Thomas R Frieden - Page 10 (2024)

The plan calls for an initial investment of at least $15 billion — half of what President Biden initially proposed.

By Sheryl Gay Stolberg

Ciencia

Las mascarillas evitan que la gente transmita el coronavirus a otros, concuerdan los científicos. Pero un nuevo estudio no logró documentar la protección contra el virus entre quienes las usan.

By Gina Kolata

Dr. Thomas Frieden proposed uniform reporting guidelines for states. Experts said the C.D.C. should have done it months ago.

By Donald G. McNeil Jr.

Feature

The escalating crisis in Texas shows how the chronic underfunding of public health has put America on track for the worst coronavirus response in the developed world.

By Jeneen Interlandi

Vice President Mike Pence and the nation’s top health official, Alex M. Azar II, continued to assert on Sunday that reopenings in many states were not causing the sharp rises in coronavirus cases.

By Chris Cameron and Sheila Kaplan

On Politics With Lisa Lerer

We asked Tom Frieden, the former C.D.C. director, for some advice. It’s not all doom and gloom.

By Lisa Lerer

As the coronavirus spreads, the collapse of the project helps explain America’s acute shortage.

By Nicholas Kulish,Sarah Kliff and Jessica Silver-Greenberg

New York is more crowded than any large city in the country. That helps explain why it is the U.S. epicenter of the outbreak.

By Brian M. Rosenthal

The epidemic is now bigger in Europe, where governments aren’t used to giving harsh orders, and citizens aren’t used to following them.

By Richard Pérez-Peña

News Analysis

In an epidemic, suppression of bad news costs lives and eventually angers the public. The White House is in danger of repeating the error.

By Donald G. McNeil Jr.

Global health

“Polypills” of generic drugs may dramatically reduce heart attacks and strokes in poor countries, a new study suggests. Some experts still aren’t enthusiastic.

By Donald G. McNeil Jr.

Wednesday: The number of reported murders, rapes and robberies are lower, but reported hate crimes are up 64 percent compared with this time a year ago.

By Azi Paybarah

Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, who headed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for eight years, was also charged with forcible touching and harassment of a Brooklyn woman, the police said.

By Michael Wilson

Why do so many Americans kill one another, and how can the violence be stopped? The C.D.C. quit studying these and other questions over 20 years ago.

By Sheila Kaplan

The man who headed the C.D.C. under Obama will tackle new global health challenges, with $225 million from Gates, Bloomberg and Chan Zuckerberg

By Pam Belluck and Jan Hoffman

Sepsis is a leading cause of death, but many people don’t know about it. The Centers for Disease Control wants to make sepsis a household word.

By Roni Caryn Rabin

While keeping a close eye on Florida, the agency said there would be no money to fight a new outbreak if Congress does not allocate more soon.

By Sabrina Tavernise

TimesVideo

Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said there would most likely be additional isolated cases of mosquito-borne Zika, and offered preventive measures.

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The nonbinding guidelines by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention come after arguments with pain doctors and drug industry groups.

By Sabrina Tavernise

President Obama’s request for $1.8 billion has stalled, and concern was raised that Puerto Rico was “facing an uphill battle” with the virus.

By Donald G. McNeil Jr.

Dr. Thomas R. Frieden and Dr. Jonathan Mermin, the C.D.C.’s chief of AIDS prevention, paint a bleak picture of the fight against the disease in an essay in The New England Journal of Medicine.

By Donald G. McNeil Jr.

National Briefing | Science

A new job title — chief of laboratory safety — will be created at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the agency announced Wednesday.

By Donald G. McNeil Jr.

For a fleeting moment last spring, the epidemic sweeping West Africa might have been stopped. But the opportunity to control the virus, which has now caused more than 7,800 deaths, was lost.

By Kevin Sack,Sheri Fink,Pam Belluck and Adam Nossiter

Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, back from a weeklong trip to West Africa, said he saw hopeful signs in Guinea and Liberia, but there was ample reason for continued concern.

By Denise Grady

The international response to the epidemic, coupled with more effective action by local communities, has stopped its exponential spread in Liberia, the agency said.

By Helene Cooper

Travelers from Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone must report their temperatures and any symptoms daily.

By Donald G. McNeil Jr. and Michael D. Shear

The new protocols are based on procedures followed by the international aid group Doctors Without Borders.

By Donald G. McNeil Jr.

The C.D.C. director, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, underwent sharp questioning before a House committee.

By Michael D. Shear

First Draft

Members of Congress suggested that the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not grasp the gravity of the Ebola crisis. Or read the news.

By Alan Rappeport

TimesVideo

Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said he worries that the spread of Ebola in Africa could pose a long-term threat to America’s health care system.

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First Draft

Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health are about to face a grilling from Congress on their handling of the Ebola epidemic.

By Alan Rappeport

Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the nation’s top public health official, will probably face withering questions about his record during a congressional hearing.

By Sabrina Tavernise

TimesVideo

How the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been forced to adapt its response after multiple apparent protocol breakdowns in Dallas.

Carrie Halperin

With the announcement that a second nurse in Dallas had been infected, scrutiny of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital intensified as officials sought to calm workers and patients.

By Kevin Sack

Infection control experts say many American hospitals have improperly trained their staffs to deal with Ebola patients because they were following federal guidelines that were too lax.

By Donald G. McNeil Jr.

With a growing number of Ebola cases now documented in the United States, psychologists say the next few weeks are crucial in containing public anxiety.

By Benedict Carey

After a nurse at a Dallas hospital contracted Ebola, medical experts have begun to suggest that it might be better to transfer patients to designated centers with special expertise.

By Denise Grady

TimesVideo

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is monitoring other health care workers in Texas who may have been exposed to Ebola.

Reuters

Federal health officials will require temperature checks for the first time at five major American airports for people arriving from the three West African countries hardest hit by the deadly Ebola virus.

By Sabrina Tavernise

Passengers could have their temperature checked or be subject to detailed questioning, but health officials cautioned against more draconian measures like travel bans.

By Jad Mouawad

First Draft

Today, as President Obama is set to meet at the White House with his national security team and the nation’s top public health official, they are acknowledging they are weighing new steps to contain the Ebola crisis.

By Julie Hirschfeld Davis

The director said Thomas E. Duncan of Liberia was in critical condition as the police continued to scramble to contain the spread of the disease.

By Manny Fernandez and Brian Knowlton

Although Ebola is new to the United States, the goal of contact tracing is the same in any disease: Track down those who could have been exposed.

By Heather Murphy

Thomas E. Duncan, the first Ebola patient to develop symptoms in the U.S., is in serious but stable condition.

By Manny Fernandez and Norimitsu Onishi

TimesVideo

Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the infected individual came to the United States from Liberia.

Associated Press

Some doctors say outfits worn by caregivers need to be more protective than what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends.

By Catherine Saint Louis

A summit meeting of African leaders in Washington did not give priority to discussing the outbreak.

By Andrew Siddons

A moratorium imposed after two accidents at other labs that could have exposed workers to anthrax and H5N1 was lifted because the lab has passed safety inspections and its work is crucial, a spokesman said.

By Donald G. McNeil Jr.

The recent number of mistakes documented at federal laboratories involving anthrax, flu and smallpox viruses have contributed to a debate over lax government oversight at high-level containment labs.

By Denise Grady

Dr. Thomas Frieden told members of Congress that recent lab accidents involving flu viruses and anthrax were not isolated mistakes.

By Denise Grady

Recent revelations of safety breaches in the handling of dangerous microbes have created a crisis of faith at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

By Richard Fausset and Donald G. McNeil Jr.

After potentially serious accidents involving bird flu and live anthrax, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shut the Atlanta labs and halted shipments of infectious agents.

By Donald G. McNeil Jr.

Federal health officials say that the two cases are not related although both involve health care providers working in Saudi Arabia.

By Donald G. McNeil Jr.

Motherlode

Will new numbers change parents’ minds about the HPV vaccine?

By KJ Dell’Antonia

Health officials say there is only a “limited window of opportunity” to halt the spread of deadly hospital infections that resist even the strongest antibiotics.

By Denise Grady

People with mental illness are 70 percent more likely to smoke cigarettes than people without mental illness, two federal health agencies reported Tuesday.

By Pam Belluck

The season has been particularly bad for older people, but appears to have peaked, with reports of new cases declining in most of the nation.

By Donald G. McNeil Jr.

New studies have raised hopes for curbing transmission — if H.I.V. patients take treatment long before they feel sick.

By Donald G. McNeil Jr.

Scientist at Work: Dr. Thomas R. Frieden

The former New York City health commissioner has rapidly reversed many of the Bush administration’s policies at one of the world’s top health agencies.

By Gardiner Harris

An extensive review shows side effects no different from those of seasonal flu vaccines, health officials reported.

By Denise Grady

Children in several states, including New York, received nasal spray vaccines on Tuesday, as a top health official addressed fears about the disease and its prevention.

By Donald G. McNeil Jr.

There may be shortages in places and oversupply elsewhere when the campaign begins next month, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden said.

By Donald G. McNeil Jr.

New York State is alone among state and city health departments in mandating the vaccinations for influenza and swine flu.

By Donald G. McNeil Jr. and Karen Zraick

Statistics suggest that New York City’s long list of risk factors may encompass as many as one in three people.

By Anemona Hartocollis

Dr. Thomas R. Frieden has cut a high and sometimes contentious profile as New York City’s top health official.

By Gardiner Harris and Anemona Hartocollis

Dr. Thomas R. Frieden has cut a high and sometimes contentious profile as New York City’s top health official.

By Gardiner Harris and Anemona Hartocollis

Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the city’s 41st health commissioner, has been announcing the latest tally of swine flu cases in the meticulous, benevolent tones of the trusted family doctor.

By Anemona Hartocollis

Big City

Nobody panic. The government may be spending its last dime on the bailout package, but it’s apparently filthy rich with stockpiles of Tamiflu.

By Susan Dominus

An idea proposed and abandoned by Gov. David A. Paterson was revived by the city’s top health official in the New England Journal of Medicine.

By Anemona Hartocollis

Findings

The effects of reducing salt intake are unclear, but that won’t stop New York City.

By John Tierney

From a posting on Diner’s Journal in which Thomas R. Frieden, New York City’s health commissioner, answered readers’ questions about his plans to cut sodium in some prepared foods and fast foods.

Letters

To the Editor:.

Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, New York City’s health commissioner, is waging a campaign to lower the amount of sodium America eats.

By Kim Severson

In an effort to scare smokers into quitting New York City will begin distributing matchbooks carrying grisly images of decayed teeth and smoke-ravaged lungs.

By Sewell Chan

The number of New York City residents 50 and older who have undergone a colonoscopy has risen by about 50 percent in five years, city officials announced on Thursday.

By Dan Hurley

New York City’s health commissioner has sought to simplify the process that some doctors view as barriers, but lawmakers view as necessary.

By Sewell Chan

Push by New York City Health Commissioner Dr Thomas R Frieden to eliminate New York State requirement that patients give written consent before being tested for HIV is causing sharp rift among doctors and advocates for people with HIV and AIDS; under Frieden's proposal, doctors would be given option of obtaining oral consent for HIV test, pre-test counseling would be simplified and post-test counseling strengthened; Frieden believes that written consent is demonstrated barrier to adequate testing for HIV that New York, 'epicenter' of epidemic, cannot afford; many critics believe that current requirements for pre-test counseling and informed written consent force doctors to take time to ensure that patients fully understand medical condition and seek proper care; photo (M)

By Sewell Chan

New York City Board of Health withdraws proposal to allow people to alter sex on birth certificates without sex-change surgery; Health and Mental Hygiene Department and law enforcement officials raise concerns; city's health commissioner, Thomas R Frieden says proposal was not thought through properly (M)

By Damien Cave

New York City Board of Health votes to adopt nation's first major municipal ban on use of all but tiny amounts of artificial trans fats in restaurant cooking; also approves measure to require some restaurants, mostly fast food outlets, to prominently display caloric contents of foods on menu boards or near cash registers; Chicago is considering trans fat ban; action is victory for Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Health Comr Thomas Frieden; restaurant industry is fighting both regulations; violators will be fined at least $200; Wendy's chain has switched to soy-corn cooking oil and KFC says it will eliminate trans fats by next April; restaurants have until next July to eliminate trans fats and until July 2008 to remove all menu items that exceed new limits (M)

By Thomas J. Lueck and Kim Severson

New York City Health Comr Thomas R Frieden announces that plan to severely restrict trans fat in restaurant food will be revised to give restaurants more time to comply (M)

By Thomas J. Lueck

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention adopts more aggressive policy on HIV testing, saying it should become routine part of doctor visits; change poses challenge to New York, where state law is designed to protect privacy of people with HIV and AIDS; Thomas R Frieden, New York City health commissioner, is pushing for change in state law, but faces opposition from advocacy groups and key lawmakers; also at issue is informed consent; New York requires counseling before and after HIV test, but this is not included in CDC guidelines; photos (M)

Richard Pérez-Peña

New York City Mayor Michael R Bloomberg and Health Comr Thomas R Frieden unveil plan to identify and contain potential flu pandemic; say worst-case projection is for some 2.5 million New Yorkers infected and more than 56,000 deaths (M)

By Diane Cardwell

The city's health commissioner said he did not anticipate the need to quarantine vast numbers of flu victims, but isolation measures were included in the plan.

By Diane Cardwell

Health Comr Thomas R Frieden blames high pollen count for increase in emergency hospital visits for asthma in New York City; urges people to monitor symptoms, avoid activities like smoking and stay indoors (M)

By Toni Whitt and Colin Moynihan

New York City Comptroller William C Thompson Jr asserts in letter to city Health Commissioner Thomas R Frieden that Medical and Health Research Associates, nonprofit group that city has contract with, is shortchanging some residents of AIDS or HIV services; health department rejects charge (S)

By Sewell Chan (NYT)

New York City Health Commissioner Dr Thomas R Frieden announces plan to change New York State laws to more aggressively test and track people with HIV and AIDS; concerns over privacy rights have stopped any widespread changes in past, but widening support for management and reduction in cases of infectious illness may garner enough support for plan; New York City Mayor Michael R Bloomberg supports changes that include mandatory testing for HIV; Frieden holds that legislation has not kept pace with changing demographics of virus; photo (M)

By Marc Santora

PUBLIC LIVES

IN the reception area outside the supersize office of Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the small-of-scale envelope pusher who seems a perfect fit as New York City's health commissioner, sits an elegant metal bowl worthy of a Cézanne still life: all except for its contents. Rather than holding an arrangement of healthy fruit, or summery blooms, the bowl brims with condoms. Freebie condoms. Each is discreetly sheathed in white and, like a souvenir matchbook, stamped with a witty abbreviation: B.Y.O.C. Get the message? Visitors to 125 Worth Street apparently do. The bowl sees plenty of action and required a refill just this morning. The commissioner prefers it fully stocked.

By Robin Finn

New York City health department urges all city restaurants to stop serving food containing trans fats, chemically modified ingredients thought to greatly increase risk of heart disease; this first-ever request by large American city is latest salvo in battle against trans fats, components of partially hydrogenated vegetable oils which three decades ago were promoted as healthy alternative to saturated fats like butter; most scientists and nutritionists now consider trans fat to be America's most dangerous fat; estimated 30 to 60 percent of city's 20,000 restaurants use partially hydrogenated oil in food preparation; it is not clear how many of them will heed call from Health Comr Thomas R Frieden; McDonald's and some other fast food companies have pledged to use healthier alternatives but have faltered in finding solution that is both cost effective and that does not significantly alter taste of their foods; city will conduct survey next year to determine effectiveness of its campaign and assess what further steps might be needed; photo (M)

By Marc Santora

New York City Health and Mental Hygiene Dept celebrates its 200th anniversary; was born to battle outbreaks of yellow fever in 1805, and it has been the big threats, from smallpox to bioterrorism, that have fueled agency's growth, transforming it into biggest, most active and richest municipal health department; Dr Thomas R Frieden, current commissioner, comments; photos; graph; drawing (L)

By Marc Santora

THE DOCTOR'S WORLD

Report by Dr Thomas R Frieden, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene commissioner, on 46-year-old New York City man with rare and potentially serious strain of HIV has set off investigation into background of infection; challenges facing investigators discussed; many AIDS experts are concerned new and more virulent strain of HIV could mean significant rise in AIDS epidemic (M)

By Lawrence K. Altman

Health Comr Thomas R Frieden's announcement of discovery of possibly new and deadly HIV strain in New York City is met with wide skepticism; one group of scientists dismisses news as isolated to one man and unworthy of alarm or say not enough research has been done to warrant public health announcement; gay activists fear Frieden's use of announcement to emphasize safe-sex practices would set up gay men as culprits; ViroLogic, which did some of testing in case for Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, is accused of using case to promote its testing services; Dr David D Ho, one of doctors at Diamond Center who handled case, serves on scientific advisory board of ViroLogic; Dr Frieden says his actions were necessary given potential public health effects (M)

By Marc Santora and Lawrence K. Altman

New York City Health Dept, acting with added urgency after rare and possibly virulent strain of HIV is detected in city, is reorganizing its AIDS program to encourage more aggressive collection of crucial information about treatment and spread of disease; Comr Thomas R Frieden comments; photo (M)

By Marc Santora and Lawrence K. Altman

THE DOCTOR'S WORLD

Dr Thomas R Frieden, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene commissioner, warns public about discovery of one case of drug-resistant HIV infection, which rapidly progressed to full-blown AIDS; infected man had large number of sexual partners over short period of time; critics say Frieden did not have enough evidence of public health concern to go forward with announcement, but others acknowledge that there are benefits in notifying public about potential outbreak and hazards; specific case discussed; photo (M)

By Lawrence K. Altman

New York City health officials explain how they scounged about for scarce flu vaccine last fall, saying they are now finally ahead of curve as actual cases appear, and have enough vaccine for everyone over age 50; Comr Thomas R Frieden explains (M)

By Marc Santora

New York Police Dept, FBI and city's health department agree for first time on set of rules that will govern investigations of suspected biological attacks in city, detailing roles agencies will play as well as how confidential medical information is to be shared; accord resulted in part from lessons learned in New York during 2001 anthrax letter attacks, which killed five people in Florida and Northeast and infected over dozen others in months after Sept 11 strikes; it states that while law enforcement officials have lead in investigating terrorist crime, investigation must be conducted jointly with Health and Mental Hygiene Dept; accord was signed by Police Comr Raymond W Kelly, Health Comr Thomas R Frieden and Pasquale J D'Amuro, assistant director of FBI's New York office; their photos (M)

By Judith Miller

Dr Thomas R Frieden, New York City health commissioner, blames state for city's failure to hire more inspectors to monitor day care centers, many of which are regulated by state; says state bureacuracy, along with cumbersome Civil Service hiring rules and poor management within his own department, combine to cause shortage of inspectors; city hires inspectors, but cost of some of them is picked up by state (M)

By Mike McIntire

New York City and state officials say that only children under age 2, adults 65 and older and those with chronic health problems should be vaccinated for flu because of shortage of vaccines in US; businesses and clinics are being encouraged to suspend vaccination programs until most vulnerable have been served; city Health Comr Thomas R Frieden says situation is result of 'unacceptable' failure on part of federal government (M)

By Marc Santora

New York City Health Dept issues scathing portrait of its oversight of 9,400 day care centers in city two months after baby at one center in Queens suffocated under pile of toys in crib while two city inspectors ignore muffled noises; report calls its Bureau of Day Care bureaucratic maze riddled with problems that spell potential dangers for children; says it must expand its staff, raise training standards, tighten inspections and improve communications among its own people as well as with day care operators, parents, and array of city and state agencies trying to enforce bewildering labyrinth of regulations; report was commissioned by Health Dept Comr Thomas R Frieden after he learned of baby's death in Queens more than month after it occurred; Frieden fired director of Bureau of Day Care Donald Nolte and appointed Linda Vassall as acting director; Mayor Michael R Bloomberg declines to comment directly on report before reading it, but notes day care centers are governed by complex array of city and state rules and contracts (M)

By Robert D. McFadden

New York City Health Comr Thomas R Frieden fires Bureau of Day Care director Donald Nolte after learning that two city inspectors had visited day care center in Forest Hills, Queens, just hour before Matthew Perilli, baby who died, was found unconscious there; orders reorganization of bureau; says inspectors were unqualified and never saw 7-month-old baby who died; city officials say that other children piled toys on top of baby, suffocating or crushing him; Frieden says Heather Zlotsheuer, day care operator, violated city and state laws by watching as many as 12 children at once by herself (M)

Richard Pérez-Peña

Report finds New Yorkers are healthier than decade ago, although data suggest there may again be cause for concern about diseases like tuberculosis, syphilis and asthma; Comr Thomas R Friedan notes rise in syphilis is entirely among males and overwhelmingly among men who have sex with men, and that sexual disease chlamydia is also increasing; also discusses increase in childhood asthma; photo; Dr Irwin Redlener of Children's Health Fund says figures underscore lack of primary care in poorer communities (M)

By Marc Santora