Former HHS Secretary Issues Urgent Warning: Washington Is Failing Millions of Americans

Liberty Check

• 25 million Americans still smoke, yet federal health agencies refuse to acknowledge safer alternatives proven to reduce harm
• 69% of healthcare providers want FDA to share evidence on smoke-free products, but the agency remains silent while misinformation spreads
• Big government bureaucrats ignore science showing smoke — not nicotine — causes the greatest health risk, leaving vulnerable Americans in the dark

A former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services is sounding the alarm on a public health crisis that Washington refuses to address. Despite 25 million American adults still smoking cigarettes, federal bureaucrats have effectively abandoned them, clinging to outdated policies while refusing to acknowledge proven harm-reduction alternatives.

Dr. Tom Price, who served as HHS Secretary and previously represented Georgia in Congress, knows the devastating cost of smoking firsthand. He lost his father to what he calls “Lucky Strike lungs.”

Now he’s warning that federal health agencies are failing millions of Americans by pretending smoking is “yesterday’s problem” when the reality is far different.

“Roughly 25 million American adults still smoke cigarettes, and far too many have been left out of the public health conversation,” Dr. Price states, pointing to a new white paper titled “The Forgotten Smoker” that exposes how government health bureaucrats have abandoned progress for millions of Americans still at greatest risk.

The patients Dr. Price describes aren’t abstractions — they’re real Americans. Parents, workers, veterans, and neighbors who have tried to quit multiple times. Many know the risks but struggle with addiction. Yet Washington acts as if ignoring them will make the problem disappear.

The science is clear: the greatest harm comes from combustion, not nicotine itself. The FDA has even recognized that tobacco products exist on a continuum of risk, with cigarettes at the most dangerous end and smoke-free alternatives posing lower health risks.

But here’s where the federal failure becomes inexcusable: that critical message isn’t reaching the people who need it most.

A national survey of 1,565 U.S. healthcare practitioners reveals stunning ignorance among the very professionals tasked with helping smokers. 47% mistakenly believe nicotine is a carcinogen, while another 19% are unsure. The fact is, nicotine itself does not directly cause cancer — yet nearly half of healthcare providers don’t know this basic scientific fact.

The survey findings are damning for federal health agencies. 69% of healthcare providers want the FDA to share clinical evidence on smoke-free products’ role in harm reduction. 68% want clear guidance on counseling patients who want to move away from cigarettes. And 95% say they would share FDA-provided information with patients.

Translation: America’s doctors are begging for help from federal agencies, and those agencies are refusing to provide it.

The misinformation crisis extends beyond medical offices. The research found that 52% of Americans incorrectly believe nicotine itself causes cancer, and 73% mistakenly believe all tobacco and nicotine products are equally harmful. This widespread confusion directly results from the FDA’s failure to communicate basic scientific facts.

Yet when presented with the scale of continued smoking, 79% of Americans say more should be done to reduce smoking-related harm. The public understands there’s unfinished work — Washington just refuses to do it.

Dr. Price’s prescription is straightforward: The FDA should equip clinicians with practical, plain-language guidance they can use now. Materials developed with input from practicing physicians that explain what the agency has authorized and how to have evidence-based conversations with adult smokers trying to move away from cigarettes.

“It should say plainly and repeatedly what drives the greatest health risk: smoke, not nicotine,” Dr. Price emphasizes.

The solution requires making authorization decisions understandable to non-experts and bringing that science into exam rooms where patient decisions are shaped. It means speaking directly to adult smokers in ways that meet them where they are — especially vulnerable populations overrepresented among those who continue to smoke, including older Americans and veterans.

Good public health policy meets people where they are, uses the best available evidence, and gives both patients and clinicians the tools to act. Instead, federal health bureaucrats have chosen ideology over science, leaving 25 million Americans behind.

Americans deserve better from their government health agencies.