[Goose]

Azar is a bureaucrat. He is a lawyer, not a scientist or an great corporate leader. Like essentially all heads of Federal agencies he is qualified for his job by politics, not by competence.

He was the head of Lilly USA, the largest division of Eli Lilly.  Also Dartmouth/Yale trained.  You'd hope he'd be a little better at his job.

Yale trained as a lawyer. Was a lobbyist for Lily before becoming head of Lily USA. Had the top job for five years. My belief is that a robot could be the head of Lily USA and most similar companies. Unless one can name some major accomplishments of his tenure it means little. All that is necessary is to make no large errors that can be traced back to you. However, that doesn't give me any confidence he has the ability to represent technically difficult information to his superiors or to lead an organization that needs to do anything more than just what they did yesterday. In most cases, the director of HHS can be a cipher without doing great harm. It may not do great things, but it won't matter. However, when the time comes we need great things there, having a Yale lawyer who hasn't ever really demonstrated great technical acumen or great leadership ability isn't going to cut it.

Azar is not atypical. A large number of undersecretaries of this and that have similar careers. They are in fact "political" appointments. This is true of both parties and all presidents. It pretty much ensures mediocre performance of our government agencies. I am sure almost all of these people are smart and have talents. However, great competence in the function of their department and/or great leadership skills usually aren't among those talents. Knowing how to work the "system" is.

[Goose]

Azar is a bureaucrat. He is a lawyer, not a scientist or an great corporate leader. Like essentially all heads of Federal agencies he is qualified for his job by politics, not by competence.

He was the head of Lilly USA, the largest division of Eli Lilly.  Also Dartmouth/Yale trained.  You'd hope he'd be a little better at his job.

Yale trained as a lawyer. Was a lobbyist for Lily before becoming head of Lily USA. Had the top job for five years. My belief is that a robot could be the head of Lily USA and most similar companies. Unless one can name some major accomplishments of his tenure it means little. All that is necessary is to make no large errors that can be traced back to you. However, that doesn't give me any confidence he has the ability to represent technically difficult information to his superiors or to lead an organization that needs to do anything more than just what they did yesterday. In most cases, the director of HHS can be a cipher without doing great harm. It may not do great things, but it won't matter. However, when the time comes we need great things there, having a Yale lawyer who hasn't ever really demonstrated great technical acumen or great leadership ability isn't going to cut it.

Azar is not atypical. A large number of undersecretaries of this and that have similar careers. They are in fact "political" appointments. This is true of both parties and all presidents. It pretty much ensures mediocre performance of our government agencies. I am sure almost all of these people are smart and have talents. However, great competence in the function of their department and/or great leadership skills usually aren't among those talents. Knowing how to work the "system" is.