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KQED's Forum

Former CDC Director Tom Frieden on Countering a Public Health Assault

KQED's Forum

KQED

News Commentary, News, Politics

4.2727 Ratings

🗓️ 30 September 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Dr. Tom Frieden, who led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under President Obama, is sounding new alarms about the direction the agency is heading. Frieden says that since taking office, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has “followed a consistent playbook: deny, distract, and destroy” by promoting vaccine misinformation, linking Tylenol use to autism and firing some of the CDC’s most competent professionals. We’ll talk to Frieden about how he thinks science can prevail over falsehood. His new book is “The Formula For Better Health: How to Save Millions of Lives, Including Your Own.” Guests: Dr. Tom Frieden, former director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - author, "The Formula for Better Health: How to Save Millions of Lives-Including Your Own" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:27.3

From KQED.

0:32.6

Music From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Mina Kim. Coming up on forum, Dr. Tom Frieden, who led the Centers

0:51.2

for Disease Control and Prevention for eight years under President Obama

0:55.2

is sounding the alarm about recent shakeups at the CDC and the direction the agency is taking

1:01.2

under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., linking Tylenol use to autism, for example,

1:07.5

undercutting confidence in vaccines and firing scientists. Frieden says the assault

1:13.3

on public health is leaving Americans less safe. His new book is called The Formula for Better Health.

1:19.1

He joins us after this news. Welcome to Forum. I'm Mina Kim. President Trump, on his social media platform Friday again urged pregnant women not to take Tylenol after linking it to autism earlier last week.

1:43.5

I want to say it like it is, don't take Tylenol. Don't take it if you just can't, I mean,

1:50.5

it's a fight like hell not to take it.

1:53.5

Trump also called the measles mumps and rubella vaccine bad and should be broken into separate

1:58.3

shots, among other statements.

2:07.2

As the President and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., make recommendations that contradict medical science,

2:09.6

were joined this hour by Dr. Tom Frieden.

2:15.6

He's an infectious disease and public health expert, and former CDC director under President Obama,

2:19.4

who worries about the agency's shift away from evidence-based policies and the recent purge at CDC. He also has a new book, The Formula for Better Health,

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