A warning issued by US surgeon Dr Vivek Murthy on Tuesday provided guidance on an issue that has been of concern to American parents for years: the negative impact of cyber society on the mental health of young people.
These types of public health consultations are infrequent, but do sometimes become turning points in American life.
cigarette
It took a surgeon’s report in 1964 and decades of effort afterward to change the perception of smoking in America from an alluring habit to one with deadly consequences.
Annual per capita cigarette consumption in the United States has increased from 54 cigarettes in 1900 to over 4,000 cigarettes in 1963 when the study first suggested a link between smoking and cancer.
That led Dr. Luther L. Terry, a surgeon under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, to come up with the idea. a landmark report on the health hazards and consequences of smoking in 1964.
Dr. Terry describes the crisis as a “national concern.”
Fallout happens quickly. In 1965, Congress required all packs of cigarettes distributed in the United States to carry a health warning. In 1970, tobacco advertising on television and radio was banned.
Tobacco continues to be the target of general surgeons, who in later years have emphasized concerns about passive smoking and tobacco advertising targeted to children. And in 2016, Dr. Murthy publish a comprehensive report called e-cigarettes and vaping cigarettes a “major health concern”.
AIDS
Dr. C. Everett Koopgeneral surgeon under President Reagan, is credited with changing public opinion around the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the 1980s. In 1986, he issued a generation identification report on AIDS. In simple language, the report discussed risk factors and how people can protect themselves, including using condoms for safer sex.
But the frank discussion of sexual topics then tripped over a general surgeon who served under President Bill Clinton, Dr. Joycelyn Elders. Although her efforts to expand access to health screenings and sex education were lauded by some, she resigned under pressure in 1994 after proposing this policy. distribute birth control in schools and skip teaching children to masturbate as a way to prevent HIV transmission, among other views that have drawn the ire of conservatives.
Violence on TV and in video games
In 1972, Dr. Jesse L. Steinfeld, general surgeon under President Richard Nixon, called for “immediate remedial action” after a report find a “unified adverse effect” about children watching violence on television.
Drunk driving
In the late 1980s, the numbers were staggering: About 25,000 people in the United States died in alcohol-related traffic crashes every year.
In one of his last acts as a general surgeon, Dr Koop calls for new blood alcohol standards for drivers in 1989, as well as increasing taxes on alcoholic beverages and restricting alcoholic beverage advertising. He also called for the elimination of happy hour and the immediate suspension of any licensed motorist found to have exceeded the legal limit.
Fat
At the turn of the century, about 300,000 Americans died from diseases caused or made worse by obesity, prompting Dr. David Satcher, a surgeon under President Clinton, in 2001 to have call for key steps to act on what he describes as an epidemic.
But the crisis only grows. According to the CDC, between 1999 and 2017, the obesity rate in the US increased from 30% to 42%, and the rate of severe obesity increased from 5% to 9%.
Gun violence and loneliness
Social media isn’t the current surgeon’s only concern. Dr. Murthy also called gun violence in the US a public health problem and more recently a plague.
He has called for more research and government intervention. Former General Surgeon and researchers have also called for policy change focuses on treating gun violence as a public health crisis. Nearly 50,000 Americans die of a gun-related injury in 2021, more than any other year on record, according to the CDC. It is the leading cause of death among children in the United States.
And earlier this month, Dr. Murthy issued General advice of surgeons and a new framework to address “the public health crisis of loneliness, isolation and disconnection in our country.” This trend has been exaggerated by the coronavirus pandemic, he said.
The physical health consequences of poor or inadequate connectivity include a higher risk of other health conditions.
Here’s his advice on how to feel less alone.
Notably, the loneliness report does not recommend social media as a form of connection and urges Americans to ensure digital interactions do not “distract from meaningful and healing connections”.
