Exclusive: AIDS researcher favored to be next CDC chief
Source: Politico
By DAN DIAMOND and BRIANNA EHLEY 03/16/2018 08:33 PM EDT
Robert Redfield, an HIV/AIDS expert at the University of Maryland Medical Center, is being vetted by the Trump administration to run the CDC, five individuals with knowledge of the situation tell POLITICO.
Redfield emerged this week as the favored choice to replace former CDC Director Brenda Fitzgerald, who resigned in late January after POLITICO reported she had traded tobacco, drug and food stocks while heading the public health agency.
The Trump administration had been eyeing multiple candidates for the role. HHS did not respond to an immediate request for comment Friday evening.
Redfield, a pioneering researcher who co-founded the Institute of Human Virology, also served on President George W. Bush's advisory council on HIV/AIDS and was an adviser to the NIH during his administration.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/16/aids-researcher-cdc-chief-robert-redfield-468669
cannabis_flower
(3,764 posts)Is Trump actually nominating someone who seems like they might be qualified for the job? I'm actually surprised he didn't nominate Jenny McCarthy or some other antivax idiot!
global1
(25,169 posts)that Trump is considering him?
Lucky Luciano
(11,242 posts)Gore1FL
(21,035 posts)jayschool2013
(2,309 posts)I'm guessing Duh-ligula thought he was nominating Robert Redford. You know. Good on TV.
ret5hd
(20,435 posts)What's the one thing a germ-a-phobe wants handled properly?
Maybe the CDC for one.
sweetroxie
(776 posts)sarcasm
jmowreader
(50,453 posts)Redfield is the first to determine HIV could be spread by heterosexuals, and he was aligned with a right-wing HIV group. Trumps view is probably that HIV is your punishment for choosing the wrong sex partner, so this doctor should fit right in.
Flaleftist
(3,473 posts)locks
(2,012 posts)Redfield has a long and outstanding history of research, prevention of HIV/AIDs, and support of AIDS agencies around the world. In the 1990s he was appointed to Bush's very conservative AIDS Advisory Council. He was very influenced by a conservative evangelical group that promoted abstinence, not using condoms, blaming AIDS victims, and promoting "turning to Jesus" as the only way to
stop the AIDS epidemic. That group seems to have faded away completely and in the NYTimes article Redfield is highly recommended by Kathleen Kennedy Townsend for all the good work he has done. Sure seems to be better than the crazies Trump has been appointing. Let's hope he won't cut the CDC's budget again as its prevention and control of diseases and epidemics is so badly needed around the world.