WASHINGTON—Surgeon General C. Everett Koop's plan to "revitalize" the Public Health Service's commissioned corps has drawn the fire of researchers at the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control. And the outcome of a May 18 NIH meeting designed to soothe them is not clear.
"It looks like some of you came loaded for bear and weren't sure I was a bunny, so you shot anyway," Koop said following a series of pointed questions from the audience.
Putting members back into uniform is the first step in Koop's plan to shape up the corps. In an April 6 memo to all 5,400 corps members, Koop ordered that "effective May 1, 1987, you are directed to own and wear the appropriate uniform" every day. Corps members had been required to wear the uniform once a week, but the rule was often ignored. (About half the corps members at...
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