October 3, 2025 • 11 mins
Drawing from decades leading New York City’s health department after 9/11, directing the CDC during the Ebola epidemic, and fighting tuberculosis and other lethal threats in India and around the world, Thomas Friedman wants you to protect your own health, safeguard your community, or solve seemingly impossible health challenges.
In his book, Thomas Frieden combines compelling stories with insider knowledge to show you how to win the battle for health. He also bridges the lethal gap between scientific knowledge and life-saving action. Dr. Frieden speaks with Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec on Bloomberg Businessweek Daily.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. This is Bloomberg BusinessWeek
with Carol Masser and Tim Steneveek on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
The US government shutdown and its impact on public health
has started to set in. Federal health agencies began operating
on a much smaller scale. More than thirty two thousand
workers were furloughed at HHS. The CDC is open, but
communications to state and local health departments around prevention of
HIV and opioid overdoses has stopped.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Infectious disease surveillance data is still being compiled by analysis
and reporting to the public will stop. The US is
currently in a record breaking Musles outbreak and the CDC
reports cases every Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Doctor Tom Frieden is former director of the CDC, also
former Commissioner of the New York City Health Department. He's
also the President's CEO of Resolved to Save Lives. It's
a global health organization which funds epidemic preparedness and other
health initiatives and countries throughout the world. We should knowe
Carol that Resolve to Save Lives has received funding from
Bloomberg Philanthropies, the philanthropic arm Bloomberg LP, the parent company
(01:06):
of Bloomberg Radio, and doctor Freeden is a long standing
partner of Bloomberg Philanthropy.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
It's also got a new book out. It's called The
Formula for Better Health, How to Save millions of lives,
including your own. Doctor Freedin joins us from New York.
Doctor Freeden, great to have you here with Tim and
me on Bloomberg Businessweekdaily. What is this moment in public health?
Speaker 4 (01:26):
This is an unprecedented time. Public health is under assault.
And what that means for each of us is that
our health is less safe and secure. Whether there's a
food contamination in food at the local supermarket, or an
outbreak of an infectious disease or a new toxin in
(01:46):
the environment, our defenses are down. We're disarming against a
world of health threats, and that puts all of us
and businesses on a less safe footing.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
So if the global pandemic that we all lived through,
not everyone lived through unfortunately, as we all know, in
twenty twenty and for years, you know, it took a
while to come out of it and some are still
dealing with it. If that happened today, would you say
we would have a much more dire situation.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
We're definitely less prepared than we were before the pandemic,
and we weren't well prepared then. The book that I've
just released this week, and I should say all of
the proceeds from that book will go to support programs
that support health around the world, outlines an approach it's proven,
(02:40):
it has saved millions of lives, and it can save
millions more. The approach is see, believe, create, see the
health threats and the path to progress, believe that we
can make progress toward a healthier future, and then work
systematically to create that future. And the shutdown and more broadly,
the attacks on public health that we have seen over
(03:01):
the last nine to ten months are undermining all three
of those components. We're losing our ability to see health threats,
we're losing confidence that we can do great things in
this country and stop cancer and heart disease with real interventions,
not performative stuff. And we're risking the creation of a
healthier future. But there's still plenty of hope. We can't
(03:24):
replace the federal government, but state governments, local governments, organizations
around the world, academics can do a lot to protect
and improve.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Health there's where I wanted to push back because I think,
you know, there are folks like, how many stories have
we done over the years, over the decades, how much
America spends on healthcare develop nation, and yet our health
outcomes are not great compared to other developed nations. And
in terms of what they SPECSS.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
Care care, that's not public health, that's healthcare. We have
a wasteful health care system and we have an underinvested
public health system.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Interesting because you know what someone will say that sometimes
you have to disrupt something to even make it even
more productive and better.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
Yeah, in business, that may work. In government, if you
want to make something better, you make it better, you
don't destroy it. And what we're seeing now is destruction,
just wanton destruction. Half of CDC's National Center is disbanded,
more than two thousand staff with no rhyme or reason,
basically discharged. You know, they're saying they want a healthy America.
(04:27):
They're saying they want to take on chronic disease, but
they've ended the chronic disease prevention programs at CDC that
led the progress against things like tobacco, and there has
been progress. We've seen tobacco use rates fall by more
than seventy five percent over the last decades. We've seen
big reductions in birth defects, for example, through CDC action
(04:48):
on things like folate supplementation and folate fortification. So there's
a lot of progress that's at risk and more progress
that's not going to happen unless we use a focused
approach to see the path forward to systematically work. And
I agree we shouldn't just put back what's there. We
need to build forward to a more connected, faster, more
(05:11):
practical public health and healthcare system that really delivers results.
Our healthcare system is a disgrace. We spend four and
a half trillion dollars on healthcare in this country and
we have a worse health status than any other high
income country for twice the per CAPITI is spending. But
that's not over investment in public health. So why poor
investment in healthcare? Then?
Speaker 2 (05:32):
How do we bridge these things? How do we create
better outcomes here in the United States? Given how much
money we spend on healthcare. Because even though you made
that distinction to us, and you made that distinction to
our audience, I don't think Americans think of these things
in different ways. They think health they think healthcare, they
probably lump everything together.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
Prioritize, simplify, communicate, and overcome barriers. That's the create part
of the formula to save millions of lives. And what
I mean by that is whether it's in public health
where simple things like taxing tobacco and sugary drinks, or
eliminating pollution of PM two point five and p fash
(06:13):
that you were just talking about that still contaminates half
of the water in the US. That's a public health
thing and everyone benefits from that, or in healthcare, focus
on what really matters. I'll give you the single most
important thing and maybe this is the most important personal
health thing from the book as well. Blood pressure. Everyone says, oh,
I know about it. Actually, healthy blood pressure is less
(06:33):
than one twenty over eighty even with the target of
one forty over eighty the US healthcare system for more
than ten thousand dollars a person doesn't get that right
even half the time. More than half of people in
this country with high blood pressure don't have it controlled,
and because of that they have heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure.
That's expensive. We need to fix healthcare, and we're going
(06:55):
to do that by changing the way we pay for
healthcare so that it pays for healthcare systems to prevent disease.
Right now, it pays for them not to prevent disease.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
I will I will point out on the tobacco side
of things, doctor Fridan, a proposed ban on mental cigarettes
and flavored cigars was withdrawn by the Trump administration.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Carroll.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
This was just four days into his second term, so
this was something that had been proposed early.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Oh, Tim, the whole Tim, the entire CDC unit, hundreds
of staff that do tobacco control were all fired. They
run ad campaigns, they support state quit lines. This is
not stopping chronic disease. This is opening the door for
chronic disease and saying this is not deregulation, it's open
season on our lungs.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Doctor Freeda, I wonder what you think about the obcitug drugs,
the GLP one drugs. Do you think that wider use
of them would bring big, big, big societal benefits. Are
you concerned about potential side effects maybe longer term or
the society societal impact of massive reliance on what you
know is a prescriptive medicine.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
It's not either or we can tax soda and scale
up use of effective drugs. I will say the GLP
one agonists are big breakthrough drugs. They're remarkably effective, but
they're not quite ready. Two thirds of people stop taking
them within a year. They're injections. They have nasty side effects.
So over the coming years, I think we'll see pill
(08:21):
forms of those. I think we'll see them more tolerable
by people, and they do have major benefits, not just
on weight, but on many other outcomes, as do some
of the other new categories of drugs, the SGLT two inhibitors.
There's some great new drugs. There's reasons to be optimistic.
We have better tools to support health than ever in
human history. But we need to get away from fictions,
(08:44):
from misinformation, from disinformation, from simplistic stuff that we see
coming out of this administration, to seeing the actual threats,
seeing the path to progress, systematically strengthening belief by scaling
up programs that work, and working together to create a
healthier future.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
You know, one thing that we've talked quite a bit
about over the last not even two weeks at this
point is the president as a messenger when it comes
to health. And I think of the press conference that
he gave last week about Thailand all and pregnant women
taking Thailand all. And I'm just wondering how you view
him as a messenger for public health.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
I really hope people will get their medical advice from
doctors and nurse practitioners, not from politicians and trial lawyers.
There were parts of what the President and mister Kennedy
said that weren't wrong, but that was a wash in
a sea of falsehoods and misinformation. It is certainly the
case that we say to all pregnant women avoid medications
(09:45):
unless absolutely necessary. On the other hand, fever has a
lot of bad implications for the baby, and pain makes
pregnancy much less successful. So you really want to have
your meta advice from doctors. Tail and all is the
safest of all of the fever reducing pain reducing medications,
(10:06):
Safer than aspirin, safer than ibuprofen or other non steroidals.
So don't get your medical advice from trial lawyers, and
don't get it from people who are selling you anything.
And as I said, the proceeds from this book, The
Formula for Better Health, will all go to supporting health
programs around the world. What I try to do is
cut through the hype, the sloppy thinking, the grifting to
(10:27):
what really matters. And you know, here's one thought for you. Yeah,
risk walk outdoors thirty minutes, four days a week. We'll
do more good for your health than any pill.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Amen, I gotta tell you. And I know we all
got to work, and I love where I work. It's
a great place. But man, I was on vacation basically
outside for two weeks straight, and I've never felt.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
So good in my life.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
So I hear you, Hey, listen, we just have about
forty five minutes. You are former director of the CDC.
If you were current director of the CDC, your book
is the formula for better health? What would be your formula.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
For the CDC?
Speaker 3 (11:04):
We need in today's environment.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
Build forward, more connected with state and local health departments, faster,
addressing concerns that people feel, doing programs that people can
see and appreciate, working together with alliances to address the
biggest problems, the biggest threats to health, seeing those threats,
creating steady progress and showing progress that's really important, and
(11:31):
listening to what people are saying and communicating more effectively.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
All right, Gotta leave it there. Doctor Freed and thank
you so much, former director of the CDC and also
President and CEO of Resolved to Save Lives. We should
note that Resolve to Save Lives has received funding from
Bloomberg Philanthropies, whose book The Formula for Better Health
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. This is Bloomberg BusinessWeek
with Carol Masser and Tim Steneveek on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
The US government shutdown and its impact on public health
has started to set in. Federal health agencies began operating
on a much smaller scale. More than thirty two thousand
workers were furloughed at HHS. The CDC is open, but
communications to state and local health departments around prevention of
HIV and opioid overdoses has stopped.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Infectious disease surveillance data is still being compiled by analysis
and reporting to the public will stop. The US is
currently in a record breaking Musles outbreak and the CDC
reports cases every Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Doctor Tom Frieden is former director of the CDC, also
former Commissioner of the New York City Health Department. He's
also the President's CEO of Resolved to Save Lives. It's
a global health organization which funds epidemic preparedness and other
health initiatives and countries throughout the world. We should knowe
Carol that Resolve to Save Lives has received funding from
Bloomberg Philanthropies, the philanthropic arm Bloomberg LP, the parent company
(01:06):
of Bloomberg Radio, and doctor Freeden is a long standing
partner of Bloomberg Philanthropy.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
It's also got a new book out. It's called The
Formula for Better Health, How to Save millions of lives,
including your own. Doctor Freedin joins us from New York.
Doctor Freeden, great to have you here with Tim and
me on Bloomberg Businessweekdaily. What is this moment in public health?
Speaker 4 (01:26):
This is an unprecedented time. Public health is under assault.
And what that means for each of us is that
our health is less safe and secure. Whether there's a
food contamination in food at the local supermarket, or an
outbreak of an infectious disease or a new toxin in
(01:46):
the environment, our defenses are down. We're disarming against a
world of health threats, and that puts all of us
and businesses on a less safe footing.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
So if the global pandemic that we all lived through,
not everyone lived through unfortunately, as we all know, in
twenty twenty and for years, you know, it took a
while to come out of it and some are still
dealing with it. If that happened today, would you say
we would have a much more dire situation.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
We're definitely less prepared than we were before the pandemic,
and we weren't well prepared then. The book that I've
just released this week, and I should say all of
the proceeds from that book will go to support programs
that support health around the world, outlines an approach it's proven,
(02:40):
it has saved millions of lives, and it can save
millions more. The approach is see, believe, create, see the
health threats and the path to progress, believe that we
can make progress toward a healthier future, and then work
systematically to create that future. And the shutdown and more broadly,
the attacks on public health that we have seen over
(03:01):
the last nine to ten months are undermining all three
of those components. We're losing our ability to see health threats,
we're losing confidence that we can do great things in
this country and stop cancer and heart disease with real interventions,
not performative stuff. And we're risking the creation of a
healthier future. But there's still plenty of hope. We can't
(03:24):
replace the federal government, but state governments, local governments, organizations
around the world, academics can do a lot to protect
and improve.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Health there's where I wanted to push back because I think,
you know, there are folks like, how many stories have
we done over the years, over the decades, how much
America spends on healthcare develop nation, and yet our health
outcomes are not great compared to other developed nations. And
in terms of what they SPECSS.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
Care care, that's not public health, that's healthcare. We have
a wasteful health care system and we have an underinvested
public health system.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Interesting because you know what someone will say that sometimes
you have to disrupt something to even make it even
more productive and better.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
Yeah, in business, that may work. In government, if you
want to make something better, you make it better, you
don't destroy it. And what we're seeing now is destruction,
just wanton destruction. Half of CDC's National Center is disbanded,
more than two thousand staff with no rhyme or reason,
basically discharged. You know, they're saying they want a healthy America.
(04:27):
They're saying they want to take on chronic disease, but
they've ended the chronic disease prevention programs at CDC that
led the progress against things like tobacco, and there has
been progress. We've seen tobacco use rates fall by more
than seventy five percent over the last decades. We've seen
big reductions in birth defects, for example, through CDC action
(04:48):
on things like folate supplementation and folate fortification. So there's
a lot of progress that's at risk and more progress
that's not going to happen unless we use a focused
approach to see the path forward to systematically work. And
I agree we shouldn't just put back what's there. We
need to build forward to a more connected, faster, more
(05:11):
practical public health and healthcare system that really delivers results.
Our healthcare system is a disgrace. We spend four and
a half trillion dollars on healthcare in this country and
we have a worse health status than any other high
income country for twice the per CAPITI is spending. But
that's not over investment in public health. So why poor
investment in healthcare? Then?
Speaker 2 (05:32):
How do we bridge these things? How do we create
better outcomes here in the United States? Given how much
money we spend on healthcare. Because even though you made
that distinction to us, and you made that distinction to
our audience, I don't think Americans think of these things
in different ways. They think health they think healthcare, they
probably lump everything together.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
Prioritize, simplify, communicate, and overcome barriers. That's the create part
of the formula to save millions of lives. And what
I mean by that is whether it's in public health
where simple things like taxing tobacco and sugary drinks, or
eliminating pollution of PM two point five and p fash
(06:13):
that you were just talking about that still contaminates half
of the water in the US. That's a public health
thing and everyone benefits from that, or in healthcare, focus
on what really matters. I'll give you the single most
important thing and maybe this is the most important personal
health thing from the book as well. Blood pressure. Everyone says, oh,
I know about it. Actually, healthy blood pressure is less
(06:33):
than one twenty over eighty even with the target of
one forty over eighty the US healthcare system for more
than ten thousand dollars a person doesn't get that right
even half the time. More than half of people in
this country with high blood pressure don't have it controlled,
and because of that they have heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure.
That's expensive. We need to fix healthcare, and we're going
(06:55):
to do that by changing the way we pay for
healthcare so that it pays for healthcare systems to prevent disease.
Right now, it pays for them not to prevent disease.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
I will I will point out on the tobacco side
of things, doctor Fridan, a proposed ban on mental cigarettes
and flavored cigars was withdrawn by the Trump administration.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Carroll.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
This was just four days into his second term, so
this was something that had been proposed early.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Oh, Tim, the whole Tim, the entire CDC unit, hundreds
of staff that do tobacco control were all fired. They
run ad campaigns, they support state quit lines. This is
not stopping chronic disease. This is opening the door for
chronic disease and saying this is not deregulation, it's open
season on our lungs.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Doctor Freeda, I wonder what you think about the obcitug drugs,
the GLP one drugs. Do you think that wider use
of them would bring big, big, big societal benefits. Are
you concerned about potential side effects maybe longer term or
the society societal impact of massive reliance on what you
know is a prescriptive medicine.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
It's not either or we can tax soda and scale
up use of effective drugs. I will say the GLP
one agonists are big breakthrough drugs. They're remarkably effective, but
they're not quite ready. Two thirds of people stop taking
them within a year. They're injections. They have nasty side effects.
So over the coming years, I think we'll see pill
(08:21):
forms of those. I think we'll see them more tolerable
by people, and they do have major benefits, not just
on weight, but on many other outcomes, as do some
of the other new categories of drugs, the SGLT two inhibitors.
There's some great new drugs. There's reasons to be optimistic.
We have better tools to support health than ever in
human history. But we need to get away from fictions,
(08:44):
from misinformation, from disinformation, from simplistic stuff that we see
coming out of this administration, to seeing the actual threats,
seeing the path to progress, systematically strengthening belief by scaling
up programs that work, and working together to create a
healthier future.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
You know, one thing that we've talked quite a bit
about over the last not even two weeks at this
point is the president as a messenger when it comes
to health. And I think of the press conference that
he gave last week about Thailand all and pregnant women
taking Thailand all. And I'm just wondering how you view
him as a messenger for public health.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
I really hope people will get their medical advice from
doctors and nurse practitioners, not from politicians and trial lawyers.
There were parts of what the President and mister Kennedy
said that weren't wrong, but that was a wash in
a sea of falsehoods and misinformation. It is certainly the
case that we say to all pregnant women avoid medications
(09:45):
unless absolutely necessary. On the other hand, fever has a
lot of bad implications for the baby, and pain makes
pregnancy much less successful. So you really want to have
your meta advice from doctors. Tail and all is the
safest of all of the fever reducing pain reducing medications,
(10:06):
Safer than aspirin, safer than ibuprofen or other non steroidals.
So don't get your medical advice from trial lawyers, and
don't get it from people who are selling you anything.
And as I said, the proceeds from this book, The
Formula for Better Health, will all go to supporting health
programs around the world. What I try to do is
cut through the hype, the sloppy thinking, the grifting to
(10:27):
what really matters. And you know, here's one thought for you. Yeah,
risk walk outdoors thirty minutes, four days a week. We'll
do more good for your health than any pill.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Amen, I gotta tell you. And I know we all
got to work, and I love where I work. It's
a great place. But man, I was on vacation basically
outside for two weeks straight, and I've never felt.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
So good in my life.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
So I hear you, Hey, listen, we just have about
forty five minutes. You are former director of the CDC.
If you were current director of the CDC, your book
is the formula for better health? What would be your formula.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
For the CDC?
Speaker 3 (11:04):
We need in today's environment.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
Build forward, more connected with state and local health departments, faster,
addressing concerns that people feel, doing programs that people can
see and appreciate, working together with alliances to address the
biggest problems, the biggest threats to health, seeing those threats,
creating steady progress and showing progress that's really important, and
(11:31):
listening to what people are saying and communicating more effectively.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
All right, Gotta leave it there. Doctor Freed and thank
you so much, former director of the CDC and also
President and CEO of Resolved to Save Lives. We should
note that Resolve to Save Lives has received funding from
Bloomberg Philanthropies, whose book The Formula for Better Health
Hosts And Creators
Tim Stenovec
Carol Massar
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