In our continuing series honoring whistleblowers, Ralph welcomes winner of the Joe A. Calloway Award for Civic Courage, Dr. George Luber, former head of the Centers for Disease Control’s Climate Health program, who despite pressure from the newly-minted Trump Administration, blew the whistle after refusing to cancel a convention on how the climate crisis was affecting public health.
The CDC’s Culture of Fear
Ralph Nader Radio Hour
Ralph Nader
4.8 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 9 November 2019
⏱️ 68 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
George Luber is an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. His research interests include the health impacts of environmental change and biodiversity loss, harmful algal blooms, and the health effects of climate change. Dr. Luber headed the CDC’s climate health program until it was eliminated in 2018 by the Trump White House. The nation’s premier health protection agency continues to retaliate against him for speaking out on the climate crisis and its public health effects. He has since filed for whistleblower status with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel and has just received the Joe A. Calloway Award for Civic Courage.
“The most frightening thing, actually, is that somebody would make a decision like this in anticipating the potential blowback from the [Trump] Administration. That to me is frightening, because it’s the most insidious form of power. And when you can get people to do things for you without even asking them, that I think is the most frightening thing. To get people to act on your behalf in ways that they normally wouldn’t merely out of fear of what you might do.”
Dr. George Luber, winner of the Joe A. Calloway Award for Civic Courage
“I was escorted by armed guards when I needed to get some books out of my office [at the CDC]. I had an armed escort and they asked me to come at 11:00am – the height of the day when everybody is around intending to humiliate me – and marched me through our large ten story office building with a large armed guard behind me that even followed me to the bathroom.”
Dr. George Luber, winner of the Joe A. Calloway Award for Civic Courage
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| 0:00.0 | It's the Ralph Nader Radio Hour. |
| 0:05.0 | Stand up, stand up. |
| 0:07.0 | You've been sitting way too long. |
| 0:10.0 | Welcome to the Ralph Nader Radio Hour. My name is Steve Scrovan along with my |
| 0:17.3 | co-host David. Hello there David. Hello everybody another important show |
| 0:21.3 | this morning. Yes indeed and to help us through |
| 0:24.7 | that is the man of the hour Ralph nader hello there Ralph |
| 0:27.2 | hello everybody we're gonna show what heroism is really about that That's correct. |
| 0:33.0 | Today we continue our series on whistleblowing on the show we're going to feature a winner of the |
| 0:37.3 | Joey Calloway Civic Courage Awards. |
| 0:39.5 | Ralph, why don't you tell us what the Joey Callaway awards are and how they came about? |
| 0:45.0 | That's quite a story. |
| 0:45.8 | Joe A Callaway was an impresario on Broadway and he wanted to leave some of his estate to good works and he figured out that one would be a annual |
| 0:58.4 | award for people demonstrating civic courage, not political, not business, not military, civic courage in our |
| 1:07.6 | country who are unsung, often shoved aside from their employment and mistreated. |
| 1:14.8 | And so he contacted us by a letter, |
| 1:17.0 | and my sister Clarinator has been administering |
| 1:20.3 | these awards for the last 30 years. This is the 30th anniversary. |
| 1:25.0 | And Joe Callaway stipulated that he wanted the award to go |
| 1:29.0 | not only to people who demonstrated civic courage, but did so at some personal risk, like they risk their job, |
| 1:37.4 | they risk their career, they risk their sustenance, whatever. And that stipulation has brought forth some of the finest people one could ever meet, |
| 1:48.0 | all over the country, taking their conscience to work, blowing the whistle, risking their careers, and trying to save lives, prevent injuries, prevent disease, save taxpayer money, and generally try to keep the country on straight and narrow path of moral |
... |
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