Tom Frieden

in the time management field, if I get a request for something, go to a meeting, give a talk, I used to show up at these talks and think, why did I agree to this?

And I realized, well, I agreed to it six or 12 months ago when it seemed like it was never going to happen.

So now when I get an invitation, I say, if it were tomorrow, would I do it?

And if the answer is yes, then I do it like this wonderful podcast.

But

Often, the answer is no.

If it were tomorrow, I wouldn't want to do it, but I would have said yes if I hadn't asked myself that question.

The same is true for health.

If we can use our rational brains or use our emotions to think of something as right here before us.

On a public policy, to give you an example of this, Philadelphia got a soda tax passed by –

including the revenue going for early childhood education.

So you give a short-term benefit in addition to the long-term benefit.

So a long answer to a short question.

Yeah.

So it really felt like the Cassandra moment.

We couldn't convince people to invest.

We couldn't explain how bad it was.

I had gone to West Africa or was going.

And in West Africa, I had to meet with folks and say, you know, we're not going to get aid here in time.

Cases are doubling every three weeks.