The stark and sobering contrast between our national and state HHS leaders

NC Newsline

Both North Carolina and the nation have new Secretaries of Health and Human Services and the contrasts between the two leaders could not be plainer.

North Carolina’s new health chief, Dr. Dev Sangvai is an accomplished family physician, professor and administrator. Before joining Gov. Josh Stein’s administration, he served as President of Duke Regional Hospital and President of the North Carolina Medical Society. His work has focused on improving health care access, strengthening the health care workforce, and making care more efficient.

Unfortunately, our new national HHS leader’s background is not nearly as impressive or relevant. President Trump’s appointee, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is a gadfly lawyer and politician with a checkered past and a long record of promoting kooky conspiracy theories and dangerous falsehoods about disease immunization.

The bottom line: National and state-level health secretaries are among our most important leaders. North Carolinians can only hope that Dr. Sangvai ends up having a more direct impact on their lives than Mr. Kennedy.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.