The country has gone without a Senate-confirmed surgeon general for more than a year, yet the office continues producing pronouncements. On May 20, the Office of the Surgeon General released an advisory on screen use in children and adolescents. Yet the advisory rests on surprisingly weak evidence and illustrates how far the office has drifted from its original mission.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) classifies advisories as public statements that call attention to an issue and provide recommendations. They are distinct from the surgeon general's reports, which are comprehensive scientific reviews prepared by experts, and from calls to action, which are science-based summaries. The screen-use advisory states explicitly that its findings are not the product of a formal systematic review. By the issuing agency's own standards, it is not a scientific document. But it frames the issue with an authority that makes moral panic sound like public health.
