Tom Frieden

But one of the things it did is to change vaccination against COVID, even for people over the age of 65, to what's called shared clinical decision-making.

That's only used if we're at equipoise and there is no evidence that it helps.

Mm-hmm.

That's nonsense.

There's a dramatic reduction in severe illness or death among people who get vaccinated and are over 65.

So that's an abdication of the government responsibility.

Again, I think simplicity is important.

And what I hope people get from the book is not just a message of hope, though I know we need that in this time, and it is that because we've made a lot of progress and we can make a lot more.

It's also a message of how.

how to make more progress, seeing the invisible and making it apparent, believing we can make progress, including making phased progress.

So step by step, you can build that confidence and cultivate optimism and then creating a healthier future with prioritized, simple, well-communicated practice.

initiatives, solutions that overcome the barriers that are always going to be there.

There are always going to be self-interested groups that block public health progress.

But for hundreds of years, we've been making progress.

And really, I mean, you know this so much better than I do, Eric.

We have amazing tools today.

We have the best diagnostics, the best medications, the best vaccines.

that humanity has ever had.

I'm pretty impressed with some of the artificial intelligence tools of making our work better, faster, and we have such potential to live long, healthy lives, to prevent most of the heart attacks and strokes that happen today, to avoid the toxic exposures that we're bathed in in our modern environment.

Well, I think there are probably a handful of things that we could do as society and a handful of things that we can do as individuals that would really bring our leading cause of death, heart attacks and strokes, down to much, much lower levels.