Editing David Satcher (section)

==== Surgeon General ====
[[Image:VADM David Satcher.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Vice Admiral David Satcher, USPHS]]
Satcher served simultaneously in the positions of Surgeon General and Assistant Secretary for Health from February 1998 through January 2001 at the [[US Department of Health and Human Services]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=David Satcher {{!}} American Physician & Public Health Advocate |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/David-Satcher |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |language=en}}</ref> As such, he is the first Surgeon General to be appointed as a four-star [[Admiral (United States)|admiral]] in the [[Public Health Service Commissioned Corps|PHSCC]], a departure from the Surgeon General's normal appointment to three-star vice general, to reflect his dual offices.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Honorable Dr. David Satcher's Biography |url=https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/honorable-dr-david-satcher |access-date=2025-02-12 |website=The HistoryMakers |language=en}}</ref>

In his first year as Surgeon General, Satcher released the 1998 Surgeon General's report "Tobacco Use Among U.S. Racial/Ethnic Minority Groups." In it, he reported that tobacco use was on the rise among youth in each of the country's major racial and ethnic groups, threatening their long-term health prospects.<ref>{{Cite press release |title=Surgeon General's Report Warns of Health Reversals as Minority Teen Smoking Increases |date=April 27, 1998 |publisher=U.S. Department of Health and Human Services |url=https://www.hhs.gov/news/press/1998pres/980427.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080923025212/http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/1998pres/980427.html |archive-date=September 23, 2008 |df=mdy-all}}</ref>

Satcher was appointed by [[Bill Clinton]], and remained Surgeon General until 2002, contemporaneously with the first half of the first term of [[George W. Bush]]'s presidential administration. Eve Slater would later replace him as Assistant Secretary for Health in 2001. Because he no longer held his dual office, Satcher was reverted and downgraded to the grade of [[Vice admiral (United States)|vice admiral]] in the regular corps for the remainder of his term as Surgeon General. In 2001, his office released the report, ''The Surgeon General's Call to Action to Promote Sexual Health and Responsible Sexual Behavior''. The report was hailed by the chairman of the [[American Academy of Family Physicians]] as an overdue paradigm shift—"The only way we're going to change approaches to sexual behavior and sexual activity is through school. In school, not only at the doctor's office."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Schemo |first=Diana Jean |date=2001-06-29 |title=Surgeon General's Report Calls for Sex Education Beyond Abstinence |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/29/us/surgeon-general-s-report-calls-for-sex-education-beyond-abstinence.html |access-date=2025-02-13 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> However, conservative political groups denounced the report as being too permissive towards [[homosexuality]] and condom distribution in schools. When Satcher left office, he retired with the rank of vice admiral.