Yale Institute for Global Health: Reforming the CDC & U.S. Public Health: Reflections from Former CDC Directors

Started in 1946 to prevent malaria from spreading across the United States, the mission of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is to promote health and quality of life by preventing and controlling disease, injury, and disability. The COVID-19 pandemic has catapulted the CDC, its guidance, leaders and policies to the center of attention with daily news stories and everyday conversations among the general public. With more focus than ever on this government agency, three former CDC directors will gather to reflect on the work of the CDC including how the agency can evolve to keep pace with health challenges around the world and what it means to have the microscope of the public on their decisions.

The Yale Institute for Global Health (YIGH) launched the Global Health Conversation Series as a moderated forum for the Yale community, alumni, and others, to listen to and learn from some of today’s pivotal decision-makers in the world of global health and the COVID-19 pandemic. The series is generously supported by the George Herbert Walker, Jr. Lecture Fund at the Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale.

Speakers:

• Jeff Koplan (Vice President for Global Health, Emory University)

• Julie Gerberding (Chief Patient Officer & Executive VP, Population Health & Sustainability, Merck)

• Tom Frieden (President & CEO, Resolve to Save Lives)

  Saad Omer (Director, Yale Institute for Global Health)