Remembering Dr. Sidney Wolfe

July 15, 2024

Remembering Dr. Sidney Wolfe

Public Citizen News / July-August 2024

By Robert Weissman

This article appeared in the July/August 2024 edition of Public Citizen News. Download the full edition here.

More than six months have passed since the death of Dr. Sidney Wolfe, one of Public Citizen's founders and the longtime leader of our Health Research Group.

I think about Sid every day and miss him every day.

I reflect on how incensed he would be about the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) approval of yet another Alzheimer's drug with modest benefits and substantial safety risks. He thought the FDA's decision to approve the first of the recent Alzheimer's drugs - following a heavily conflicted process during which the agency worked with the drugmaker to recalibrate studies in order to make them seem better - was the single worst decision the agency had made in his 50 years of monitoring FDA approvals. I know Sid would be pleased that we strongly opposed the approval and would insist that we maintain our focus on these poor-quality drugs and take every opportunity to educate consumers and push the FDA to revisit its decision.

I think about how pleased Sid would be with the cutting-edge work of Health Research Group fellows Drs. Steffie Woolhandler and David Himmelstein on the impact of privatized Medicare ("Medicare Advantage"). He would be outraged about their finding that privatized Medicare raised Medicare costs $82 billion in 2023 alone.

Sid would be excited about being part of our planning for a bold health care reform campaign - including to improve Medicare, combat privatized Medicare, and push for aggressive measures to lower drug prices - after the 2024 election. And he would have insisted that we keep our eyes on the overarching objective of winning Medicare for All, to ensure that health care is treated as a right. (Of course, even without his insisting, we're not losing sight of that fundamental goal.)

If he were with us, Sid would tell me about his enthusiasm for our new and younger staff, basking in their passion, insights, creativity and strategic-mindedness. I know this, because he did it all the time.

If he were healthy, Sid would drop by my office and ask if I had three minutes free. Then he would talk to me about an outrage at the FDA, which would take much longer than three minutes; and then he'd tell me about a concert he had attended the previous evening; and then we'd talk about the fate of the Cleveland basketball team. Quickly, that three minutes would have turned into thirty. In the course of that half hour, I would have learned something important, hopefully have helped Sid work through a problem, been jolted by Sid's boundless energy and enthusiasm, and be charged up for the rest of the day.

If Sid were with us, at this moment of profound democratic fragility, he'd counsel our staff and our supporters to combine impatience with persistence. With the stakes so high, he'd urge us in words and especially in deed to dig a little deeper and find a little more energy and a few more minutes to mobilize and organize, research, and advocate - to push with everything we have to address injustice and forestall a proto-fascist movement - right now. But he would also insist - again, by example even more than what he said - that we can't allow ourselves to get discouraged, to slacken our advocacy, or to permit defeats to sideline us. No matter what, we have to stay engaged for the long term - just as he did.

There will never be another Sid Wolfe, but his work, his values, his determination, his creativity, his commitment to excellence, and his kind-heartedness are and forever will be woven into the DNA of Public Citizen.

We are going to remember and honor Dr. Sidney Wolfe by continuing his and our great work. We have created the Dr. Sidney M. Wolfe Memorial Fund to support fellows working with Public Citizen's Health Research Group and to further Sid's lifetime work. If you'd like to contribute, please use the insert included with this issue of Public Citizen Newsor contribute online at citizen.org/sidwolfe.

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.