Moar Robert Redfield digs with moar sauce
Trump CDC appointee
Looks like lefties hate him for his support of “anti-gay” and “ultra-right Cristian” affiliations.
Looks like a Birx level fraud and possible sleeper.
Proponent of mandatory testing (context: AIDS in the 80’s)
>Dr. Redfield’s career has not been without controversy. As an early AIDS researcher, he proposed mandatory testing, a prospect that was opposed by many liberals and gay activists.
(disable javascript and you can bypass the nyt and lat paywalsl)
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/17/health/cdc-robert-redfield-director.html
>The military defends these rules as necessary to control the AIDS epidemic. “The reason we have done what we have done,” said Maj. Robert Redfield, of Rockville, Md., chief scientist for the Army’s AIDS research effort, “is that we think it’s good medicine–and it’s medicine that might work in the civilian sector, as well.”
>At Redfield’s urging, the Department of Defense began the world’s largest mandatory program of HIV screening in October, 1985. Since then, every recruit has been screened, and those whose tests are positive are barred from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. About 5 million soldiers and recruits have been tested, and 6,000 of those on active duty have shown up positive.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-03-12-mn-896-story.html
Loved by Fauci
>“Bob Redfield is a talented and committed physician/scientist who has steadfastly devoted the past three decades to the study and care of HIV-infected individuals,” adds Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and a leading HIV researcher himself. “He is highly regarded.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/03/trumps-pick-for-cdc-director-is-experienced-but-controversial/556202/
Accused of fraud by the Military (appears to have been swept under the rug).
>“Either he was egregiously sloppy with data or it was fabricated,” said former Air Force Lt. Col. Craig Hendrix, a doctor who is now director of the division of clinical pharmacology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “It was somewhere on that spectrum, both of which were serious and raised questions about his trustworthiness.”
…
>Hendrix, who was the director of an Air Force HIV clinical unit when he raised the concerns, said: “Two members of his [Redfield’s] team told me they had tried to replicate the analysis, but they couldn’t. When they tried to go to the Army, they said they were ignored.”
>After Hendrix couldn’t replicate the results, he drafted a letter to his superiors reporting the data problems.
>Hendrix said Redfield’s superiors initially told him not to send a letter detailing the concerns. Instead, the military scheduled a meeting with Redfield and other researchers so Hendrix could discuss the concerns. In the meeting, Hendrix recalled, Redfield acknowledged he had overstated how promising the results were.
>“I thought it was resolved,” said Hendrix, who said he later called Redfield to say he was proud to work in an organization that could openly discuss such concerns.
>However, Hendrix soon heard Redfield make the same inaccurate representations of the data at a conference and decided to file an official complaint requesting an investigation into scientific misconduct.
>An Air Force institutional review board also recommended that the Army launch an inquiry stating: “The committee agreed the information presented by Dr. Redfield seriously threatens his credibility as a researcher and has the potential to negatively impact AIDS research funding for military institutions as a whole.”
https://khn.org/news/research-misconduct-allegations-shadow-likely-cdc-appointee/
Africa and AIDS work
Ties to “Americans for a Sound AIDS Policy” (ASAP), founded and led by ultra-right conservative anti-gay activists Shepherd and Anita Smith. ASAP became the Children’s AIDS Fund, now Children’s AIDS Fund International (CAFI).
Dr. Redfield has been one of if not their closest allies in government; he served on ASAP’s board and he still serves on CAFI’s board today (as of 3/20/18, is not currently listed on their board)
sauce:https://www.poz.com/blog/concerns-robert-redfield-cdc