I’d had no particular reason to care who the CDC Director was until Covid 19 started spreading through communities in the US. From December of 2019, until late February of 2020, most news media in this country were still reporting on the outbreak as something that was happening overseas, in Wuhan China.
But on February 13th, I happened to hear a short interview Redfield gave that brought him and the reputation of the CDC into my focus. Redfield complained that the Chinese government hadn’t allowed US CDC teams in on the ground in Hubei, saying:
“That letter has not been responded to yet by the official Chinese government. We do believe that we’re the best in the world in this space and we’re ready to help and assist them, but they’re an independent nation that has to make that decision that they’re going to invite us in.” [my bolding] — edition.cnn.com/...
I thought that was a brash statement, and I wondered if he was just another simpering Dump toadie, full of the same emptiness and bluster, or if he had the goods to back up that statement. I think history has well proven the falseness of his assertion.
Now, after a year of bumbling, stumbling ineptitude and possibly even criminal indifference, Redfield is on record blaming Americans for dying too often.
Outgoing CDC Director Warns Of Pandemic's Peak: 'We're About To Be In The Worst Of It'
MARY LOUISE KELLY
Kelley: Why has the U.S. done so much worse than the rest of the world?
Redfield: I think this virus has a unique ability to have differential pathogenesis in different people. And what it really does is it exploits the underlying health condition of the individual it infects. And so, I would argue one of the reasons we're having more significant death in this country than, say, Sweden is because unfortunately, the underlying health conditions — with obesity, diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease and the significant health disparities that we have in these illnesses in our nation — haven't been effectively addressed. [my bolding]
Kelley: Dr. Rochelle Walensky, your incoming successor, in this piece that she published in The New York Times this week, wrote this: "Our team of scientists will have to work very hard to restore public trust in the C.D.C., at home and abroad, because it has been undermined over the last year." She went on: "The gold standard for the nation's public health — has been tarnished." How would you respond to that?
Redfield: That's just not true. The men and women at CDC are highly respected across this nation and around the world. Clearly, there's no doubt that the lack of reinforcement and support from some individuals in the administration of the public health message had impact. But CDC continues to be the premier public health agency in the world.
[I was impressed with the hard-hitting style of the questions]
The interview Redfield gives NPR is interesting at least as far as showing how every member of the Dump administration is going to keep making excuses and denying responsibility even as Dump’s power over them fades — maybe until their dying breath. It’s worth a look or a listen. www.npr.org/…
There were a lot of excuses, twisting of facts and downright lies, but the one above really got to me. He is saying that more Americans have died per capita than other wealthy nations because we’re just too obese and diseased, unlike the Swedes. Nothing to do with botching the testing from day one. Nothing to do with stating as a fact that there was “no community spread” in the US on February 27th; a statement flatly contradicted by science. Nothing to do with issuing guidelines on masks and then retracting them.
I saw my doctor on January 7th for a routine appointment. He announced, unsolicited, “I don’t believe a single word coming from the CDC anymore. They have lost all credibility.” I used to think of the CDC as heroes of science and was proud that Americans built that. Now I agree with Dr Wolensky, that it will take a lot of hard work to fix their reputation.