New York City Official Is Obama Pick for C.D.C.

[depakid]

Source: NY Times

President Obama will announce on Friday that he has chosen Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the New York City health commissioner, as the next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, administration officials said Thursday. Dr. Frieden, a 48-year-old infectious disease specialist, has cut a high and sometimes contentious profile in his seven years as New York’s top health official under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. He led the crusade to ban smoking in restaurants and bars, pushed to make H.I.V. testing a routine part of medical exams, and defended a program that passes out more than 35 million condoms a year.

At the C.D.C., he will inherit a host of immediate and long-term problems, including a looming decision about whether and how to produce a swine flu vaccine. Health experts say the agency must resolve serious morale and organizational issues even as the administration struggles to overhaul the nation’s health care system.

“I think the administration selected Tom Frieden because he can take public health to a new place,” said Jeffrey Levi, executive director of Trust for America’s Health, a nonprofit public health advocacy organization. “He’s a transformational leader.”

Dr. Frieden is expected to take office next month. With his appointment, which does not require Senate confirmation, New York City will have former commissioners in two of the nation’s most visible health positions; Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg, who held the job in the 1990s, is nearing confirmation as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/health/policy/15cdc.html?hp

[No Elephants]

1. Read his wiki and he looks dang good. Libertarians may hate him bc of

bans on smoking and trans fats, but I don't have a problem with either bans. Neo theos will have litte problem with the smoking ban, but will hae the condoms program. Needless to say, I have no problem with condoms.

I think Obama hired another woman from the NYC govt health system who had great credentials too. I wonder if she recommended Frieden? In any case, he seems like a great choice.

[AnneD]

6. I can't remember the lady's name....

but she was the epidemiologist that first identified the West Nile virus when it first appeared in the USA in the mosquito population in NY.

Edited to add-they do good work in NY in reguards to Puplic Health, as well they should. It is taken seriously.

[ColbertWatcher]

2. Condoms!

[pjt7]

3. Anybody really know this guy?

.

[mrs_p]

4. i heard of him, don't know him personally

he is peer reviewed (so a REAL scientist): http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez

here's his bio from ny doh website: http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/commish/combio.shtml

[bdamomma]

5. will the filthy repigs block this appointment too?

that is what they seem to be doing blocking Obama's choices.