Trump administration taps AIDS researcher to lead CDC

[brooklynite]

Source: Politico

The Trump administration will appoint prominent HIV/AIDS researcher Robert Redfield to lead the CDC, administration officials announced Wednesday amid new scrutiny of controversies surrounding his earlier research and views.

Redfield, a clinical scientist and former Army doctor who co-founded the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, has been leading a massive HIV treatment program and a global program funded by the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. He previously served on former President George W. Bush’s HIV/AIDS advisory panel and in various advisory roles at NIH.

The appointment comes nearly two months after former CDC Director Brenda Fitzgerald resigned following a POLITICO investigation that revealed she had traded tobacco, drug and food stocks while leading the country’s top public health agency.

Redfield emerged as the favorite to take the top CDC job last week, POLITICO reported over the weekend. Sources close to the decision process say Redfield was chosen based on his groundbreaking work on HIV/AIDS in Maryland. The position does not require Senate confirmation.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/21/cdc-trump-aids-researcher-434037

[sandensea]

1. It's good to see HIV/AIDS actually seems to matter to Cheeto.

A cynic might say that this is thanks to the untimely death of his erstwhile mentor and fixer, Roy Cohn.

If so, then that's one positive thing that slippery old lizard left behind.

All the Best to Dr. Redfield in his endeavors.

[Hortensis]

6. Could be. If this is an uncharacteristically good appointment,

my best guess is that the people supplying names to The Donald are afraid of dying in a flu epidemic.

[NCTraveler]

7. .

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/03/trumps-new-cdc-director-has-controversial-history-of-aids-research/

[TwistOneUp]

2. Just as long as...

She doesn't use the terms, transgender and gay...

[Grassy Knoll]

3. About Time This Fuck Becomes A Human

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

4. How bizarre. Do you suppose they mistakenly think he's

an AIDS denier?

I mean, they haven't appointed anyone else to any position who is actually qualified to hold that position, so this must be some sort of giant screw-up on someone's part.

And no, I'm not being sarcastic here.

[Crash2Parties]

5. He's not...quite what they are presenting him as.

"Dr. Peter Lurie, president of the Center For Science in the Public Interest, reacts:
This appointment would be disastrous for at least three reasons.
First, he has no experience running a public health agency, and does not have the all-important relationships with state and local public health officials such experience would bring.
Second, based on work I conducted with Sidney Wolfe at Public Citizen in the mid-1990s, he has been credibly accused of scientific misconduct for exaggerating the benefits of a putative HIV vaccine, for which he was investigated by the military.
Third, he has supported a variety of policies related to HIV/AIDS that are anathema to the great majority of public health professionals: mandatory HIV testing, reporting of positive HIV results to public health authorities without the patient’s consent, and quarantining of HIV-positive individuals in the military."
https://cspinet.org/news/cspi-urges-administration-not-appoint-dr-robert-redfield-history-scientific-misconduct-cdc

"...limited experience with emergency responses and government bureaucracy [...] In addition, while at Walter Reed, Redfield misrepresented the effectiveness of an experimental AIDS vaccine he was under pressure to deliver. Though he was ultimately cleared of misconduct charges, critics maintain Redfield had inappropriate ties to Americans for a Sound AIDS/HIV Policy, a conservative abstinence-based organization that strongly endorsed the vaccine. They also claim the Army scuttled serious investigation into the allegation.
“Either he was egregiously sloppy with data or it was fabricated,” said former Air Force Lt. Col. Craig Hendrix, who blew the whistle on Redfield at Walter Reed, told Kaiser Health News. “It was somewhere on that spectrum, both of which were serious and raised questions about his trustworthiness.”
In a letter urging President Trump to reconsider the appointment, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA.) said Redfield displayed a pattern of “ethically and morally questionable behavior.” (The position does not require Senate confirmation.)"
http://www.newnownext.com/robert-redfield-cdc-director/03/2018/