New CDC chief says agency “deeply committed to science”

New York City’s outspoken health commissioner was appointed to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday and sent a memo to employees that affirmed CDC’s commitment to science.

The two-page memo calmed some critics who had accused his predecessor of allowing politics to steer the agency’s work.

In making the appointment, President Obama described Dr. Thomas Frieden as an expert in preparing for and responding to health emergencies.

“His experiences confronting public health challenges in our country and abroad will be essential in this new role,” the president said.

Frieden’s two-page memo to employees, obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, outlined some of his priorities for the agency he takes over next month.

“The current administration is deeply committed to science,” Frieden said. “I look forward to renewing and strengthening that commitment with you.”

Critics had accused his predecessor, Dr. Julie Gerberding, of sacrificing science for politics and carrying the Bush administration agenda on global warming and other issues into the world of scientific research. She stepped down Jan. 20.

Gerberding’s defenders countered that she kept the agency above political concerns and expanded its mission to include bioterrorism research, combating AIDS globally and responding to national health threats.

Frieden’s memo also stressed the importance of “improving our health care system to increase access, affordability and quality.” He said prevention is a key component of health reform, and that the CDC must help reduce the health costs for America’s families, businesses and government.

Jeff Levi, executive director for Trust for America’s Health, a nonprofit public health advocacy organization, said he believes Frieden was sending a message to employees “signaling a new era.”

Frieden, 48, has served as New York City’s health commissioner for the past seven years. He spearheaded a campaign to ban smoking in restaurants and bars, boosted the number of New Yorkers getting HIV tests and helped to distribute millions of free condoms.

Frieden also spent 12 years at the CDC, five of which were working on tuberculosis in India.

His appointment as CDC director drew praise from numerous officials and public health advocates. Dr. David Sencer, who directed the CDC from 1966 to 1977, said there is no avoiding politics in the job. But he said Frieden has shown toughness in the face of such pressures.

“Anybody who can survive in New York City is going to be good,” Sencer said.

Levi, the healthcare watchdog, said Frieden could draw fire from both the left and right wings of the political spectrum.

Levi pointed to Frieden’s controversial stands on condom distribution, as well as his push to eliminate artificial trans fat from restaurant food in New York City, which led the New York Post to say he wanted to create a “nanny state on steroids.”

“He goes where the science takes him,” Levi said.

Frieden begins his tenure with the CDC still deciding how best to manage a swine flu outbreak, including whether to distribute a swine flu vaccine.

At a news conference in Queens on Friday, Frieden said that the virus appears “to be spreading more rapidly than traditional influenza spreads. … We don’t know why that is, but the fact that we have neither a vaccine nor experience being infected with this strain of influenza are likely explanations.”

Frieden’s appointment does not require Senate confirmation.

Since Gerberding’s departure, the top job at the CDC has been held temporarily by Richard Besser, who had headed the CDC office that focuses on threats from biological, chemical, natural, infectious and nuclear sources. He will return to that post.

The New York Times contributed to this report.