Vivek Hallegere Murthy (born 10 July 1977) is an American physician who served twice as Surgeon General of the United States, the country’s chief spokesman on public health, under Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden. He was the first person of Indian descent to hold the post and, at thirty-seven, one of the youngest. He is best known for declaring loneliness an epidemic.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Vivek Hallegere Murthy |
| Born | 10 July 1977, Huddersfield, England |
| Age | 49 |
| Nationality | American |
| Indian roots | Parents from Karnataka; family from Hallegere village, Mandya district |
| Education | Harvard University (B.A., 1997); Yale University (M.D. and MBA, 2003) |
| Occupation | Physician, public health official, author |
| Offices | 19th Surgeon General of the United States (2014–2017); 21st Surgeon General (2021–2025) |
| Spouse | Alice Chen (m. 2015) |
| Children | 2 |
Early Life
He was born in Huddersfield, in the north of England, where his father, a doctor from Karnataka, was then working. The family moved to Newfoundland in Canada and, when he was three, to Miami, Florida, where his parents ran a medical clinic. He and his sister spent their weekends there, and he has said that watching his parents with their patients made him want to be a doctor.
Education
He graduated from Harvard in 1997 with a degree in biochemical sciences and took a joint degree in medicine and business at Yale in 2003. He trained in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and taught at Harvard Medical School.
Early Initiatives
- **VISIONS:** while still a student he and his sister founded an organisation for HIV and AIDS education in India and the United States
- **Swasthya:** a programme training women as community health workers in rural Karnataka
- **Doctors for America:** in 2008 he founded a group of physicians campaigning for affordable health care, which supported President Obama’s health reform
- **A technology company** that helped run clinical trials
Surgeon General
First term
President Obama nominated him in 2013. His confirmation was delayed for more than a year, chiefly because he had described gun violence as a public health problem. He took office in December 2014. He published a major report on addiction, wrote to every doctor in the country about the over-prescription of opioid painkillers, and was removed by the incoming Trump administration in April 2017.
Second term
President Biden brought him back in March 2021, in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic. He issued a series of formal advisories, the Surgeon General’s instrument for calling attention to a danger.
- **Health misinformation** during the pandemic
- **The mental health of young people**
- **Loneliness and isolation (2023):** he reported that about half of American adults experienced loneliness, and that its effect on health was comparable to smoking fifteen cigarettes a day
- **Social media:** in 2024 he called for warning labels on social media platforms, like those on tobacco
- **Alcohol:** in January 2025 he called for labels warning that alcohol raises the risk of cancer
He left office when the administration changed in January 2025.
Writing
His book Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World appeared in 2020. He has said that he himself suffered from loneliness as a child and again after his first term ended.
Personal Life
He married Alice Chen, also a physician, in 2015; they have a son and a daughter. Several members of his family in the United States and India died of Covid-19, which he has spoken about publicly.
Featured image: Official portrait of Vivek Murthy as Surgeon General of the United States, 2022. Photo by the US Department of Health and Human Services, in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
