Tom Frieden
👤 PersonAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Absolutely.
Thank you, Eric.
Thanks so much, Eric.
The Cassandra Curse, actually the working title for the book, which I've worked on on and off for 10 years, was How to Break Public Health's Cassandra Curse.
And then I found out that most people hadn't heard of Cassandra.
So that wasn't going to be a very effective book title.
Cassandra was a priestess in Greek mythology, and she was blessed with foresight.
She could foresee the future and future tragedies that were going to strike.
But
She was cursed that nobody believed her when she prophesied those future tragedies, and so they all came to pass.
And that's been what we've been like in public health and actually as individuals also.
And breaking the Cassandra curse is part of the formula.
It is really an approach that's been proven that has saved millions, actually literally hundreds of millions of lives, and can save hundreds of millions more.
And it's really relevant for individual health as well.
And the approach, the formula is see Cassandra.
believe, create.
Three phases.
And the Cassandra curse is really part of the C phase.
We have to see the invisible threats that are coming at us that are going to kill us.
We also have to see the toxins that we can't see in our environment that may be poisoning us.