Vivek Murthy
Vivek Hallegere Murthy (born July 10, 1977) is an American physician and a vice admiral in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps who has served as the 19th and 21st surgeon general of the United States under Presidents Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden.[1] Murthy is the first surgeon general of Indian descent, and, during his first term as surgeon general, he was the youngest active duty flag officer in federal uniformed service.[2]
Vivek Murthy
Position established
Position abolished
2
2014–2017
2021–present
Murthy co-chaired President-elect Biden's COVID-19 Advisory Board from November 2020 to January 2021, alongside former Food and Drug Administration commissioner David A. Kessler and Yale public health professor Marcella Nunez-Smith.[3] On December 7, Biden announced Murthy would return to the role of U.S. surgeon general.[4] The United States Senate confirmed Murthy to the role on March 23, 2021, by a vote of 57–43.[5] In October 2022, Biden nominated Murthy to be the U.S. representative on the World Health Organization's executive board.[6][7]
Early life and education[edit]
Murthy was born in Huddersfield, Yorkshire,[8] to immigrants from Karnataka, India. He is the grandson of the late H. C. Narayana Murthy, the former director of Mysore Sugar Company, and son of US-based H. N. Lakshminarasimha Murthy and Maithreya Murthy. In 1978, the family moved to Newfoundland, where his father worked as a district medical officer. When he was three years old, the family relocated to Miami,[8] and his parents established their medical practice.[9]
Murthy was raised and completed his early education in Miami, graduating as valedictorian from Miami Palmetto Senior High School in 1994.[10] He then attended college at Harvard University and graduated magna cum laude in 1997 with a Bachelor of Arts in biochemical sciences.[10] In 2003, Murthy earned an MD from Yale School of Medicine and an MBA from Yale School of Management, where he received a Soros Fellowship for New Americans.[11][12]
During his time at Yale, Murthy helped start "The Healer's Art" – a four-week long elective in which medical students discuss critical topics such as what it means to serve as a healer, how to cope with losing a patient, and how to prevent physician burnout.[13]
Career[edit]
Undergraduate years[edit]
While a Harvard freshman in 1995, Murthy co-founded VISIONS Worldwide, which he led for eight years. The nonprofit organization focused on HIV/AIDS education in the U.S. and India. He also co-founded Harvard's bhajan club. In 1997, he co-founded the Swasthya Community Health Partnership to train women as community health workers and educators in rural India.[12][14]
Medical career[edit]
Murthy completed his internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. As an attending physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Murthy cared for thousands of patients while assisting in the education of hundreds of undergraduates, medical students, and residents.[1]
In 2008, Murthy founded and served as president of Doctors for America, a group of more than 15,000 physicians and medical students supporting high-quality affordable care for all.[15][16]
In 2011, Murthy was appointed by Barack Obama to serve on the Presidential Advisory Council on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health within the Department of Health and Human Services.[17] The group advises the National Prevention Council on developing strategies and partnerships to advance the nation's health through prevention.[18] In 2012, Murthy worked as co-chair of Obama's healthcare advisory committee during his re-election campaign.
Murthy is also the co-founder and chairman of TrialNetworks, a cloud-based Clinical Trial Optimization System for pharmaceutical and biotechnology trials that improves the quality and efficiency of clinical trials to bring new drugs to market faster and more safely.[19][20] He founded the company as Epernicus in 2008, originally, to be a collaborative networking web platform for scientists to boost research productivity.[21]
Career in private life (2017-2021)[edit]
Since 2017, Murthy has appeared on various television and radio shows discussing the loneliness epidemic and has written numerous articles on the subjects of loneliness and social isolation. Murthy states he was shocked by how often he encountered people suffering from severe loneliness during his medical career, and argued that loneliness in America has become prevalent enough to count as an "epidemic". Murthy sees loneliness as a root cause that plays a substantial role in many other social problems.
In April 2020 he published a book about what both society and ordinary people as individuals, can do to reduce loneliness in themselves and others, entitled Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World.[43][44][45][46]
Murthy spoke during the 2020 Democratic National Convention.[47] In his speech, described as "uncharacteristically political for a physician who largely eschewed politics" in office, called for stronger leadership amid the COVID-19 pandemic.[48]
Second term as Surgeon General of the United States (2021-present)[edit]
Nomination[edit]
On September 5, 2020, Murthy joined the advisory council of the Biden-Harris Transition Team, which was planning the presidential transition of Joe Biden.[49][50] On November 9, Murthy was announced as one of the three co-chairs of then-President-Elect Biden's coronavirus advisory board,[51] alongside former FDA commissioner David A. Kessler and Yale public health professor Marcella Nunez-Smith.[52][53] Days later, Murthy was named a candidate for United States secretary of health and human services in the Biden administration.[54]
On December 3, 2020, Politico reported that Murthy had been nominated by President-elect Joe Biden to return to the role of Surgeon General.[55] His nomination was sent to the Senate on January 20, 2021 and confirmed on March 23, 2021, by a vote of 57–43.[56][1][57]
Before his Senate confirmation, Murthy disclosed a total of 1.7 million dollars in consulting for Netflix ($547,500), Airbnb ($410,000), Carnival Cruise Line ($400,000), Estee Lauder ($292,500). He also disclosed hundreds of thousands of dollars in speaking fees from dozens of organizations, for example "$30,000 from Duke University Kenan Institute for Ethics for a speech I gave in January 2021."[58]
Tenure[edit]
As surgeon general, Murthy leads a force of 6,700 public health officers.[1] In July 2021, Murthy publicly stated there is "no value" in incarcerating people for cannabis use.[59] In September 2021, Murthy criticized social media companies over the presence of COVID-19 misinformation on their platforms.[60]
In 2023, Murthy expressed concern about the impact of social media on young users' mental health.[61] As Surgeon General, Murthy has described the loneliness epidemic of social isolation and loneliness as a risk to public health akin to smoking.[62]
Murthy has come under fire from Republicans for reportedly seeking to combat "misinformation" with social media, the Washington Examiner reported in May 2023.[63]
Personal life[edit]
Murthy is married to Alice Chen, an internist who trained at Yale, Cornell and UCLA, and was the executive director of Doctors for America.[64][65] They have two children.[66]
On February 18, 2022, Murthy revealed on Twitter that he, his wife, and five-year-old son have all been infected by COVID-19. Earlier in the same week, Murthy revealed that his four-year-old daughter had been infected. All had mild symptoms and no breathing issues.[67]