Outgoing CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield, MD is a FAILURE as a leader.

Dr. Robert R. Redfield, MD – 18th Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

But allow me to be more explicit.

Dr. Robert R. Redfield, MD is a goddamn moron for whom I have no professional respect.

Why do I write that?

Like his soon-to-be former boss – the outgoing 45th President – he is, and remains, an ineffectual (mis)leader, under whose oversight the agency, like America, has languished, and suffered significant loss. Furthermore, also like his soon-to-be former boss – the outgoing 45th President – he refuses to accept responsibility for any of it.

The outgoing President, himself an utterly incompetent goddamn know-it-all moron, has a knack and penchant for identifying and naming the most utterly incompetent boobs to important positions within the administration.

Does that mean Redfield is a “most utterly incompetent boob”?

Not necessarily.

Of course, if you’ve been paying the least bit of attention for the past year, or so, you’d know the moronic and utterly idiotic things he’s done, and the equally moronic and contradictory things he’s said to justify, in response to the coronavirus pandemic in the United States.

But here below, read what he said recently in an interview with NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly on All Things Considered. • [Commentary in italics, within brackets, preceded with a •, following Redfield’s remarks.]

Outgoing CDC Director Warns Of Pandemic’s Peak:
“We’re About To Be In The Worst Of It”

January 15, 20216:07 PM ET
Heard on All Things Considered
by Mary Louise Kelly

Mary Louise Kelly: “Why has the U.S. done so much worse than the rest of the world?”

Robert Redfield: “I think this virus has a unique ability to have differential pathogenesis in different people. And what it really does is it exploits the underlying health condition of the individual it infects. And so, I would argue one of the reasons we’re having more significant death in this country than, say, Sweden is because unfortunately, the underlying health conditions — with obesity, diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease and the significant health disparities that we have in these illnesses in our nation — haven’t been effectively addressed.”
• [Pass the buck, please. There is EXACTLY ONE research paper in the entire National Library of Medicine with the subject “differential pathogenesis” in its title which is about COVID-19: Molecular Aspects of COVID-19 Differential Pathogenesis. The gist of the paper’s findings is that a type of the female hormone estradiol increases the levels of Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2), and that ACE2 apparently has some role in preventing severity of symptoms associated with COVID-19 infection, although, “ACE2 expression is dramatically reduced with aging in both genders. The levels of ACE2 expression, which could be sex- and age-dependent, have a protective role against lung and kidney injuries that could impact the severity of COVID-19 illness in male vs. females and old vs. young individuals.” As well, TMPRSS2, a cellular transmembrane protease, has a role in the severity of the disease, insofar as the “expression levels of TMPRSS2 protein are regulated by levels of androgen and androgen receptors … women and children have a lower level of androgen and androgen receptors than men, and therefore, TMPRSS2 could play a potential role in the severity of COVID-19 pathogenesis in men.” The study’s authors also write that, “it could be possible that the expression levels of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 impact virus infectivity and pathogenesis among different groups of individuals, considering the variation in the expression levels in older men compared to the women and children.” It is well known that individuals with comorbidities of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, heart diseases, and cerebrovascular disease, are at increased risk for poor outcomes, and increased risk of mortality, if infected with COVID-19, and the authors specifically state that the treatments for such conditions may very well place such individuals at increased risk for poor outcomes by writing that they “could be linked to the ACE2 function during SARS-CoV-2 infection and the cardio-metabolic treatments that may interfere withACE2–virus interaction.” The study’s authors conclude that, “variations in the expression levels of SARS-CoV-2 receptors and co-receptors, due to physiological and co-morbidity conditions, could impact the differential pathogenesis of COVID-19.” Contrary to what Dr. Redfield says, the virus does NOT have “a unique ability to have differential pathogenesis in different people.”]

Kelly: “But in terms of how the U.S. has responded, in terms of how the CDC has responded … are you able to defend the Trump administration’s record on this as anything other than a catastrophic failure?”

Redfield: “Well, I’m actually very proud of the response that CDC has done. I think if I have one criticism that I do believe is significant is the importance of consistency and unity of message. CDC, obviously, you know, on April 3 stressed the American public the importance of wearing a face covering, a mask. And that, coupled with social distancing and hand-washing and avoiding crowds, really could be an enormous defense against this pathogen if we all did it. But we all had to do it.”
• [Trump was proud of what he has done, even if it was a failure. There is no difference. This administration’s record, and Dr. Redfield as a part of it, are abysmal failures. Period.]

Kelly: Last September, you testified before a Senate panel that masks were an effective tool to combat spread. Also, that a vaccine would not be widely available to the general public until summer or fall of this year, 2021. And a few hours later, the president came out, gave a press conference and contradicted you on both points. He said you were confused. Were you confused?

Redfield: No. I stand by my comments that masks are extremely effective and what I was trying to point out — if you had a vaccine, it was 50% effective and you were the half that it didn’t work in, your mask is your best shot.
• [Of course he wasn’t confused. But he also had no cojones to stand up and contradict – even diplomatically – what the President said. Dr. Redfield refused to be a stanchion for truth, and science.]

Kelly: “Dr. Rochelle Walensky, your incoming successor, in this piece that she published in The New York Times this week, wrote this: “Our team of scientists will have to work very hard to restore public trust in the C.D.C., at home and abroad, because it has been undermined over the last year.” She went on: “The gold standard for the nation’s public health — has been tarnished.” How would you respond to that?”

Redfield: “That’s just not true. The men and women at CDC are highly respected across this nation and around the world. Clearly, there’s no doubt that the lack of reinforcement and support from some individuals in the administration of the public health message had impact. But CDC continues to be the premier public health agency in the world.”
• [Of course it’s true! Because of what he’s done as the CDC Director, NO ONE has any confidence in the CDC anymore. Furthermore, he has politicized the agency, rather than maintaining its integrity of being an independent voice of health science and research.]

Kelly: So when the president came out and contradicted you and said, “[Redfield is] confused,” do you have an obligation then to stand up and say, no, sir?

Redfield: What I did was just repeat the position that I took, I didn’t change the position, I just repeated the position as I did for you just now. I think it would have been, you know, preferred as a nation in April when we recommended it — and I started wearing a mask and all of us at CDC did and the doctors within the coronavirus task force did — it would have been very helpful if that was reflected by civic leadership throughout our nation that they all embrace it at the same time rather than, unfortunately, what appeared to be, this critical public health measure somehow got used as a political football.
• [Refer to the previous commentary which stated in part that Dr. Redfield “had no cojones to stand up and contradict – even diplomatically – what the President said.”]

Kelly: When you say the CDC has done everything it could to get the right guidance out there, to get good public messaging out there, why did the CDC stop giving press conferences for critical months in the middle of the pandemic?

Redfield: Yes, you know, I’m very disappointed in that. Again, the reality is —
• [The “reality is” that you danced around a question during a committee hearing before the House in which Katie Porter, D-CA45 directly asked you THREE TIMES – even after you said as much in your testimony – if you wanted EVERYONE to get tested for COVID-19. Here’s the exchange: Porter: “Doctor Redfield, will you commit the CDC right now to using that existing authority to pay for diagnostic testing free to every American, regardless of insurance?” Redfield: “Well, I can say we’re going to do everything to make sure everybody can get the care they —” Porter: (interrupting) “Nope, not good enough. Reclaiming my time. Doctor Redfield, will you commit the CDC right now to using that existing authority to pay for diagnostic testing free to every American, regardless of insurance?” Redfield: “What I’m going to say is, I’m going to review it in detail with the CDC and the department.” Porter: “No. I’m reclaiming my time.” Porter then reminded everyone present that she and two colleagues had previously sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services seeking answers by a Wednesday deadline about how the agency planned to handle problems about lack of insurance with coronavirus testing — and the agency had already ignored that deadline. And she then accused Dr. Redfield of refusing to answer. Porter: “Will you commit to invoking your existing authority under 42 CFR 71.30 to provide coronavirus testing for every American regardless of insurance coverage?” Redfield: “What I was trying to say, is that CDC is working with HHS now to see how we operationalize that.” Porter: “Doctor Redfield, you don’t need to do any work to ‘operationalize.’ You need to make a commitment to the American people so they come in to get tested. You can operationalize the payment structure tomorrow.” Redfield: “I think you’re an excellent questioner, so my answer is yes.” Porter: “Excellent! Everybody in America hear that? You are eligible to go get tested for coronavirus and have that covered regardless of insurance.” Later, Representative Porter was asked about her exchange with Dr. Redfield before the committee, and she said in part that, “The CDC Director made that commitment today under oath. He was sworn in at the start of that hearing, and my job as a Congress member is to ask those tough questions and to extract those promises. That was a promise he made to the American people, and I intend to hold him to it.”]

Kelly: But you’re in charge of it. So why, when we went back and looked at the numbers. In January, you did 10 media telebriefings. In February, you did eight, and then it fell off a cliff. There were two in March, zero in April, zero in May. Why?

Redfield: I would say, you know, that ultimately the ability to do those briefings had to be cleared by the secretary of health’s office for us to be able to do those. That’s the system that’s in place under the current relationship between CDC and the secretary of health.
• [Pass the buck, please. It’s not my fault. “No, I don’t take responsibility at all. We were given a set of circumstances… it wasn’t meant for this kind of an event with the kind of numbers that we’re talking about.” Gee… where have we heard that before, eh? Goodbye, Dr. Redfield, and like was said about the recent departure of Betsy DeVos – another rat jumping off the sinking Trump ship – “Good riddance.” You will also be remembered as being THE WORST Director the CDC has ever had.]

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NOTE TO THE READER: Dr. Robert Redfield narrowly escaped being charged by the U.S. Army with scientific misconduct during the early 1990s when the Army was investigating HIV and AIDS, and the possibility of a vaccine to prevent its transmission. At the time, he was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army, and was stationed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Dr. Redfield purposely “cherry picked” data to support his hypotheses, and ignored those that did not. Other scientists were not able to reproduce his findings using his methods and techniques – a “gold standard” in science.

During that time, he was also found to be in violation of Army code of scientific conduct about his relationship with a AIDS nonprofit run by a prominent conservative evangelical activist who promoted abstinence-only solutions to the disease. Numerous news-reporting outlets – including Kaiser Health News, NPR, CNN, and Poz, a magazine/website exclusively about HIV – published articles expressing concerns about his 2018 appointment by the President, along with the concerns of many other professionals in the health sciences community, not only about his nomination because of the earlier problems associated with his tenure, but because of his lack of experience, having never led an agency, nor organization.