The new CDC chief Brenda Fitzgerald, MD, laid out her priorities as the head of the nation's top public health agency in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal.
Among the new director's top priorities are fighting infectious disease, addressing opioid addiction and bolstering efforts to improve early childhood brain development, an issue the board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist championed as commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Health.
"If we can change something at the very beginning that is a simple intervention like language development, that's a phenomenal chance to influence that child's entire life," Dr. Fitzgerald told WSJ.
Dr. Fitzgerald's CDC agenda comes amid a potential 17 percent budget cut for the agency in fiscal year 2018, which the Trump administration proposed in May. Tom Frieden, MD, the former CDC director, previously said the proposed budgetary reduction "risks Americans' health and safety." Dr. Frieden also told STAT it would be critical for the new director to protect the agency's budget.
"When there are austere times, the most important factor is that you have to know what your mission is," Dr. Fitzgerald told WSJ. "You make sure what you're doing is indeed fulfilling that role, because there are certain things that I believe only public health can do."
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