An Agenda for Public Health

Abstract

The tenure of C. Everett Koop as Surgeon General of the United States Public Health Service will surely provide paradox for American public health history. Following a distinguished career as a noted pediatric surgeon, his confirmation to the office of Surgeon General in I982 was hotly contested. Yet during his service as Surgeon General, many original opponents of his nomination (including the American Public Health Association) have become his supporters, while some ardent former admirers are now bitter adversaries. Nearly all would agree upon the powerful influence he continues to have on our lives and our times. Dr. Koop has maximized the symbolic authority of the Surgeon General's office in a manner, to a degree, and in directions unanticipated by his defenders and detractors alike. Through a fortuitous conjunction of his own substantial leadership qualities with the extraordinary health challenges of our day has come a dramatic and lasting impact upon our society and the health of our people. Dr. Koop is more popularly known to the American public than any Surgeon General in our history. He has made himself readily available and open to the print and electronic media, and pursued a heavy schedule of personal appearances across the country. His bearded patriarchal countenance, his resplendent white uniform, his serious demeanor, his gift for language, his agile interview skills-all have combined to make for a notably conspicuous and impressive figure, naturally compatible