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Top Health Official Traded Tobacco Stock While Leading Anti-smoking Efforts

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deathmetal

deathmetal

Lifer
Jul 21, 2015
7,714
32
The...top public health official bought shares in a tobacco company one month into her leadership of the agency charged with reducing tobacco use — the leading cause of preventable disease and death and an issue she had long championed.
The stock was one of about a dozen new investments that Brenda Fitzgerald, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, made after she took over the agency’s top job, according to documents obtained by POLITICO. Fitzgerald has since come under congressional scrutiny for slow walking divestment from older holdings that government officials said posed potential conflicts of interest.
Buying shares of tobacco companies raises even more flags than Fitzgerald’s trading in drug and food companies because it stands in such stark contrast to the CDC’s mission to persuade smokers to quit and keep children from becoming addicted. Critics say her trading behavior broke with ethical norms for public health officials and was, at best, sloppy. At worst, they say, it was legally problematic if she didn't recuse herself from government activities that could have affected her investments.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/30/cdc-director-tobacco-stocks-after-appointment-316245
Click to expand...
This level of pathological hatred is unstable. Smokers are the new civil rights battlefield.

 
huntertrw

huntertrw

Lifer
Jul 23, 2014
5,286
5,565
The Lower Forty of Hill Country
When all is laid bare, the issues on the part of the federal and state governments come down to revenue and control. If, as they so loudly crow, they were truly interested in our health (and if tobacco is really as bad as they claim it to be), then they would simply outlaw it, period. The fact that they do not points up their blatant, nauseating hypocrisy. Instead, they self-righteously damn us smokers on the one hand, and grab as much revenue as they can with the other.

 
perdurabo

perdurabo

Lifer
Jun 3, 2015
3,305
1,575
I'm switching to Weed. Less fuss, plus everyone believes it's a medical wonder substance. If I live by the rule that People are stupid, then I should throw my stash in the toilet and begin to inhale OJK.

 
sablebrush52

sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,783
45,390
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
7zmWTDR.gif

Just settling in for the moment when some bonehead takes this in a direction it doesn't need to go, chimp fight ensues, and it gets shut down.

 
dmcmtk

dmcmtk

Lifer
Aug 23, 2013
3,672
1,685
Assumed office July 7, 2017.
On Sept. 8, 2017
"Executive Branch Personnel

Public Financial Disclosure Report
Agency Ethics Official's Opinion - On the basis of information contained in this report, I conclude that the filer is in compliance with applicable laws and regulations

(subject to any comments below).

/s/ Olesh, Stanley, Certifying Official [electronically signed on 09/08/2017 by Olesh, Stanley in Integrity.gov]"
The above is linked to in the article.

 
perdurabo

perdurabo

Lifer
Jun 3, 2015
3,305
1,575
Sable brought popcorn, I brought Cracker Jacks and a bowl of Mad Fiddler Flake. By the way, who's fightin'?

 
brightleaf

brightleaf

Part of the Furniture Now
Sep 4, 2017
555
4
"I'd be more concerned if she shorted tobacco stocks before trying to hammer them."

Same here.

Tobacco use is not a disease. I do not see the conflict of interest.
Are folks in this thread trying to stir up trouble? Why?

 
lazar

lazar

Can't Leave
May 5, 2015
445
3
Okay, you guys can relax now, I'm here. :rofl:
Just for argument's sake, would there be a conflict of interest if a criminal defense attorney owned stock in a private prison?

 
perdurabo

perdurabo

Lifer
Jun 3, 2015
3,305
1,575
It's okay if their on my team, but if you guys play"double edged sword" I'm calling...never mind.

 
deathmetal

deathmetal

Lifer
Jul 21, 2015
7,714
32
Stock buying should not be a moral question.
Military gear, blood diamonds, organ trading, whatever... if it's a good investment, I'll buy it.
These people are just virtue signaling about how "above" that horrible tobacco stuff they are, and how much they hate us dirt people in the flyover states with our anachronistic habits.

 
lazar

lazar

Can't Leave
May 5, 2015
445
3
Stock buying should not be a moral question.
Click to expand...
"should"? :|
Would you draw the line at say, gold teeth from concentration camps, or profiting from a government that practices ethnic cleansing?

 
brendhain

brendhain

Starting to Get Obsessed
Mar 5, 2018
124
13
Not only is her purchase of stock in tobacco companies a professional conflict of interest but it also seems kinda stupid. Why would you invest in a company that you are trying to shut down or at least cripple. If she was successful in her job assignment then tobacco shares should go down thus making it a bad investment.
Or, maybe she knows that she is not going to do her job well.

 
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