Osler's Razor

In 1981, Ronald Reagan chose a renowned pediatric surgeon named C. Everett Koop to be his Surgeon General.  It was a controversial choice, fiercely opposed by liberals.  In part, this was based on the same thing that had drawn Reagan's attention:  A series of presentations with theologian Francis Schaeffer which challenged the ethics of legal abortion.  Ted Kennedy condemned the choice, and the New York Times titled its editorial in opposition "Dr. Unqualified."  Comedians made fun of his Old Testament look and the stern demeanor that seemed to match his worldview.

Everyone was wrong-- Reagan was wrong, Kennedy was wrong, and the New York Times was wrong.  Even the comedians were wrong.  Koop turned out to be the most influential Surgeon General in history.  He fought, and largely won, a battle to establish the truth about the dangers of smoking, despite the efforts of tobacco-state legislators.
Perhaps most importantly, he convinced the nation to set aside prejudice and attack the problem of AIDS with real vigor.  In 1986, Koop (who died last year) issued a blunt, true, and surprising report on AIDS that pressed for more research and condom use, and rejected the tactics of mandatory testing or quarantine.  What jumped out at me was this section of the report:

From the start, this disease has evoked highly emotional and often irrational responses.  Much of the reaction could be attributed to fear of the many unknowns surrounding a new and very deadly disease.  This fear was compounded by personal feeling regarding the groups of people primarily affected—homosexual men and intravenous drug abusers.  Rumors and misinformation spread rampantly and became as difficult to combat as the disease itself.  It is time to put self-defeating attitudes aside and recognize that we are fighting a disease, not people.

I was researching Koop in the course of writing a law review article for Rutgers.  My thesis is that we would have been better off if we had treated crack more like we did its contemporary health crisis, AIDS-- with a focus on systems analysis and problem-solving rather than moral condemnation and punishment.  Koop put it better than I could.  With one simple word substitution, I could make the last sentence quoted above my own thesis:  "It is time to put self-defeating attitudes aside and recognize that we are fighting a market, not people."

It's a wonderful thing to stumble across a new hero, and nothing less than that happened to me yesterday; thank you, Dr. Koop.