Dr. Eric Topol

what does the word dedication mean?

Well, if there isn't an example like this, I don't know of one.

So what a horrible situation to add on to what

happened you know just days earlier throughout this month of people being let go the budget being slashed and here you know the opportunities that lie ahead no less the worry that you know these ongoing outbreaks and the threat even of not just SARS-CoV-2 having a major another

variant that is like an Omicron or who knows whatever else that could happen on the infectious disease side, no less, of course, on the other side.

Now,

You've learned a lot of lessons before we go into the future, which I think is we're going to get back to exciting again.

How would you summarize this experience, this totally bizarre, you know, just irrational, you couldn't ever make this up, you know, that you would be given this position with the highest praise of the president, of the HHS secretary.

And then, you know, weeks later, after finally getting the Senate confirmation, you're out, you're watching this decimation of such an important public health agency.

And, you know, you went into it optimistically that somehow you could, with all your managerial experience and all this everything else, that somehow you could, you know, get this on the right plane.

What have you learned from all that?

Yeah.

Never lose it.

Well, if there is a model of resilience, you're shown that, and here you are smiling and exuding that same optimism, um,

that you had going into this post after all that you've been through.

Now, one of the other things, of course, that is notable is that in your positions, you've had infectious enthusiasm among your colleagues.

You inspire people, just like you were recounting in your first days of visiting the campuses in Atlanta.

So we lost not only 4,300 people,

from the CDC, but we lost an incredible leader who would have clearly inspired those people, even the ones that were remaining if they had to sustain these cuts, to take the CDC to a place it's never been before.

So I lament that loss.