Sayonara, Sanjay: CNN's Dr. Gupta will not be Surgeon General Agence France-Presse

Published: Thursday March 5, 2009





Print This Email This CNN medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta withdrew his name from consideration to be president-elect Barack Obama's surgeon general and serve as chief overseer of Americans' health, according to reports Thursday.



Two months after CNN first announced that Gupta was in the running for the high-profile post, the news network cited an administration official as saying Gupta had bowed out.



"Sanjay Gupta was under serious consideration for the job of surgeon general," the unnamed official was quoted as saying via email to CNN.



"He has removed himself from consideration to focus more on his medical career and his family. We know he will continue to serve and educate the public through his work with media and in the medical arena."



Gupta, a neurosurgeon who is well known from his television and print reporting on medical matters, was said to have caught the administration's eye with his communications skills and his past experience in government as a White House adviser during the 1990s.



As head of the 6,000-member Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, the surgeon general acts as the government's chief spokesperson to educate the public on health issues, but has little direct role in policy-making.



The position is perhaps best known to Americans through the surgeon general's health warnings printed on all cigarette packets sold in the country.





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