Dr. Gianna Talone-Sullivan interviews Dr. Robert Redfield about the Bird Flu pandemic.
Dr. Robert Redfield is a former CDC Director under the Trump Administration and the co-founder of HIV.
Dr. Robert R. Redfield's Bio
Dr. Robert R. Redfield has been actively engaged in clinical research and clinical care of chronic human viral infections and infectious diseases, especially HIV and chronic viral diseases, for more than 35 years. In 2018, Dr. Redfield was appointed as the 18th Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to oversee the agency’s domestic and global public health efforts including activities of all of the agency’s centers to include the Center for Preparedness and Response; the Center for State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Support, the Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory; the National Center for Health Statistics; the National Center of Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities; the National Center for Chronic Prevention and Health Promotion; the National Center for Environmental Health; the National Center Injury Prevention and Control; the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases; the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control; the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; the Center for HIV/AIDS Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention; the National Center for Global Health; and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Additionally, at the same time he was appointed as Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Registry.
Prior to CDC he served as the founding director of the Department of Retroviral Research within the Military’s HIV Research Program, and retired after 20 years of service in the US Army Medical Corp, when he co-founded the University of Maryland’s Institute of Human Virology with Dr. William Blattner and Dr. Robert C. Gallo. He served as Professor of Medicine, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, and as the IHV Associate Director and Director of the Division of Clinical Care and Research at the Institute of Human Virology, as well as providing leadership as the Chief of Infectious Diseases and Vice Chair of Medicine at the University of Maryland, School of Medicine. In 2021, Dr. Redfield has been appointed by Governor Hogan to serve as his senior public health advisor for the State of Maryland until 2023. Dr. Redfield also serves as a visiting senior fellow for biosecurity and public health policy at the Heritage Foundation. In addition, he is the president of R3 Enterprises and Consulting which provides strategic advice to health care, biotech, public health companies.
Dr. Redfield made several important early contributions to our understanding of HIV, to include the demonstration of the importance of heterosexual transmission and the development of the Walter Reed staging system for HIV infection, and the demonstration of active HIV replication in all stages of HIV infection. His present research interest is focused on targeting host cell pathways as novel strategies for the treatment and prevention of HIV infection and chronic viral pathogens. Previously he has served as a member of the US President’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS from 2005-2009, and was appointed as Chair of the International Subcommittee from 2006-2009. He is a past member of the Office of AIDS Research Advisory Council at the National Institutes of Health, the Fogarty International Center Advisory Board at the National Institutes of Health, and the Advisory Anti-Infective Agent Committee of the Food and Drug Administration. He also served a member of the Board for Operation Warp Speed responsible for bringing Covid-19 vaccines to public health practice in record time and he served as a member the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
While at the University of Maryland, Dr. Redfield also led extensive USG funded global HIV care and treatment programs, and vibrant global post-graduate medical education programs, which were active in 7 African countries and 2 Caribbean country, serving more than 700,000 people living with HIV. His commitment to global health continues now serving as president of PDTi, a new global vaccine and antiviral distribution company.
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