Obama Names Heads of CDC and FDA: Julie Rides Into the Sunset

This week President Barack Obama named Thomas Frieden MD as Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, GA, and Dr. Margaret Hamburg as Director of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with Joshua Sharfstein MD as Deputy Director.  

NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Thomas Frieden MD

Frieden is the former Public Health Commissioner for New York City, where he became famous for banning trans fat and smoking from restaurants and bars, and pushed aggressive screening for HIV. NYC has been described as a city state and likened to Florence in the Middle Ages, where you would have much more power than at the head of a federal agency like CDC. Well, anything would be better than Julie Gerberding, whose main goal in life seemed to be pleasing the father figures that were above her in the federal bureacracy.

Julie rides off into the sunset. Bye the bye, Julie...

Hamburg is a bioterrorism expert who also used to run public health in NYC. Sharfstein was director of public health in Baltimore an developed a reputation for an aggressive approach to public health.

All have a reputation for idealism and taking an active role toward public health, which will be a welcome improvement over the lame pandering to anti-science creationists and corporate interests which characterized the last eight years of the CDC , and the lack oversight and whining deference to drug companies at the FDA, all of which led to the total collapse of public trust in these agencies.

CDC SAYS DON'T DO THIS!!!