Diff for "RedfieldsWarning"

• http://wiki.keithl.com/RedfieldsWarning

• 2025 Multco 362.1969 R315r 2025

Redfield's Warning

What I Learned (But Couldn't Tell You) Might Save Your Life

Dr. Robert R. Redfield . Former CDC Director

• no index, table of contents, chapter titles, footnotes, or references

• Skyhorse Publishing isn't the pinnacle of book publishing

• 18th CDC director 2018 March 26 to 2021 January 20 - - 33 months 25 days

• pvii Acknowledgements

• p001 ONE

• p008 Three people from Redfield's father's team won the Nobel Prize for medicine. ... "but when I was 5 years old, he died."
  • Robert Ray Redfield Sr. 1923-1956, surgeon and cellular physiologist

  • Obituary 1956 Jan 5

  • Redfield Jr. born 1951 July 10 so he was 4 years 5 months 26 days old when his father died

• p009 Teenage job 2 summers (what age?), labwork with Dr. Sol (not Saul) Spiegelman at Columbia

• p012 Walter Reed more service members with infectious diseases than killed or wounded in combat

• p016 Ibsen's 1882 "medical" play An Enemy of the People

• p017 at CDC 1981, patients with unusual symptoms ... HIV/AIDS

• p022 Walter Reed colleagues "reluctant" to treat AIDs patients (homosexuals and drug abusers)

• p025 TWO

• p025 3 Ebola outbreaks during Redfield tenure

  • in DR Congo, US cases were in 2014

• p026 Public perception AIDs is gay men and IV drug users, 30% of Redfield cases were women, 50% married, half of husbands infected
• p027 proof that AIDS virus a bidirectional transmitted disease, including heterosexuals
• p029 physicians should diagnose AIDs (all patients?), not people who are just HIV positive
• p029 not just a temporary condition
• p029 American Red Cross tested for AIDS, but did not inform infected donors. "right NOT to know" ???
• p030 Illegal to put positive HIV test in New York and California patient records
  • example of bleeding during childbirth, jeopardizing delivery team

• p030 Ibsen's An Enemy of the People

  • Redfield omitted "An" Enemy...
• p031 major Redfield told by general to not publicise HIV; Redfield responded with three options (1) fire me (2) tell superiors "message conveyed", (3) support me
• p033 Told AIDS convention that everyone infected would develop disease, booed by audience.

  • Wikipedia HIV article says prompt treatment zeros risk

  • Undetectable = Untransmittable

• p036 "generally accepted consensus" HIV entered humans eating SIV infected monkeys

• p045 THREE

• p045 1942-46 "Office of Malaria Control in War Areas" in Atlanta
  • mile-deep mosquito-free zones around 2200 military bases and factories in 32 mostly southern states and Caribbean.

• p047 CDC discovered causes of toxic shock syndrome and legionnaires' disease

• p050 CDC test exercise: Killer flu, not enough needles and syringes - should elderly go without?
  • As an "elderly", I'd accept a used/autoclaved syringe rather than no vaccine
• p051 policy recommendation: reduce vaccine development time to less than year

• p053 May 2018 - John Bolton disbands National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense

• p054 No overall CDC budget, Congress funds specific progeams

• p055 Cong. Tom Cole and Sen. Roy Blunt fought for $40M rapid response fund

• p057 NIH salary reduced from $375K to $165K by aggrieved HHS secretary Alex Azar who previously approved original $375K

• p058 50% of all infections occur in 48 counties, DC, and San Juan P.R.
• p058 Nicotine products used by 37% of high school students and 20% of middle school students

• p058 Juulpod 10x nicotine of one cigarette.

• p059 Azar controlled all CDC communications, tried to edit scientific publications, self-appointed on-air spokesman
• p061 2019 Dec 31, unexplained pulmonary illness in China, three families with multiple infections, first red flag
• p062 2019 September or October "huge respiratory illness outbreak in a Wuhan lab" CITATION NEEDED.

  • COVID-19 lab leak theory most scientists say zoonotic transmission from bats, to wild animals at Huanan Seafood Market to ~30 customers

• p063 no nosocomial infections

• p063 Redfield: "Every single one of them has been there" (the wet market)
• p064 Jan 11 China officially announced first death from this disease

• p065 FOUR

• p067 It's not a sin to be wrong in science ... but hypotheses must be debated and tested. Data shows right or wrong.

• p068 Diamond Princess 3700 passengers, floating petri dish

• p069 new and different virus, almost half of infections asymptomatic
• p069 asymptomatic patients weren't tested.
• p070 mid-February 14 cases and no deaths. Statisticians predicted 2.2 million deaths by September
• p073 Early March $7.8B congressional appropriation for public health agencies and $0.5B for vaccine research
• p073 80% of all cruise ships at sea had outbreaks
• p075 Trump partial travel ban, prohibiting non-American entry from Europe
• p075 March 14 No Sail Order for 150+ passenger ships

• p077 "no evidence that school children were bringing home infections" wrong

• p077 Fauci, Brix, Azar, and Redfield disagreed about COVID. "Government absolutely needs to speak with one voice", which Redfield assumes is his
• p079 Fauci 2020 March "I can say we will see more cases, and things will get worse than they are right now"
  • at the time, 1000 cases and 31 deaths. 9As of 2026 March, 103M cases and 1.2M deaths)
• p081 Focus became avoiding 2.2M deaths
• p082 North Carolina refused CDC research. Many crowded Hispanic food workers, 44% of cases in 10% of population
• p083 New York first confirmed case March 1; March 27 23K cases and 265 deaths, April 6 72K cases and 2500 deaths
• p084Wrong belief: SARS-like, if infected also symptomatic
• p085 Miscommunication put many infected patients in nursing homes
• p085 "Many people don't like to admit" that staff working multiple nursing homes carried infection with it.
  • or, some powerful people make hasty statements that are easily misinterpreted

• p087 FIVE

• p088 Medical personnel gloved, worried about AIDS from blood on hands, real risk was needles and cuts.
  • Retractable needles and shatterproof tubes better for safety

• p089 cordon sanitaire term originated 1821, Redfield attributes it to "black plague", another name for the 1347-1353 Black Death

• p090 isolating patients understood before 1800s, sanitation later

• p090 Florence Nightingale 1860 notes on nursing

• p091 American Expeditionary ForceS brought influenza to Europe

• p091 Named Spanish Flu because other nations censored death tolls

• p092 spitters fined one dollar, 50% of unskilled daily wage
• p094 2020 COVID CDC guidelines similar to 1919 Spanish flu medical/isolation guidelines
• p095 Guideline distancing of 6 feet compromise, Redfield favored 3 feet and hand washing
• p096 scientists confirmed that talking, sneezing, coughing or yelling could propel particles as much as 6 feet

• p097 anticontagionist movement during 1793 yellow fever epidemic

• p097 anticontagionist evolved into health freedom movement

  • CITATION NEEDED. Health freedom encompasses many different (and often conflicting) ideas, such as supplements

• p098 Friendly Botanic Society 1810 to 1860-

• p098 Anti-Mask League

• p101 Redfield opposed school closures. Valid for elementary schools with small class sizes but not older students and larger classes. More unreferenced Redfield opinion

• p102 Redfield supported billions of dollars for better ventilation and air purifiers. Great idea, in an alternate universe where production lines multiply exponentially as fast as virus does. Instead, production stopped from lockdowns, labor shortages, and lack of raw materials.
• p103 opinionated falsehoods on the internet feed confirmation bias
• p104 Public health collapse in NYC (8% mortality rate), Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans, other cities
• p104 came down hard on crowded bars, shouting sprayed particles

• p105 radiologist Scott Atlas headed Trump COVID task force, promoted herd immunity; public not encouraged to test

• p106 Redfield respected Birx, Fauci, several others focused on saving lives, not the next election
• p106 Atlas represented administration running for re-election
• p107 Fauci, Brix, FDA Commissioner Steve Hahn, Surgeon General Jerome Adams and others collaborated. Barred from public statements, but communicated back channel.
• p107 15 day pause bought time, saved a few lives until a vaccine

• p109 SIX

• p110 Benjamin Franklin's 4yo son Francis weak from dysentery, not inoculated for and died from smallpox to Franklin's lifelong regret

• p111 no HIV or lifelong influenza vaccine, Redfield feared a COVID-19 vaccine would take years
• p111 BioNTech (spelled BioNTeach in book) lipid nanoparticle mRNA vaccine

• p112 2020 March 27 Operation Warp Speed mission: vaccine for public by 2021 January

• p113 Viral vector vaccine worked for Ebola, AstraZeneca and Johnson&Johnson developed these COVID vaccines

• p115 Wash your hands and stay home ... morphed into washing everything entering home

• p116 17th century beak nose doctor mask filled with aromatic substances

• p117 Dr. Alice Hamilton urged masks in surgery

• p117 Wu Lien-teh inventor of respiratory mask, protected physicians during 1910 Manchurian pneumonic plague outbreak

• p118 CDC recommended masks for infected people until symptoms gone
• p120 In private, Trump disagreed with Redfield but didn't challenge
• p121 asthma + Covid deaths are Covid deaths

• p121 Obesity big cause of COVID deaths; 30% of Americans overweight, Koreans are 3% . Trump did not like that answer

• p122 Trump wouldn't wear mask
• p123 Trump attacked Biden for wearing a mask
• p123 Overuse of masks provided ammunition for anti-maskers, damaging to children learning to communicate

• p124 Large rallies without masks, Herman Cain agreed, COVID diagnosis a week after a Trump rally, died

• p124 untested people kept away from Trump
• p125 until an early October White House ceremony, afterwards both Trump and Melania diagnosed with COVID
  • Trump was 73yo and overweight (BMI 30.5 is obese)
• p126 Released from hospital, "maybe I'm immune? ... don't let it dominate your lives" Trump was so sick he needed oxygen, but treated with $$$$ monoclonal antibodies
• p127 flashback: after China shutdown, Redfield tells Trump to stop air traffic from Europe. Brix and Fauci agree
• p128 Brix and Fauci agree, Mnuchin disagrees. Trump says we can rebuild the economy, but not lost lives.
• p129 Unlike WW2 allies, in this battle there were too many camps with different agendas.

• p131 SEVEN

• p131 November: Pfizer mRNA vaccine stage 3 trials show 95% efficacy.
• p133 days later, Moderna vaccine trials show 94.5% efficacy/
• p133 Ventilators didn't save lives, because patients had underlying conditions and were already critically ill
• p133 Strong steroids helped (HOW MUCH?)
• p134 Prone patients breathed easier
• p134 Tried Vitamin D on patients, no significant effect
• p135 Russian study, 7 years 320,000 patients found several vaccines reduced flu mortality . CITATION NEEDED

• p137 Remdesvir for COVID "compassionate use", mixed results at best

• p138 Hydroxychloroquine approved for limited use, Trump actively supported it

• p139 experts said little evidence of any effect
• p140 numbers hazy, thousands may have died from taking hydroxychloroquine . CITATION NEEDED
• p141 Trump wondered aloud whether people should drink bleach to treat COVID

• p142 antiparasitic ivermectin lauded on "snake oil" internet

• p143 Australian in vitro test used 10x doses that would kill humans

• p146 politics of Covid more important to Health secretary Azar than the science

• p146 Azar demanded censorship of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

• p150 Then Azar's team falsely publicized Redfield's agreement to their inaccurate changes
• p150 Country split, listening only to those they agreed with politically.

• p151 EIGHT

• p152 met with airlines, all planes changed from horizontal (all passengers breath the same air) to vertical ventilation, making "air travel extremely safe".
• p153 Administration wanted to reopen cruise industry while COVID was still spreading

• p153 Data showed that every infected passenger on Diamond Princess infected 15 others, 4 times the Wuhan rate

• p153 Public health experts proposed 60 conditions for ships to meet; frequent testing, one week cruises, enforced six foot social distancing, no buffets or self-service food. Cruise lines caved.
• p154 Sweden no mandates, higher percentage of COVID deaths than neighbors
• p155 Scott Atlas: teens share disease, "develop herd immunity" ... and spread the disease among everyone else

• p155 Great Barrington Declaration

• p156 no durable immunity to new COVID variants
• p156 Herd immunity usually requires 90% or more infection for an invariant disease, Atlas claimed 30% was enough

• p157 Michael Osterholm "the most amazing combination of pixie dust and pseudoscience I've ever seen."

• p159 WHO director general Tedros Ghebreyesus "Never in the history of public health has herd immunity been used as a strategy for responding to an outbreak, let alone a pandemic"

• p162 objections and death threats from prominent scientists after telling CNN that the disease originated in China
• p163 Trump: "by attacking you they are trying to get at me."
• p164 Bat virus in Yunnan closest (90%) relative to COVID
• p164 median age for infection is 50
• p165 asymptomatic transmission caised most new infection, air suspends virus for considerable amount of time

• p165 Long COVID common, from 7.5% to 20%

  • symptoms vary widely, include brain fog, muscle weakness, mental impairment, shortness of breath, joint pain, loss of smell and taste, even loss of speech. Standard medical tests don't find them, so attributed to psychological problems.
• p166 After Biden, Redfield to private practice, treated many Long COVID patients, similar neglect to early AIDS patients
• p167 All Redfield's AIDS patients died, all his later long COVID patients survived
• p168 started treating patients with three different anticoagulants
• p168 In 2025, COVID still kills 200 Americans per week
• p169 Mississippi imposed fewest restrictions, 5x per capita death rate of strict restriction Massachusetts
• p169 New York, mixed mask response, 40,000 deaths. Similar sized Hong Kong, universal mask adherence, 16 deaths.
• p171 School districts that spent most of 2020-21 remote fell behind half a grade in math, most of year in person "just over 1/3 of a grade". Difference less than 1/6 of a grade, in one class. What was the relative death rate?

• p175 NINE

• p175 Army gave Redfield 17 vaccines in one day, gets all regular vaccinations

• p176 Dr. Thomas Francis confirmed that influenza viruses mutate to escape immune systems, updated vaccines required

• p178 "how did vaccine happen so quickly?" ammunition for vaccination skeptics.

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