In the early 1900s, life was much more challenging, and people had to deal with famines, war, racism, unfair working conditions, sickness, and much more. These hard times prepared children to face the realities of adulthood. I’m not saying let’s bring back these past difficulties; instead, let’s ask how we can better raise our kids to face life as adults. It’s not difficult to understand why suicide is the 3rd biggest killer of young kids aged 18 to 34 or why a 7-year-old would want to take their own life.

We face many big challenges as a country. But these moments of great change and uncertainty can also be powerful moments for us to ask the question: How can we make changes to create a better world for our children? That’s what’s on the table.