C. Everett Koop

[[File:C Everett Koop.jpg|thumb|165px|The Chicken Koop]]
{{sciencenav}}{{Sources needed}}{{cquote|I never changed my stripes during all that time, and I still haven’t. What I did in that job was what any well-trained doctor or scientist would do: I looked at the data and then presented the facts to the American people. In science, you can’t hide from the data.|||Yes, he really was an Evangelical Republican. <ref>Michael Specter, [http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/postscript-c-everett-koop-1916-2013 "Postscript: C. Everett Koop, 1916-2013'], ''The New Yorker'', 26 February 2013</ref>}}
'''Dr. Charles Everett "Chick" Koop''' (1916-2013) was a vice admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, the Surgeon General under [[Ronald Reagan]] and [[George H.W. Bush]] from 1981-1989, and a professor at Dartmouth Medical School. He is remembered as one of America's finest Surgeons General for his promotion of anti-smoking campaigns, for his extraordinary efforts to educate the public on [[AIDS]], and for his steadfast resistance to the [[politicization of science]].

==Early ties to fundamentalists==
Koop co-authored a "[[Pro-life|right to life]]" book with [[Christian fundamentalist]] [[Francis Schaeffer]]. Later, he was promoted by the [[Reagan]] administration.

==Subsequent history==
Despite being a Reagan nominee (and thus being in the esteemed company of [[Robert Bork]]), enjoying the enthusiastic support of [[Jesse Helms]] and [[Strom Thurmond]] during the nomination process, and having strong ties to [[Christian right]] higher-ups, Koop surprised many of the [[liberals]] who had opposed his nomination by turning out to be an impartial, honest, and extremely effective Surgeon General, who made revolutionary contributions to public health and repeatedly resisted the Reagan Administration's attempts to foist politically-motivated [[pseudoscience]] on him. On the [[conservative]] side of the aisle, Jesse Helms was demanding Koop's resignation by 1984.<ref>Michael Specter, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1984/07/06/warning-c-everett-koop/e021dc32-b488-4220-8f28-be1e837c617f/ "Warning: C. Everett Koop"], ''The Washington Post'', 6 July 1984</ref>

Koop's signature accomplishment as Surgeon General was educating the public about the dangers of [[smoking]]. He lobbied for lawmakers to crack down on tobacco sales, advertising, and public smoking, and he urged Americans to build "a smoke-free society by the year 2000."<ref>[https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/47566/WHF_1986_7%283%29_p225-231.pdf?sequence=1 A society free of smoking by the year 2000?].</ref> During every year in office, he published reports highlighting the links between smoking and cancer, heart disease, COPD, and the dangers of secondhand smoke.<ref>* {{cite web|year=1982|title=The Health Consequences of Smoking: Cancer: A Report of the Surgeon General (1982)|url=https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/NN/B/C/D/W/|access-date=October 17, 2011|publisher=Profiles.nlm.nih.gov}}
* {{cite web|year=1983|title=The Health Consequences of Smoking: Cardiovascular Disease (1983)|url=https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/NN/B/B/T/D/|access-date=October 17, 2011|publisher=Profiles.nlm.nih.gov}}
* {{cite web|date=April 19, 2002|title=The Health Consequences of Smoking: Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease: A Report of the Surgeon General (1984)|url=https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/NN/B/C/C/S/|access-date=October 17, 2011|publisher=Profiles.nlm.nih.gov}}
* {{cite web|date=March 27, 2002|title=The Health Consequences of Smoking: Cancer and Chronic Lung Disease in the Workplace: A Report of the Surgeon General (1985)|url=https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/NN/B/C/B/N/|access-date=October 17, 2011|publisher=Profiles.nlm.nih.gov}}
* {{cite web|date=April 9, 2002|title=The Health Consequences of Using Smokeless Tobacco (April 1986)|url=https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/NN/B/B/F/C/|access-date=October 17, 2011|publisher=Profiles.nlm.nih.gov}}
* {{cite web|date=March 27, 2002|title=The Health Consequences of Involuntary Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General (1986)|url=https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/NN/B/C/P/M/|access-date=October 17, 2011|publisher=Profiles.nlm.nih.gov}}
* {{cite web|date=March 27, 2002|title=The Health Consequences of Smoking: Nicotine Addiction: A Report of the Surgeon General (1988)|url=https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/NN/B/B/Z/D/|access-date=October 17, 2011|publisher=Profiles.nlm.nih.gov}}
* {{cite web|date=September 26, 2005|title=Reducing the Health Consequences of Smoking: 25 Years of Progress: A Report of the Surgeon General: 1989 Executive Summary (1989)|url=https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/NN/B/B/X/S/|access-date=October 17, 2011|publisher=Profiles.nlm.nih.gov}}</ref> His efforts paid off: the rate of smoking in the US fell from 38% when he took office to 27% when he left.<ref>{{cite web|author1=Mike Stobbe|author2=Connie Cass|date=February 26, 2013|title=C. Everett Koop, 'Rock Star' Surgeon General, Dies|url=https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/everett-koop-surgeon-general-dies-nh-18592170|access-date=February 26, 2013|work=ABC News|agency=Associated Press}}</ref> He achieved this despite obstruction from the White House, such as trying to prevent him from testifying before Congress about a bill to forbid tobacco advertising.<ref>David Hoffman, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1986/07/18/white-house-censored-koop-rep-waxman-says/32a230e8-f0d0-40a3-8054-948acbf7123c/ "White House Censored Koop, Rep. Waxman Says"], ''The Washington Post'', 18 July 1986</ref> He kept up the fight in retirement, delivering a scathing address to the National Press Club in 1998 about the tobacco lobby's continued buying of influence in Congress.<ref>[https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/7/4/393 The tobacco scandal: where is the outrage?] by C. Everett Koop. ''Tobacco Control''. 1998 Winter;7(4):393-6. doi: 10.1136/tc.7.4.393. PMID: 10093174; PMCID: PMC1751451.</ref>

Koop claimed that the Reagan administration had prevented him from speaking about the [[AIDS]] epidemic until 1986, when he was commissioned to write a report on the disease. In 1988, in a then-unprecedented public health campaign, he authorized the United States Public Health Service to mail an educational pamphlet titled ''Understand AIDS'' to every household in the U.S., which explained the evidence about how AIDS was transmitted, and told individuals what they could do to reduce their risk of infection. Besides debunking some then-common fears (such as HIV's being transmissible via mosquito bite), the report mentioned gay sex acts and advocated the usage of condoms.<ref>[https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/access/QQBDRL.pdf Understanding AIDS – A Message from the Surgeon General]. Profiles.nlm.nih.gov. Retrieved on 2013-02-27.</ref> Some LGBT groups were upset that pamphlet cited anal intercourse as a high-risk activity, but Koop maintained that he was merely reporting what the data showed. The pamphlet also angered Koop's former [[fundamentalist]] allies, some of whom called for his resignation for his frank description of gay sex acts, his refusal to call AIDS a punishment from [[God|Gawd]], and his promotion of [[safer sex]] and [[sex education]].<ref>{{cite web|date=October 22, 1986|title=The C. Everett Koop Papers: AIDS, the Surgeon General, and the Politics of Public Health|url=https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/retrieve/Narrative/QQ/p-nid/87|access-date=September 23, 2009|publisher=Profiles.nlm.nih.gov}}</ref>

Koop's most striking display of integrity was his refusal to endorse anti-abortion pseudoscience, despite being anti-abortion himself. Koop always kept his personal opposition to [[abortion]] separate from his investigations into the medical science of abortion, despite constant pressure from the [[wingnut]] crowd. When pressed by anti-abortion advocates in the administration to investigate whether abortion harmed women's health (with the expected answer being "yes"), Koop oversaw the study, found no evidence that abortion had adverse health effects, and published this finding without letting the administration's wishes get in the way.<ref name="NYT abortion">{{cite news|title=U.S. Data on Abortion Censored, House Unit Says|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/11/us/us-data-on-abortion-censored-house-unit-says.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=December 11, 1989}}</ref>

As seen in the photo, Koop made the majority of his public appearances in the Public Health Service uniform (not commonly seen before, and somewhat less common after). He was reportedly good-natured about helping fellow airline passengers load their luggage into the overhead bin.

==External links==
*[http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/QQ/ The C. Everett Koop papers at the National Library of Medicine]
*[http://dms.dartmouth.edu/koop/cek/ Bio at the Koop Institute at Dartmouth College]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{stub|medicine}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Koop, C. Everett}}
[[Category:Abortion]]
[[Category:Anti-abortion activists]]
[[Category:Authors]]
[[Category:Christians]]
[[Category:Educators]]
[[Category:HIV/AIDS]]
[[Category:Physicians]]
[[Category:Right-wing activists]]

Categories: Abortion, Anti-abortion activists, Authors, Christians, Educators, HIV/AIDS, Physicians, Right-wing activists