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Mary LaskerMary Lasker
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is ashamed to admit that it took the TV industry to really get anything going. So it's a very funny anomaly. I don't know . . .

Of course Califano was totally opposed to tying high blood pressure on to the educational campaign or doing anything about it, and never really got behind it, because he said oh well, the drugs made men impotent.

Q:

Impotent?

Lasker:

Yes. Well, it's true that some drugs make some people impotent, but the truth is that if that's the case a person can change to another drug or another dosage, and it is not a reason to die from a stroke. Also you don't need to be impotent. However, you couldn't get this across to Califano because he knew everything.

Now Patricia Harris, now Secretary of Health and Human Resources, I went to see this spring, and she was not at all well informed, but she was sympathetic, and she knew that blacks had more high blood pressure than whites. She was sympathetic to the idea, and they are now talking about making it a major sort of point in their program. They've never done anything big about it in the highest echelons of what is now called Health and Human Services Department, first because of Califano.

Q:

Yes, but if you related the problem to the black race in that fashion it must be a very telling point with her.





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