Billy Mays, a better pick for Surgeon General by Obama's standards?

[Barack_America]

It has been suggested that Obama selected Sanjay Gupta because he wanted a familiar and trusted face to sell his healthcare plan.

So why not select America's #1 TV salesman?

Both candidate's are admittedly "passionate about healthcare". One has medical experience (Gupta) and one has experience selling healthcare coverage (Mays). Neither have substantial public health training, but both are experienced in quickly learning enough about a topic to sell it to the American public.



"Hi! Billy Mays here for President Barack Obama's healthcare plan!"

See Billy in action, effectively selling "affordable health insurance for everyone" here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7d85T4OfqA
http://www.icanbenefit.com/

And no, I do not think Mays is a serious pick for Surgeon General. This post is for discussion purposes only. If Sanjay Gupta is a good pick, why not consider Billy Mays?

[pnwmom]

1. Gupta is a highly-educated, well-respected neurosurgeon. What is Mays educational background?

[Barack_America]

5. In terms of public health training?

About the same as Gupta's, I'd guess. Neurosurgery is not a field that has a particularly high exposure to public health issues.

For all we know, Mays has done more research on public health in order to effectively sell ican health insurance. He at least accurately quoted an estimate of how many Americans are living without health insurance (which is more than Gupta was able to do with regards to Cuba's per-person health expenditures).

[pnwmom]

6. Gupta is a medical doctor with P.R. skills. Mays is a high-school grad who

became a salesman for cleaning products.

[Barack_America]

10. But Gupta is being selected because of his P.R. skills.

There are many, many more qualified medical doctors out there.

(here's what a serious public health CV looks like: http://www.publichealth.med.upenn.edu/MarjorieBowman.shtml)

So if the selection was based on P.R.s skills and salesmanship, I find it appropriate to ask whether Mays might have been an equally good pick.

[Thrill]

16. How do you know thats why Obama picked him?

His PR skills are just part of the full package.

[Barack_America]

20. What else is in the package?

What else about Gupta, other than his TV experience, makes him qualified to be the face of American public health?

[pnwmom]

17. Mays has no respected medical credentials -- not even a college degree.

He's not qualified to be a health educator.

[thewiseguy]

15. Are you serious?

I do not want to even start explaining the sorts of issues that a neurosurgeon has to deal with.

Are you telling me that Billy Mays knows as much about health insurance and public health issues as a neurosurgeon?

[Barack_America]

19. It is possible, yes.

What kind of exposure to health insurance and public health do you think a neurosurgeon deals with? Have you worked with a neurosurgeon?

[cali]

27. bwahahahaha. love, love, love watching people dig holes for themselves

and it's fun to see people acting like total fools, too.

[Barack_America]

30. Yawn. If you're not going to answer direct questions, why bother posting?

I asked you below why Gupta is qualified to be Surgeon General. You did not respond other than to say he has an M.D. So it would seem that anyone with an M.D. would make a fine SG?

In the post you are responding to, I merely asked what the previous poster's impressions of a neurosurgeon's duties were. While I have not worked with neurosurgeon's I have worked with general, pediatric, plastic, vascular, GI and orthopedic surgeons before, so I have a pretty good idea how they spend their days. They spend their time treating specialized diseases in individuals. They don't spend a lot of time thinking of diseases in the population as a whole (i.e. public health). They spend virtually no time addressing insurance issues with patients.

[zulchzulu]

2. Billy Mays is good for getting you in shape running for the remote to MUTE HIM

Damn, that guy is obnoxious.

[LostinVA]

3. Even Michael Ruhlman says his little slider burger maker rocks

[WeDidIt]

4. Sanjay Gupta is a gifdted neurosurgeon

From 1997 to 1998, he served as one of fifteen White House Fellows, primarily as an advisor to Hillary Clinton.

[Barack_America]

7. Impressive, certainly. But how has that prepared him to be the face of American public health?

I've worked with a surgeon who performs surgeries in utero. That is more technically impressive than neurosurgery. Does that make him a greater expert on public health?

[LostinVA]

8. He has no experience in public health, which is what the SGH should have

[cali]

9. Do you actually think this is original? Clever? Um, nope. it's fucking pathetic

embarrassingly stupid. First of all, why not just suggest your cutsie little pick in one of the several threads that already espouses the same silly crap?

These threads are like watching toddlers wave their precious poop around. About the same level of achievement.

[azmouse]

11. Seconded.

[dionysus]

13. thirded...

[slick8790]

24. Fourthed(?)...

[Barack_America]

12. Nope. I just find the Gupta pick to be laughable.

If Obama was looking for a salesman, rather than a public health expert, then why not Mays?

Instead of criticizing those who would question the pick, why don't you elaborate why Gupta is the best pick to be the face of American public health?

[pnwmom]

18. The job is to serve as a health educator. Gupta has the proven ability

to explain health issues clearly to the public. He is both a journalist and a trained medical doctor. What is it that you think the Surgeon General does? This is not a position like the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

[Barack_America]

22. I question whether, given his background, that he knows what he will be explaining...

...to the public.

His training has taught him how to manage disease in the individual. That's what medical doctors do. Nothing in his CV demonstrates that he has a strong background treating disease in the population. That's what public health experts do. Public health is about understanding risk versus benefit, limited resources, etc. as it pertains to the population. Medical school provides precious little training in this regard.

I've no doubt that Sanjay will effectively be able to communicate health policy as researched and written by somebody else. But I do doubt that he has the expertise to be an authority on health policy himself. That's why I asked the question, "couldn't Billy Mays do this too?", in order to get this discussion going.

[cali]

23. I don't really care much one way or the other but

Gupta is qualified for the position- and it's hardly that important of a position in any case. Mostly I just abhor the kind of utter stupidity enshrined in your OP.

Why not May? Well genius, May isn't a doctor. May has no public health policy experience.

Your little conceit, is a big fat embarassing FAIL.

[Barack_America]

26. Not at all...

The point (as stated in the OP) was to have a discussion about Gupta's qualifications and that is exactly what is happening in this thread.

[last_texas_dem]

34. First time I've read it, so it seems original enough to me, and more clever

and less "embarrassingly stupid" than a number of the posts trying to justify the pick. Rec'd.

[Champion Jack]

14. I like that Sham wow guy better

[Occam Bandage]

21. Gupta's job is to explain health issues to the American public. He's proven very good at that. nt

[Barack_America]

25. It's also his job to understand what he's explaining.

And to be well-versed in health policy (he will direct the Public Health Corps, after all).

Does he have the experience in health policy to do this? And, if he's just going to be a mouthpiece, are there other mouthpieces out there who could communicate the message just as well?

Like I said, I don't think that Mays is in anyway a serious pick. Unfortunately, I feel the same about Gupta.

[Occam Bandage]

29. I think he will.

I would prefer someone with a stronger background in public health, but I don't think that's a dealbreaker, since Gupta's primary job is, indeed, going to be as a mouthpiece. His job is to understand public health issues in a way that enables him to appropriately explain them to the public, not to understand them in a way that enables him to regulate the public health. His experience explaining public health issues on television is, I think, better experience for the job than an equal amount of time spent in a think tank discussing reforms that the Secretary of Health and Human Services should implement would be.

[slick8790]

28. So, ok, what are these public health credentials you keep moaning and bitching about?

Who's your pick for SG?

[Barack_America]

35. If Gupta were serious about health policy...

He could have taken time out from his medical studies to do a secondary degree in public health or health policy. He did go medical school at the institution with the best Public Health program in the country, after all.

After medical school, he stuck around Michigan to practice for a bit. If he were serious in health policy then, I wonder why he didn't sign up for the Roberts Woods Johnson Fellowship in health policy, a program designed to give practicing health professionals the chance to become well-versed in health policy.

If he were serious about public health I would hope to see a publication record demonstrating a serious interest in public health when I check either pubmed or his faculty page.

http://neurosurgery.emory.edu/FacultyGupta.htm

I don't.

As for who my pick would be, it would be an individual who has the experience I listed above.

[Phoonzang]

31. It's done. People making thread after thread on some message board isn't going to change

a damned thing.

[last_texas_dem]

32. Mays does have one of the best beards ever...

[Barack_America]

36. Thank you for understanding that there was supposed to be humor in this.

And yes, that is one rockin' beard. Perhaps the best beard I've seen since C. Everett Koop...hey!

:think:

[yardwork]

33. I like it! Check my thread on Paris Hilton for Secretary of State!

I think that Obama should go for the all-celebrity cabinet.