In the midst of a pandemic that has killed over 200,000 Americans, many people are wondering: Can the Centers for Disease Control be trusted? Dr. Howard Frumkin was a top CDC official under President Obama and is deeply alarmed by the Trump administration’s unprecedented attacks on the nation’s premier public health agency. “I don’t think any of us has ever seen the level of political interference and manipulation at the CDC that we are seeing these days,” he says. “We have to hope and pray for the sake of our country and the world that the CDC gets back to its position as an independent scientific agency so that we can trust all the advice coming from there.” Frumkin, the former dean of the University of Washington School of Public Health, also discusses his new book, Planetary Health, which connects the climate crisis, extreme wildfires, health vulnerability in communities of color, and Covid-19.

Dr. Howard Frumkin, former director, National Center for Environmental Health, CDC; former dean, University of Washington School of Public Health, co-editor, Planetary Health: Protecting Nature to Protect Ourselves