Remedy for disease and fear
Hiring Tom Frieden was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made—and one of the best decisions President Obama has made. Tom has the single most important quality that you want in a public servant: fearlessness. He is unafraid of big ideas, powerful interest groups or impossible challenges, and that’s why he has become the most influential leader in American public health since C. Everett Koop. In New York City, Tom spearheaded our push to ban smoking in bars and restaurants, which has been copied around the world. He led our efforts to ban trans fats and place calorie counts on the menus of chain restaurants, an idea that Congress later brought to the whole country. And as the head of the Centers for Disease Control, he helped keep the country safe from last year’s Ebola outbreak while also tamping down the political hysteria surrounding the issue. Tom has spent his career finding new ways to save lives, and we are lucky to have him in public service.
Bloomberg is the CEO of Bloomberg LP and a former New York City mayor