The well-connected doctor that Joe Biden has nominated for the position of U.S. surgeon general made about $2.6 million in COVID-related consulting and speeches for corporate America, raising potential conflict-of-interest and ethical concerns. The nominee and longtime Biden adviser allegedly raked in most of the cash after it appeared Biden would become the Democrat presidential nominee.
Since January 2020, Obama retread and gun control advocate Dr. Vivek Murthy reportedly banked approximately $600,000 from Netflix, $410,00 from Airbnb (plus an additional 400K in stock options), and $400,000 from the parent company of the Carnival cruise line for providing advice on safety protocols and related matters.
He also reportedly received checks totaling in the range of $500,000 for delivering about 36 speeches at hospitals, health insurance companies, Google, Duke University, UBS Financial Services and elsewhere on various topics.
Several watchdog groups have questioned Murthy’s impartiality as a potential public health official given his corporate ties.
“The [financial] disclosure caught the attention of longtime health policy hands — saying that Murthy has the most financial entanglements of any surgeon general pick in recent history — and of watchdogs who raise questions about how credible he would be as a spokesperson on the pandemic response and presidential adviser,” the Washington Post explained.
Murthy, who was surgeon general under Obama, has promised, however, to avoid participating in any government matters involving his former consulting clients for one year “unless authorized to do so,” the Post added. The authorization clause seems to provide a rather large loophole.
Here’s a list of Biden’s pro-gun control cabinet picks https://t.co/EACmW7f8Kk pic.twitter.com/zgF5gtrtT4
— Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) December 21, 2020
The Democrats have enough votes to confirm him if Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., plays ball. Manchin is currently undecided about the Murthy confirmation. He voted against him in 2014.
Democrats strongly criticized some Trump nominees such as ex-FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb for their corporate involvement, but have apparently raised no objections to Murthy’s lucrative private sector income stream.
Republicans in the past have criticized Murthy for claiming that gun violence constitutes a public health issue.
Short-memory liberal Twitter is predictably taking the position that there is nothing to see here and have suddenly developed an appreciation for making big bucks through corporate connections.
Some dissented, however, including Jeff Hauser of the Revolving Door Project, a component of the progressive Center for Economic and Policy Research think tank.
You think that there are no full time public health experts at universities, local, and state governments who spend their entire time offering advice in the public interest? Murthy has worked in those areas before and could have worked there again, he chose to take on conflicts.
— Jeff Hauser (@jeffhauser) February 20, 2021
Everyone acts like not being hired must hinge on an incriminating standard. What he did might be fine but he took a lot of money from companies that have financial interests to open the economy. It's worth investigating.
— Forrest Strutton (@2xfo) February 20, 2021
We want Biden to not just be better than Trump but to Build Back Better. We think $$ creates conflicts of interest, and we prefer public health advice coming from people solely focused on the public interest.
Non-profits also advise business, btw, just less lucratively! (2/2)
— Jeff Hauser (@jeffhauser) February 20, 2021
you think stock options for advice is a normal MD thing?
— Jeff Hauser (@jeffhauser) February 20, 2021
I believe his point is that this man (can I identify him as a man?) was serving as Biden’s CoVID advisor during the campaign AND raking in $$ consulting for large corporations. Reading the article, he questions that the D’s are overlooking that after slaying Trump ppl for it.
— michael cholko (@cholkom) February 20, 2021
So we flush our standards because they Republicans behaved badly in this same manner very recently? Some argument.
— Joshua Skinner (@Joshua_SSkinner) February 20, 2021
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Robert Jonathan is a staff writer for BizPac Review. He is a longtime writer/editor for news aggregation websites and has also developed content in the legal and financial publishing sectors as well as for online education. He earned a Juris Doctorate from the University of Connecticut School of Law, “a law school the basketball teams can be proud of.”
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