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Robert R. Redfield | |
|---|---|
 Redfield in 2018 | |
| 18th Director of theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention | |
| In office March 26, 2018 – January 20, 2021 | |
| President | Donald Trump |
| Deputy | Anne Schuchat |
| Preceded by | Brenda Fitzgerald |
| Succeeded by | Rochelle Walensky |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Robert Ray Redfield Jr. (1951-07-10)July 10, 1951 (age 74) Bethesda, Maryland, U.S. |
| Education | Georgetown University (BS,MD) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch/service |  United States Army |
| Years of service | 1977–1996 |
| Rank |  Colonel |
| Unit | Medical Corps |
Robert Ray Redfield Jr. (born July 10, 1951) is an Americanvirologist who served as the 18th Director of the U.S.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Administrator of theAgency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry from 2018 to 2021.
Robert Ray Redfield Jr.[1][2] was born on July 10, 1951. His parents, Robert Ray Redfield (1923–1956, from Ogden) and Betty, née Gasvoda,[1] were both scientists at theNational Institutes of Health,[3] where his father was a surgeon and cellular physiologist at the National Heart Institute;[1] Redfield's career in medical research was influenced by this background.[3] His parents had another son and a daughter. His father died when he was four years old.[1]
Redfield attendedGeorgetown University,[4] and at college worked inColumbia University laboratories where investigations focused on the involvement ofretroviruses in humandisease.[citation needed] Redfield earned aBachelor of Science from Georgetown University'sCollege of Arts and Sciences in 1973. He then attendedGeorgetown University School of Medicine and was awarded hisDoctor of Medicine in 1977.[5][6]
Redfield'smedical residency was atWalter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC) inWashington, D.C., where he completed his postgraduate medical training andinternships ininternal medicine (1978–1980), as a U.S. Army officer. Redfield completed clinical and research fellowships at WRAMC, ininfectious diseases andtropical medicine, by 1982.[4]
Redfield continued as aU.S. Army physician andmedical researcher at the WRAMC for the next decade, working in virology,immunology andclinical research. He collaborated with teams at the forefront ofAIDS research, publishing several papers and advocating for strategies to translate knowledge gained from clinical studies to the practical treatment of patients afflicted by chronic viral diseases.[independent source needed][4][verification needed] During this time, Redfield received theSurgeon General's Physician Recognition Award in 1987, anhonorary degree from theNew York Medical College in 1989, a lifetime services award from the Institute for Advanced Studies in Immunology and Aging in 1993.[4][7][8]
During this time, Redfield served on the board of Americans for a Sound AIDS Policy (ASAP), which gay groups criticized for anti-gay, conservative Christian policies, such as abstinence-only prevention.[9] Redfield also authored the foreword to the 1990 book co-written by ASAP leader W. Shepard Smith, "Christians in the Age of AIDS", which discouraged the distribution of sterile needles to drug users as well as condom use, calling them "false prophets". The book described AIDS as "God's judgment" against homosexuals.[10]
Redfield retired from the Army in 1996 as acolonel.[11]
In 1992, the Defense Department investigated Redfield after he was accused of misrepresenting the effects of an experimentalHIV vaccine, the study of which he had overseen.[12][13][14] On the basis of this data, in 1992, the U.S. Senate gave a $20 million appropriation for a private company, MicroGeneSys, to develop a therapeutic HIV vaccine based on the proteingp160, which went into clinical trials.Randy Shilts, author ofAnd The Band Played On, wrote that the idea of a therapeutic vaccine was a radical idea that came to Redfield while reading his children a book aboutLouis Pasteur which he then discussed withJonas Salk who was in support.[15][page needed][verification needed] At the time a U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel, Redfield was the Army's leading AIDS researcher, and a proponent of the vaccine.
In July 1992, Redfield gave an abstract presentation on the vaccine at the international AIDS conference in Amsterdam. Based on preliminary results of 15 of the 26 patients who got the vaccine, Redfield said that the viral load of patients getting the vaccine was lower than patients who did not get the vaccine. Most researchers believe that viral load is a good indicator of vaccine effectiveness.[full citation needed] The vaccine later turned out to be ineffective. Many researchers, however, were skeptical of the data, and were unable to reproduce Redfield's analysis.[13][16] Craig Hendrix, a US Air Force scientist (now atJohns Hopkins) said that Redfield committed scientific misconduct by misusing data in studies of the vaccine.[17]
In 1993, a U.S. Army investigation acknowledged accuracy issues with the HIV vaccine clinical trials,[16] but concluded that their investigations "did not support the allegations of scientific misconduct,"[18][12] and he was subsequently promoted to colonel.[citation needed] Redfield is quoted inBig Shot: Passion, Politics, and the Struggle for an AIDS Vaccine, the comprehensive book on the controversy, as saying of his accusers, "I am disappointed in the institutions for not holding the individuals accountable for what I consider conduct unbecoming of an officer."[11][page needed]
Redfield continued studies of the gp160 vaccine; the results of the 27-author phase II clinical trial were published in theJournal of Infectious Disease in 2000, concluding that the vaccine was ineffective, withDeborah L. Birx as lead author.[19] Redfield's multi-site study was a collaboration between the Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health,[19] The work did not, however, result in an effective vaccine.[12]
The 1993 investigation said that Redfield had an "inappropriate" close relationship with the non-governmental group "Americans for a Sound AIDS/HIV Policy" (ASAP), which promoted the gp160 vaccine. The group was founded byevangelical Christians who worked to contain the HIV/AIDS outbreak by advocating for abstinence before marriage, rather than passing out condoms — a view Redfield says he's since changed.[18][20]
In 1996, Redfield, his HIV research colleagueRobert Gallo and viralepidemiologistWilliam Blattner co-founded theInstitute of Human Virology at theUniversity of Maryland School of Medicine. It is a multidisciplinary research organization dedicated to developing research and treatment programs for chronic human viral infection and disease.[3]: 417
At theUniversity of Maryland School of Medicine, Redfield served as a tenured professor ofmedicine and microbiology,[when?] chief of infectious disease,[when?] and vice chair of medicine.[when?][3] Redfield is known for his contributions in this period — inclinical research, in particular, for research into thevirology and therapeutic treatments ofHIV infection and AIDS. In the early years of investigations into theAIDS pandemic in the 1980s, Redfield led research that demonstrated that the HIVretrovirus could beheterosexually transmitted.[independent source needed][3][4][21][22] He also developed the staging system now in use worldwide for the clinical assessment of HIV infection.[3][4] Under his clinical leadership at the University of Maryland the patient base grew from 200 patients to approximately 6,000 in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., and more than 1.3 million in African and Caribbean nations.[23] His clinical research team won over $600 million in research funding.[24]
In the 2000s, Redfield was a prominent advocate for theABCs of AIDS doctrine, which promoted abstinence primarily and condoms only a last resort.[25]
While holding this position, he was interviewed for the 2009HIV/AIDS denialist filmHouse of Numbers.[26] Scientists interviewed for the film complained afterward that their comments had been taken out of context and misrepresented, and that, unknown at the interview times, the film promoted pseudoscience.[27][28]
Redfield served as a member of the President's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS from 2005 to 2009,[citation needed] and was appointed as chair of the International Subcommittee from 2006 to 2009.[citation needed] He is a past member of theOffice of AIDS Research Advisory Council at theNational Institutes of Health,[citation needed] theFogarty International Center Advisory Board at the National Institutes of Health,[citation needed] and the Advisory Anti-Infective Agent Committee of theFood and Drug Administration.[citation needed] In 2012, along withWilliam Blattner, he was named entrepreneur of the year at the University of Maryland.[29] In 2016 he was named the inaugural Robert C. Gallo, MD Endowed Professors in Translational Medicine.[30]
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Redfield became the Director of the U.S.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on March 26, 2018.[31] He was appointed to the post by President Donald Trump, after the president's first appointee,Brenda Fitzgerald, resigned in scandal.[32]
His appointment was considered controversial; he was publicly opposed by theCenter for Science in the Public Interest andPatty Murray, the ranking Democrat on the Senate health committee, but supported byKathleen Kennedy Townsend and some advocates for AIDS patients.[33][34][35][36] Redfield was criticized for maintaining close ties with homophobic activists,[9] although he has publicly supported the use of condoms and denied ever promoting abstinence-only interventions.[31]
In his inaugural address to the CDC, Redfield called the agency "science-based and data-driven, and that's why CDC has the credibility around the world that it has".[31]
In 2018, after Redfield was appointed to the CDC, Democrats and watchdog groups criticized his $375,000-a-year salary, which was significantly higher than the $219,700 salary of his predecessor,Tom Frieden, and higher than that of Redfield's boss,Alex Azar, theSecretary of Health and Human Services. Azar (a former president of a division ofEli Lilly) and the head of the FDA had taken significant pay cuts on moving into government service, but their salaries are set by Congress while the salary of the CDC Director is not.[37] Within a few days, Redfield asked for and received a pay reduction to $209,700 from $375,000 because "[he] did not want his compensation to become a distraction from the important work of the CDC".[38]
On January 8, 2020, Redfield was advised by the head of China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention that SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) was probably contagious among humans. Redfield did not warn the public at that time.[39] The first confirmed case ofCOVID-19 was discovered in the U.S. on January 20, 2020,[40] while Redfield was serving as director of the CDC. Redfield was a member of theWhite House Coronavirus Task Force from its start on January 29, 2020.[41]
On February 13, 2020, Redfield said that the "virus is probably with us beyond this season, beyond this year, and I think eventually the virus will find a foothold and we will get community-based transmission".[42] This contrasted with statements by President Trump, who, erroneously, told the public through most of February that the virus was under control.[43]
During February 2020, the CDC's earlycoronavirus test malfunctioned nationwide. Redfield reassured his fellow task force officials that the problem would be quickly solved, according to White House officials.[44] It took about three weeks to sort out the failed test kits, which may have been contaminated during their processing in a CDC lab. Widespread COVID-19 testing in the United States was effectively stalled until February 28, when the faulty test was revised, and the days afterward, when theFood and Drug Administration began loosening rules that had restricted other labs from developing tests.[45] Later investigations by theFood and Drug Administration and theDepartment of Health and Human Services found that the CDC had violated its own protocols in developing the faulty test.[44][46]
Redfield testified to Congress on March 2, 2020, about the outbreak of COVID-19 in the U.S. Given the lack oftesting on patients and healthcare workers requesting testing, Florida DemocratDebbie Wasserman Schultz asked Redfield about who was responsible to ensure testing could be performed on individuals who needed to be tested. Redfield could not name a specific individual and looked toAnthony Fauci, director of infectious disease at the NIH, who said, "The system is not geared to what we need right now... that is a failing."[47][48]
On April 6, 2020, to justify his belief that social distancing could be effective and that COVID-19 deaths would not be as high as models predicted, Redfield stated on AM 1030 KVOI Radio inTucson, Arizona, "those models that were done, they assume only about 50 percent of the American public would pay attention to the recommendations".[49][50][51]
On July 14, 2020, Redfield warned that the winter of 2020–2021 would probably be "one of the most difficult times that we've experienced in American public health".[52] He also said, "If we could get everybody to wear a mask right now, I really do think over the next four, six, eight weeks, we could bring this epidemic under control."[53] Trump, asked about Redfield's statements, said he opposed a mask law and said "masks cause problems too," but also said, "I think masks are good".[54]
On July 23, the CDC called for reopening American schools, in a statement written by a working group at the White House that included Redfield but had minimal representation from other CDC officials.[55]
Trump publicly contradicted Redfield on September 16, 2020, on the timeline for a COVID-19 vaccine and the effectiveness of masks compared with inoculation. Redfield told a Senate panel that a limited supply of a COVID-19 vaccine might be available in November or December, but that the general public would not be inoculated until the summer or fall of 2021.[56] Redfield also said that masks could be a more effective protection against COVID-19 than the vaccine. After Redfield's testimony, Trump told reporters, "I believe he was confused" and said a vaccine could be available in weeks and go "immediately" to the general public.[57][58]
In September 2020, Redfield sought to extend a no-sail order on passengercruise ships into 2021 to prevent the spread of COVID-19, but he was overruled by Vice PresidentMike Pence. The no-sail order was instead set to expire on October 31, 2020. Some of the severest early outbreaks of COVID-19 were on cruise ships.[59]
The CDC's actions during the pandemic have led to intense scrutiny of Redfield in congressional hearings and in media reports.[60]Laurie Garrett, a science journalist who is a former senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, called Redfield "about the worst person you could think of to be heading the CDC at this time" and said "he lets his prejudices interfere with the science, which you cannot afford during a pandemic".[61] William Schaffner, an infectious-disease specialist at Vanderbilt University, said "Bob Redfield's commitment to public health is completely strong," but said that Redfield has had trouble advocating effectively inside the White House.[62]Trump was said to like Redfield but to distrust the CDC.[62]
In a March 26, 2021, Redfield said that in his opinion the most likely cause of theCOVID-19 pandemic was alaboratory escape ofSARS-CoV-2, which "doesn't imply any intentionality", and that as a virologist, he did not believe it made "biological sense" for the virus to be so "efficient in human to human transmission" from the early outbreak.[63] In June 2021, Redfield toldVanity Fair that he received death threats from people who disagreed with his statements about the origin of COVID-19. He stated that he was targeted by fellow scientists and ostracized for offering this alternative hypothesis, and highlighted the rising tensions surrounding the virus's origins.[64]
In the political reappraisal of the pandemic, Redfield was heard on March 8, 2023, during a congressional hearing regarding the origins of COVID-19. Redfield reaffirmed his conclusion that the pandemic was caused by a leak from a laboratory (lab leak hypothesis). This conclusion was based primarily on the biology of the virus itself, including its rapid high contagiousness in human-to-human transmission. He stated that the virus was too capable of spreading between humans to be the result of a natural animal-to-human spillover (zoonotic hypothesis).[65][66]
Redfield stated that the biology of the virus, including its highinfectivity in human-to-human transmission, suggests that it originated in a laboratory throughgain-of-function research, in which scientists attempt to increase the transmissibility or pathogenicity. Redfield testified that gain-of-function research on high-risk viruses inWuhan have been funded byNational Institutes of Health, theState Department,USAID and theDepartment of Defense (DOD). The House of Representatives voted unanimously in favor of a bill mandating the release of information on the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.[67]
Redfield is married to Joyce Hoke, whom he met while delivering babies as a medical student when she was a nursing assistant.[68] They have six children and nine grandchildren.[68]
Notes
One of them is in the lab, and one of them, which is the more likely, ... is that it likely was below the radar screen in China, spreading in the community ... which allowed it, when it first got recognized clinically, to be pretty well adapted.
Bibliography
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| Preceded by | 18th Director of theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention 2018–2021 | Succeeded by |
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