MIAMI (AP) — The gold and silver trophies packed in the china cabinet of Dr. Vivek Murthy’s childhood home boast the surgeon general’s many talents, from dance performances to math competitions. Growing up in a Florida suburb, it seemed to his family that Murthy could succeed at just about anything.
But when a middle school world history teacher suggested he might make a good secretary of state, his mom intervened. “She got really worried,” Murthy told The Associated Press last month, while his mom giggled. “She called my dad.
She said, ‘you need to come home and talk to him because he’s thinking about going into politics.” Now, in his second term as the “Nation’s Doctor,” Murthy hasn't run from the political, as his mother hoped. He's charged toward it.
He’s taken on powerful tech companies, accusing their addictive algorithms and dangerous content of making the country’s children mentally sick. He's asked Congress to approve a warning label on social media on platforms such as Instagram or TikTok. In June, Murthy released his most politically charged report, declaring that gun deaths and injuries had become a public health crisis.
A focus on guns Murthy attracted Democratic President Barack Obama’s attention while Murthy was an internist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, when he organized doctors to lobby for passage of the Affordable Care Act. The group also lead him to his wife, Alice Chen, who signed onto his letters from Los Ange.