Jeffrey Singer at Reason notes that Americans have gone 430 days without a “nation’s doctor,” as the surgeon general is often called. Who has noticed? Few, if any, raise a more fundamental question. Do we really need one?

The Surgeon General and the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps are each relics of a bygone era. These institutions persist not because they are essential, but because they have never been seriously reconsidered. Sprawling agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health now dominate today’s public health activity.

The surgeon general’s role has diminished to mainly a national spokesperson, issuing advisories that are more symbolic than practical—and that can become a platform for unnecessary political and cultural conflicts.

The office of the Surgeon General has drifted far from its original role as an apolitical supervisor of medical personnel to a political megaphone for opining on such controversies as gun control, social media, housing, and other red-hot button issues not actually related to public health.