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Description
One afternoon in 1998 in the lobby of the Emory Conference Center, across the street from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Clifton Road in Atlanta, I sat on a leather sofa with one of my oldest, dearest friends--Gene Matthews, Legal Adviser to the CDC. Gene asked to meet me to talk about how we might invigorate the field of public health law. Matthews and his colleagues at CDC were hatching an idea to commence a grass-roots movement in public health law.
The movement would include all those disparate groups that saw law as a tool to promote the population's health. The potential constituents of the movement included legal counsel in public health agencies, partners in nonprofit organizations, private attorneys involved with public health litigation, public health officials, legislators, and academics in schools of law, medicine, and public health. All these groups had been working on matters of population health, but rarely, if ever, came together to share ideas and strategize on their agendas. Jim Curran, Dean of the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, later called this idea a "Public Health Law Collaborative."
As Gene recently put it: "I had no idea when we sat down on that sofa in the lobby of the Emory Conference Center that things would go like they have. I owe most of what has happened positively in my professional world in the past 5 years to that which flowed out of that encounter. Still much to be done." Those were the words Gene used in announcing his retirement after precisely a quarter of a century of distinguished service to American public health. This symposium issue of the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics is dedicated to the career of Gene W. Matthews. The volume is appropriately titled: Emerging Issues in Population Health: National and Global Perspectives.
I am humbled in the face of such a giant figure and such a gentle, wise man leaving his distinguished government service. Gene Matthews has meant everything to law and population health--he founded the modern field, nurtured it, and provided such profound leadership and wisdom that I cannot begin to express his contribution in words. His service at CDC will be sorely missed, but never forgotten. As Gene leaves his government service and moves his work to the private sector, he has the deep appreciation of everyone who cares about using law as a tool for promoting the public's health.
Gene Matthews became the Legal Advisor to CDC in 1979--he was the only attorney at that time, but the HHS Office of the General Counsel now has a staff of 24 attorneys serving CDC. He worked under 6 CDC Directors and has contributed to some of the most important milestones in public health history. (I have repeatedly urged Gene to write a book of contemporary history on the subject, and I hope his retirement from CDC will now allow him time to do that). He was in the room when the CDC staff was informed about the first 4 cases of AIDS in 1981. He witnessed remarkable events in the growth of CDC and public health, including the unfolding of the AIDS epidemic, the establishment of the Superfund environmental programs, the retooling of worker protective equipment, the maturing of our nation's immunization programs, and the implementation of tobacco prevention strategies. Since September 11, 2001, he also witnessed the new era in public health, as CDC has learned to handle such urgent demands as the anthrax attacks, West Nile virus, smallpox preparedness, SARS, and monkeypox.
I vividly recall Gene's last visit to Georgetown University Law Center in November, 2003, where he laid out a vision for global governance of SARS. His eyes glittering with excitement, Gene drew a map... |
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