The position of surgeon general has lost enough of its authority and powers that one expert says it is time to do away with it, according to MedPageToday. In the 1960s, most of the surgeon general's responsibilities were stripped and given to presidential appointees, said Mike Stobbe, an Associated Press medical correspondent and author of Surgeon General's Warning: How Politics Crippled the Nation's Doctor. The absence of a strong, respected medical authority leads to situations like the fallacious belief that vaccinations cause autism in children or excessive visits to tanning salons. These are issues "a surgeon general who is forceful about this could really change some thinking about," Stobbe told the publication. Interview