Prevention Matters

Jason Newsom, a public health doctor in Bay County, Florida, was forced to step down after running messages on an electronic sign outside the health department where he worked that included messages such as “Donuts = Diabetes” and “America Dies on Dunkin.”

With the backing of a county commissioner who owns a doughnut shop, two lawyers who own a new Dunkin' Donuts on Panama City threatened to sue. Newsom’s bosses at the Florida Health Department made him remove the messages and eventually forced him to resign. “I think he was somewhat of a zealot,” the county commissioner with the doughnut shop told the Associated Press.