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Mary LaskerMary Lasker
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satisfaction of statisticians.

Q:

Is that in the wind?

Lasker:

Well, I don't know how far along, I'm not clear about it.

Asto the high blood pressure campaign, on July 24, as a result of our meeting with Secretary Richardson earlier in the spring a couple of times, we -- the National Heart Institute called a meeting of many groups in the field of heart and blood pressure, people presumed to be interested in it, and had a press briefing the next day. Unfortunately it was a day -- the 24th of July -- oh, it was a the day the Eagleton disaster --

Q:

-- it was a Monday, wasn't it, and youhad gone down for this meeting.

Lasker:

Yes, and the Eagleton story blocked out any coverage of the hypertension story. Richardson didn't say how much money he was going to spend on it, and now he's had another meeting in the last -- on the 15th of January, where he did say something about, had two million dollars in the budget for educating people on high blood pressure. But he has found that there's a substantial vote among all groups, including all heart association groups and medical groups, that something should be done about screening and treating for high blood pressure. It's far from being done yet, but there is a real interest to do something. The tragedy is of course that Richardson is leaving HEW and going to be Secretary of Defense, and we have a budget cutter, Casper Weinberger coming in to be Secretary of HEW.

I saw Richardson at a dinner that Ress Perot gave, Saturday night, and he said that he had talked to Casper Weinberger about the





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