MIAMI (AP) — Stuffed in a cupboard in Dr. Vivek Murthy's childhood home, the antiquated gold and silver trophies still show off the surgeon general's many talents, from dance performances to math competitions.
Growing up in suburban Florida, Murthy seemed like the kind of person who could succeed at almost anything to his family.
But when his middle school world history teacher suggested he might make a good secretary of state, his mother intervened.
“My mother was really worried,” Murthy told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview last month, while her mother chuckled as she listened to him recount the story. “She called my father and said, 'You know, my father is thinking about going into politics, so you should come home and talk to him.'”
Now in his second term as the “people's doctor”, Murthy has forged ahead towards politics rather than shying away from it as his mother would have wished.
Mursi has taken on powerful tech companies, blaming their addictive algorithms and dangerous content for the negative impacts they have on children's mental health. Earlier this year, he went so far as to ask Congress to approve Surgeon General warning labels on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok. In June, he released his most politically charged report to date, arguing that gun deaths and injuries in the US have reached a tipping point, sparking a public health crisis.
Focus on the gun
Republicans have long worried that Murthy plans to declare gun violence a public health crisis, speculation that nearly derailed plans when Democratic President Barack Obama first appointed him to the job a decade ago.
Mursi caught Obama's attention while working as an internist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, where he brought together thousands of physicians to lobby for the passage of Obamacare. Through his political work, Mursi also met his wife, Alice Chen, who was a doctor in Los Angeles and signed Obama's letter. The two bonded over text messages and phone calls across time zones.
Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy speaks to The Associated Press in an interview at his parents' home near Miami, Florida, on Tuesday, July 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
But social media comments by Murthy, in which he described guns as a “medical issue,” delayed his confirmation, leading even some Democratic lawmakers to reject his confirmation, leaving the country without a surgeon general for more than a year. Republican President Donald Trump swiftly fired Murthy.
Murthy was reconfirmed under the Biden administration in 2021 with the support of all Democratic senators and several Republicans. His annual salary is $191,900.
As surgeon general, Mursi has remained largely silent on gun violence so far.
He noted that the numbers have changed since he took over as surgeon general for the second time. Gun violence surpassed car accidents and cancer to become the No. 1 cause of death among children in the U.S. in 2021. More than 4,752 children died from gunshot wounds that year, according to a study by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
He said the stories he hears during his listening tours around the country – stories too awful to ignore – help him decide what issues to get involved in.
One grandmother told him she was discouraging her grandson from wearing shiny sneakers because they might attract the attention of a school shooter, and another mother said that after surviving a mass shooting, she was reconsidering leaving the house in flip-flops because she might have to flee if another mass shooting were to occur.
Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy speaks to The Associated Press in an interview at his parents' home near Miami, Florida, on Tuesday, July 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
“When you hear these stories over and over from middle school, high school and college students, it sticks in your mind,” Murthy said. “It just made me realise we had to do something about this.”
Murthy's report is packed with statistics showing that gun deaths, suicides, and injuries are getting worse. He concludes by saying Congress should act: ban high-capacity magazines for civilians, require background checks for all gun purchases, restrict their use in public places, and enact laws that punish people who don't store their guns safely.
The reaction was predictable. Doctors and Democrats praised it. Republicans heckled. The National Rifle Association called Mursi's report a “war on law-abiding citizens.” Republican Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana noted that Mursi had told him gun violence would not be a focus of his term and accused him of “backtracking.”
Mursi believes his unaided report might sway the debate at least a little. His interview with The Associated Press came just four days after Trump was shot in the ear by an assassin during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. There were few calls for gun control after the latest mass shooting to shock the nation.
“My hope is that instead of looking at this as an issue around polarization and politicization, we can look at this as a public health issue that affects all of us, from people in small communities in America to people running for high office in this country,” Murthy said.
The surgeon general also highlighted another side effect of gun violence: its negative impact on mental health. He devoted one chapter and four pages of his 40-page report to the issue, finding that half of American youth between the ages of 14 and 17 worry about a school shooting.
The decline of Americans' mental health
The decline in Americans' mental health, an issue that appears to be of bipartisan concern in Congress but with little agreement on how to address it, has been the subject of nearly every report released during Murthy's second term.
Surgeon Generals have rarely spoken out so forcefully about mental health.
Many focus on physical health, including alcohol and drug abuse, smoking, breastfeeding, exercise and healthy bones. Over the past three years, Murthy's reports have looked at the impact of social media on young people, loneliness, health worker burnout and misinformation.
These are issues he never expected to tackle when he was first appointed to the job more than a decade ago.
But Murthy sees these as problems that are putting a strain on Americans' overall health.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, people have shrunk their friend groups and spent less time in person with friends, and loneliness has soared to an all-time low of just 20 minutes a day. In his 2023 study, Murthy concluded that loneliness could increase a person's risk of premature death by 30%.
Murthy has spent time consulting and speaking during the pandemic and between semesters, making $2 million working with companies like Netflix, Airbnb and Carnival Cruises and writing a book about loneliness, “Together.”
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy (center) talks with his family, including his wife Alice Chen (left), his father Haregele Murthy (second from right) and his sister Rashmi Murthy, during a visit to his parents' home near Miami, Fla., Tuesday, July 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
He writes in his book that he felt unprepared to deal with the impact loneliness has on his patients' health and wellbeing – his report could change that for doctors of the future.
“The response has been overwhelmingly positive — not just from the public, but from medical and public health professionals,” Murthy said. “I have a hypothesis as to why that is: physicians themselves see the loneliness and mental health challenges firsthand every day in their exam rooms and on the frontlines in their hospitals.”
Murthy isn't sure what he'll do next when his term ends in March, but he said he wants to continue to focus on mental health and loneliness.
“People are everything”
Murthy traces his interest in combating loneliness back to a time outside Miami last month, when he took his wife and two young children to spend a few summer days beneath the palm trees of his childhood home with his parents, sister and grandmother.
It was here, he says, that he learned most about the power of relationships: watching his parents, immigrants from India, work hard to build a community in a city that was unknown when they arrived decades ago, opening a weekend school so other Indian immigrant children could learn about the culture and music of their home country.
Growing up, he helped his mother at the reception desk of his father's medical practice, and he accompanied his parents to visit patients' homes, even visiting grieving widows in the middle of the night, when tragedies struck.
“My parents taught me from an early age that it's all about people,” Murthy said of her parents, Mietrai and Halleger. “Whenever there was a patient in need, a friend who had lost a job or a loved one, they would call or visit in person, bring food or sit at the bedside and hold their hand.”
Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy hugs one of his children during a visit to his parents' home, Tuesday, July 16, 2024, near Miami, Florida. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Despite the July humidity and heat, Murthy's family gathers in the kitchen, baking dosas, Indian crepes, and kesari bas, a sweet wheat mix with raisins, in the hot oven. Her mother packs food in plastic bags and requires every visitor to the house to take one home. Murthy's 7-year-old son clings to his father as dinner is served in the kitchen.
It's a long-standing tradition for the Murthy family.
Decades ago, families would eat dinner together every night after homework was done, says Hareger-Murthy, who still tells his patients to think of family dinners as “therapy sessions” and encourages them to put away their cell phones while catching up at the dinner table.
“I always tell my patients that family cohesion and family interaction is very important, especially if dinner is the only time the family can socialize,” says Haregele Murthy.
