The Curious Case of Dr. Levine

Let me reintroduce to you, Dr. Howard Kyongju Koh. Does his name sound familiar to you? Probably not. Dr. Koh was the 15th United States Assistant Secretary for Health, appointed under President Barack Obama.

Dr. Koh’s resume, in short:

Graduated Yale in 1973
Yale School of Medicine in 1977
Postgraduate training at Boston City Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital (serving as chief resident at both hospitals)
Board certified in FOUR medical fields: (1) Internal Medicine, (2) Hematology, (3) Medical Oncology, (4) Dermatology
Holds a Masters of Public Health degree from Boston University School of Public Health
Prior to office served as the Harvey V. Fineberg Professor of the Practice of Public Health
Prior to office served as Associate Dean for Public Health Practice
Prior to office served as the Director of the Division of Public Health Practice at the Harvard School of Public Health
At Harvard, served as the principal investigator of multiple research grants
Prior to office, served as the Commissioner of Public Health for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Earned numerous awards and honors for interdisciplinary accomplishments in medicine and public health

My hands are tired … or, I could keep typing Dr. Koh’s accomplishments.

In STARK contrast …

Dr. Rachel Levine:

Graduated Harvard College and Tulane University School of Medicine
Completed a residency in pediatrics and a fellowship for adolescent medicine
Worked at Penn State Hershey Medical Center adolescent medicine division and eating disorder clinic
Nominated to Physician General in 2015
In 2017, Governor Wolf appointed Secretary of Health

In 2021, Biden is nominating Levine to be the newly appointed Assistant Secretary for Health.

If you want to know why this is curious to me, PLEASE re-read Dr. Koh’s resume. I don’t know how to say this emphatically enough, EXACTLY HOW IS SHE QUALIFIED? What Dr. Levine has done in her life is impressive. I will never take that away. But, does it compare to past officials in this position? It does not. Actually, not even close. I have my entire life seen underqualified people get hired or promoted over infuriating reasons like their sex, age, who they knew or nepotism. These are all wrong. And, this appointment is equally as wrong.

There is no way for me to even begin to put into words how little I care about Dr. Levine being transgender. It doesn’t matter to me. It doesn’t matter to a lot of us. And, it does matter to other people. I am not blind to the hateful comments she has received over this. It’s WRONG. But, is naming an underqualified person to sit as the United States Assistant Secretary of Health during a global pandemic seem like the best way to address hatred and bias towards transgenders?

I am from PA and watched how Dr. Levine and Wolfe have performed shutdowns that seemed arbitrary and erratic, absolutely botched the distribution of the vaccine and Dr. Levine has been accused of taking her own mother out of a personal care home while nursing homes were forced to have COVID patients return. So, if we aren’t judging by the resume, can we judge by the most recent abject failure of the handling of the pandemic in our state?

No? It’s more important to public health to make a point?

The resume does NOT support the appointment. The performance does NOT warrant the appointment. So, two and ONLY two explanations are in play. Either, political favors are being paid back or in this neverendingly stupid attempt to appear “woke”, we are naming an underqualified person with a unsuccessful track record in public health to a high level NATIONAL overseer of health during a global pandemic.

When does this end? When do we finally get to the point where we hire the best person for the job, regardless of who they know, what they did or yes … what “box” they check for you? Won’t THAT moment in time ACTUALLY be when true equality is achieved?

I am going to have to use President-elect Biden’s own words against him here, “COME ON, MAN!”