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Public domain image from the White House, accessed at Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:White_House_Coronavirus_Update_Briefing_(49809248503).jpg

Former CDC Director Robert D. Redfield on Viruses, Vaccines, the COVID Epidemic, and Distrust in Public Health

Series
Humanize
Guest
Wesley J. Smith
Duration
1:14:43
Download
Audio File (102.61M)

The public health sector has been roiled by controversy and political turmoil in the last few years, what with the COVID pandemic, the fight over vaccine mandates, and questions about politicization of the sector. Beyond that, viruses make the news like never before. So, Wesley turned to an expert in both fields to learn more about virology, the government’s response to COVID, and the potential threat of bird flu.

Robert R. Redfield, M.D., is a virologist. He has been a public health leader actively engaged in clinical research and clinical care of chronic human viral infections and infectious diseases, especially HIV, for more than 30 years.

From 2018-2021, Dr. Redfield served as the 18th Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”) and Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

Prior to his tenure as Director of the CDC, Dr. Redfield served as the founding director of the Department of Retroviral Research within the U.S. Military’s HIV Research Program, and retired after 20 years of service in the U.S. Army Medical Corps. Following his military service, he co-founded the University of Maryland’s Institute of Human Virology and served as the Chief of Infectious Diseases and Vice Chair of Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Dr. Redfield made several important early contributions to the scientific understanding of HIV, including the demonstration of the importance of heterosexual transmission, the development of the Walter Reed staging system for HIV infection, and the demonstration of active HIV replication in all stages of HIV infection.

Dr. Redfield earned a Bachelor of Science from Georgetown University’s College of Arts and Sciences in 1973. He then attended Georgetown University School of Medicine and was awarded his Doctor of Medicine in 1977.

Related Resources

  • Dr. Robert R. Redfield bio | BPGbio
  • “Ex-CDC Chief Warns of Looming Bird Flu Threat” | Daily Signal
  • “Ex-CDC Director Warns Gain-of-Function Research on Bird Flu Could Spark ‘Great Pandemic'” | The COVID Advisor
  • The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John Barry | Amazon

Wesley J. Smith

Chair and Senior Fellow, Center on Human Exceptionalism
Wesley J. Smith is Chair and Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism. Wesley is a contributor to National Review and is the author of 14 books, in recent years focusing on human dignity, liberty, and equality. Wesley has been recognized as one of America’s premier public intellectuals on bioethics by National Journal and has been honored by the Human Life Foundation as a “Great Defender of Life” for his work against suicide and euthanasia. Wesley’s most recent book is Culture of Death: The Age of “Do Harm” Medicine, a warning about the dangers to patients of the modern bioethics movement.
Tags
Humanize
Robert D. Redfield
Wesley J. Smith