Posted on 12/18/2017 9:09:58 PM PST by Oshkalaboomboom
Eric Hargan is about to get a demotion, and he is just fine with that.
The acting secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services is more than thrilled to go back to the position he originally held. President Trump tapped him to lead the agency after Tom Price resigned when scrutiny of his travel habits revealed a taste for the excess.
"I was confirmed for my job as deputy secretary, and four days later, I was appointed to be the acting secretary," he said of the agency that oversees drug development, public health efforts, Obamacare and food safety.
Alex Azar is the president's new choice to run HHS. Hargan sat for this interview as Azar faced his first Senate confirmation hearing on Nov. 29. Hargan has held the position since early October, but this is certainly not his first rodeo at HHS. From 2003 to 2007, he served here under then-President George W. Bush.
Hargan is a man grounded in his family's roots in Mound City, a small southern Illinois town just across the Ohio River from Kentucky where his parents not only advocated for a lifetime in public service but also led by example.
He said: "I grew up on a farm, my father held different local elected offices from county commissioner to school board, and my mother worked in a variety of healthcare roles throughout her life; first at St. Mary's hospital, which is no longer there, and then at the Cairo Community Health Clinic. All total, a career serving her community's healthcare that spanned 58 years."
It is a background that shaped his journey from a town of 700 to the center of power and wealth in America. And whether he is serving as acting secretary or deputy secretary, Hargan sees his role at HHS as one that digs deep to cut bureaucracy, roll back antiquated regulations and mold the agency to become more accountable in its mission to serve public health.
He speaks about the need to address the opioid crisis, a widespread problem that has impacted not only his own small town but also the cities and suburbs in between -- on both coasts. He said: "I have heard so many stories of parents whose children who live a pattern of overdoses, sometimes day after day. One of the things in the agency we want to do is to clarify that both doctors and hospitals can share that information with parents and family members when their loved ones are incapacitated or in immediate danger from an opioid overdose. It is an empowerment designed to assist the families and the neighborhoods and communities who are on the front lines of the epidemic."
Hargan faced reporters at the White House almost three weeks ago to discuss Trump's decision to donate his third-quarter salary to HHS in order to combat the opioid crisis. Hargan said the donation would be used for the planning and design of a large-scale public awareness campaign about opioid addiction.
"His decision to donate his salary is a tribute to his compassion, to his patriotism and his sense of duty to the American people," he said.
According to Hargan, Trump has stressed that opioids are an American crisis and wants all hands on deck to finds solutions. Hargan notes: "When the president tells us to focus, we focus, and we have a trillion-dollar plus department. Even just shifting our focus a little bit -- a lot can get done, if we're serious."
When President Bush took office, he focused on the issues surrounding AIDS. "The president's emergency plan for AIDS relief, his particular passion in that for HIV/AIDS ended up, by all accounts, saving millions of lives in sub-Saharan Africa," Hargan said.
And Hargan added: "President Trump is focusing on the opioid crisis, again, like the AIDS crisis in Africa; the opioids crisis in the U.S. is a real crisis. It has rolled on from where I grew up to everywhere now. It crosses all demographics, all races, and all socioeconomic backgrounds. It is the crisis of our time and one we are laser-focused on."
That is his mission, whether he is acting secretary or deputy secretary. "We will get the job done," he says.
Bull$hite - The crisis of our lifetime is that our great Country is being destroyed right before our eyes by the progs and FEW are even raising their voices.
IMHO, this is a symptom not a cause.
[[Opioids: The Crisis of Our Lifetime]]
Correction- illicit drug use and SOME doctors abusing prescription handouts is the ‘crisis’ of our time- But since we can’t get illegal drug use stopped- guess it’s just easier making life miserable for 1000’s of folks that legitimately need effective pain relief
The MSM-Democrats hung AIDS and Crack around Reagan’s neck.
Somehow, the opioid epidemic got hung around no one’s neck.
The government (and most corporations) are incapable of managing ANYTHING unless is is a crisis. This war on drugs is actually a war on people who suffer from chronic pain. They are being lumped in with all of the IV heroin/fentanyl drug users/losers out there.
Over 40 years ago when I was in college I was working as an orderly in an ER in suburban Detroit. There was a heroin “epidemic” going on and I saw lots of dead, OD’d young people. Same thing I’m seeing today as an ER provider.
There is no substitute for opioids for people with chronic pain and they are NOT the problem but our masters haven’t figured that one out yet.
Don’t be so humble.
There have been investigations that show some of these doctors operating out of strip malls and other shady areas are nothing more than drug dealers. All day gang members wheel in their grandparents and other relatives and walk out with a stack of prescriptions.
I understand that opioids cause constipation. How do
opioid addicts deal with that? ExLax a smart stock
investment er, what?
i do think some docs had a tendency to overprescibe years ago- and folks did end up getting addicted as a result- however- it was not a ‘crisis’- and reeducating docs on the proper prescription procedures would be far better than telling surgery patients, cancer patients who are dying- spinal injury folks etc that they can’t get adequate pain relief WITHOUT the dang hassles they get today
[[This war on drugs is actually a war on people who suffer from chronic pain. They are being lumped in with all of the IV heroin/fentanyl drug users/losers out there.]]
Exactly- While some folks can and have become addicted while on prescription drugs- usually it was because doctors were prescribing them for too long i n the case of folks addicted after surgeries or temporary pain- when taken for short periods they are used by 10’s of 1000’s of people without becoming addicted- and in the case of Chronic pain- one has to ask what does it matter if they become addicted if they have to live with pain so bad they can’t move without the drugs? That would be no life- these drugs at least give them a little bit of life back-
That who was supplying our family member. A pediatrician who had a line outside his office in a strip mall in s. FL. 100$ for an script.
The reason there are so many overdoses is because these dealers are putting fentenyl in the heroin.
Military Industrial doesn't have squat on the Consolidated Deep State. They control all the angles.
If we are going to have a “war on drugs”, at least let’s have a real war, and start having public hangings of dealers.
lets face reality....most people who go to their doctor expect a prescription...whether its because they have a scratchy throat or sinus pain or a sore knee....you want antibiotics and you want pain pills...
there's a reason we have drug resistant germs out there....same goes for narcotics...
massive massive overuse...
we need to become a little more sturdy people....a little more substance than what we are...
Opioids BS. More people die from Alcohol. Alcohol is involved in 50% of crime,50% of Murders, 50% of automobile deaths, destroyed families etc.
Our Borders being flooded with Welfare cases and the destruction on the White Working Class America.
There is some truth to that, but, in some cases NOT taking opioids can cause more rapid deterioration of a joint than if they were taken.
A case in point is my Mom. She’s a little overweight, but not badly so. Arthritis began taking out a knee, eventually progressing to a point where (short of an opioid) NO treatment was effective enough for her to walk without debilitating pain. Her doctor felt she was a poor candidate for knee replacement surgery. (Actually, I suspect the leg is so deformed now, that at least a foot of bone structure on either side of the joint, plus the knee joint itself would have to be replaced.) My Mom resisted the idea of taking an opioid, because she did not want to get addicted, but eventually she agreed to take one. It caused hallucinations, so she went back off it, but then moving around was so difficult that she did even less and less physical activity — basically a negative feedback / downward spiral. This caused other problems such as congestive heart failure to worsen, and she ended up in the hospital. Long story short, a different opioid was tried, and it has been less problematic, but my Mom’s pain is still so great that she’s is only making very slight progress in Rehab. She is still mentally pretty sharp, and KNOWS* that unless she can “transfer” (to the toilet in particular), not only can’t she go back to her Independent Living Apt., she would not even be able to go to Assisted Living. She’d have to go to a Nursing Home and give up virtually all her remaining belongings, as well as be in an existence she would hate. So, she tries hard to do the rehab, but, only so much agony can be endured.
*Keeping one’s wits about them is not always best in all ways, I fear.
IF the 1st opioid her Dr. had prescribed had not presented such strong side effects, Mom might still be on her feet. But, there is of course no way to know for sure which side effects may occur in a given patient at relatively “safe” dosing levels...
I am trying to make some diet changes in particular, myself. But, you know, even with them, I may be lucky to do better than my Mom. After all, despite most of the family being reasonably healthy, she’s outlived all but 2 of her relatives of her generation that I know of. (One cousin had a considerably younger wife who’s still around, and my Dad’s younger sister is still going very strong. God, I hope I got some of those genes! She follows no special diet, and takes virtually no meds.) Ditto for almost all Mom’s friends going back to college or earlier. (I know only of one within 10 years of her, who is still with us.)
A real problem is the food at most homes for the elderly. As Mom’s heart specialist told her, most of these places are literally killing their residents...
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