Lynn Woolsey
US Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey (D-Marin) visited UCSF on United Nations-sponsored International Day of Peace on Sept. 21, praising global health clinical scholars as offering promise to a troubled world.
"You will be on the front lines and will make so much difference in world peace when you go forward," she told the young scholars. "You will be able to help those around the world, so they can have better lives."
Woolsey was invited to the campus by Haile Debas, MD, executive director of UCSF Global Health Sciences, to bring a national policy point of view on global health issues to faculty, students and staff. Of considerable interest to trainees intending to work internationally is a proposal for a Global Health Services Corps. Woolsey strongly supports this effort, which will be introduced by Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT).
A member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and its Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health, Woolsey met with Debas and Sir Richard Feachem, DSc, PhD, professor of international health and executive director emeritus of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Woolsey warmly accepted offers to send UCSF experts to Washington, DC, to advise the subcommittee on health challenges in Africa.
Woolsey reported that in June, the House proposed $1.6 billion in funding, an increase of $1 billion from last year, to be used toward efforts to combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
She commended President George W. Bush for announcing in May his intention to double the initial $15 billion commitment, reportedly the largest international health initiative dedicated to a specific disease, to fight HIV/AIDS in 15 countries. Woolsey did note, however, that the Bush administration places great emphasis on abstinence, even where cases of HIV/AIDS are predominantly spread by drug use, which often means that money for other interventions, such as mother-to-child transmission, is diverted.
Woolsey also took issue with the Bush administration's often-cited practice of putting politics before science, echoing the criticisms of former US Surgeon General Richard Carmona, MD, a graduate of the UCSF School of Medicine. Woolsey noted that Carmona's report on global health was withheld from the public due to political reasons.
"Politics should not have been allowed to get in the way of good science and good policy," Woolsey told about 60 members of UCSF Global Health Sciences and others gathered at UCSF Laurel Heights.
Critic of the Iraq War
An outspoken critic of the Bush administration's policy on Iraq, Woolsey - who opposed the conflict from the beginning - gave a grim report on the situation. The conflict in Iraq has led to the deaths of 100 doctors, 160 nurses and the departure of half of Iraqi doctors, she said.
"The war has produced 4 million refugees, many of them living in squalid and unhealthy conditions," Woolsey said, adding that it will likely take new leadership in the White House to end the war.
When asked about her thoughts on the 2008 presidential election, Woolsey said, "I can't wait!"
Woolsey has been organizing Iraq teach-ins with her colleagues Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) and Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), and has not endorsed any candidate so far. She says she will support the candidate who is in favor of ending the Iraq war quickly and preventing future occupations.
"When you think about all of the money we have spent - $14 million every hour, seven days a week, 24 hours a day - it's a shame. Think of what we can do for the world with that money. Think. It's got to stop," she said emphatically.
Peggy Knudson, MD, a trauma surgeon at San Francisco General Hospital, asked Woolsey about the prospects for funding for research into the injuries suffered by veterans of the Iraq war. Knudson has treated wounded soldiers during three visits at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, as part of the Senior Visiting Surgeon Program funded jointly by the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, the American College of Surgeons and the US military.
Woolsey responded that she's aware of the devastating physical and psychological toll that the war has taken on the US military, who are returning home in need of comprehensive health care services. "We are going to have a huge responsibility of taking care of our veterans," Woolsey said. "We don't want to treat the veterans like the Vietnam War veterans. We don't want them living on the streets."
On Sept. 10, Woolsey, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, called upon House colleagues to force a fully funded withdrawal of US troops and military contractors from Iraq.
First elected to the US House of Representatives in 1992, Woolsey is in her eighth term as the representative from California's sixth district, just north of San Francisco. Her district includes all of Marin and most of Sonoma County. Now living in Petaluma, Woolsey is the mother of four grown children and the grandmother of five.
Related Links:
Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey
Former Surgeon General Reports That Politics Trumps Science in National DiscourseUCSF Today, July 12, 2007
SFGH Surgeon: Helping the Wounded in GermanyUCSF Today, March 9, 2007
