Voting Station

Bernadine Healy

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Doctor

The Resume

    (August 4, 1944-August 6, 2011)
    Born in New York City, New York
    Cardiologist
    Science advisor to Ronald Reagan
    Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH; 1991-93)
    Dean of the College of Medicine at Ohio State University (1995-99)
    Head of the American Red Cross (1999-2001)
    Bioterrorism advisor to George W. Bush
    Medical commentator for CBS, PBS and MSNBC
    Authored the 'On Health' column for 'US News and World Report'

Why she might be annoying:

    She supported medical research using fetal tissue, but after being appointed NIH director changed her position to match that of President George H.W. Bush.
    She unsuccessfully ran for the Republican nomination for US Senator from Ohio (1994).
    A Red Cross official said of her often stormy tenure heading the organization, 'Dr. Healy was not people-oriented and the Red Cross is about people.'
    After 9/11, she was criticized for encouraging more blood donations than were actually needed, with much of the collected blood eventually being discarded.
    She was hired by the tobacco industry front group The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition, then (surprise!) wrote several columns criticizing regulations intended to reduce exposure to second-hand smoke.
    She claimed a government conspiracy was suppressing evidence of a link between vaccines and autism.

Why she might not be annoying:

    She was a high school valedictorian and won full scholarships to Vassar and to Harvard Medical School.
    At the NIH, she launched the Women's Health Initiative to study diseases affecting women, particularly in middle age and older.
    A later NIH director said, 'She championed the principle that women's health could not simply be inferred by extrapolation from studies on men. As a result, today we have seen major advances in the understanding of how women and their health care providers can better prevent cardiovascular disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis and a host of other conditions.'
    She was diagnosed with a brain tumor and told she had three months to live (1998), but lived more than a decade after surgery and chemotherapy.
    When Red Cross board members criticized her reaction to allegations of embezzlement at the Jersey City chapter as 'too fast and too tough,'she replied, 'What should I have been? Too soft and too slow?'
    A Red Cross board member admitted, 'In hindsight, her decisions were right.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 10 Votes: 80.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 9 Votes: 55.56% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 11 Votes: 54.55% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 13 Votes: 53.85% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 11 Votes: 63.64% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 12 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 249 Votes: 78.71% Annoying