Tom Frieden

Thomas R. Frieden (born December 7, 1960) is an American infectious disease and public health physician.

He serves as president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, a $225million, five-year initiative to prevent epidemics and cardiovascular disease.

Frieden attended Oberlin College graduating with a BA degree in philosophy in 1982.

He was a community organizer for the Center for Health Services at Vanderbilt University in 1982, before he started studying medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and graduated with an MD degree in 1986.

At the same time he attended Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and obtained an MPH degree in 1986.

He completed a residency in internal medicine at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center 1986–1989 followed by a one-year infectious diseases fellowship from 1989 to 1990 at Yale School of Medicine and Yale–New Haven Hospital.

From 1990 to 1992, Frieden worked as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer assigned by CDC in New York City.

From 1992 to 1996, he was assistant commissioner of health and director of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Bureau of Tuberculosis Control, fostering public awareness and helping to improve city, state and federal public funding for TB control.

The New York City epidemic was controlled rapidly, reducing overall incidence by nearly half and cutting multidrug-resistant tuberculosis by 80%.

The city's program became a model for tuberculosis control nationally and globally.

From 1995 to 2001, Frieden worked as a technical advisor for the World Bank, health and population offices.

From 1996 to 2002, Frieden worked in India, as a medical officer for the World Health Organization on loan from the CDC.

He helped the government of India implement the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program.

Smoking prevalence among New York City teens declined even more sharply, from 17.6% in 2001 to 8.5% in 2007, which was less than half the national rate.

The workplace smoking ban prompted spirited debate before the New York City Council passed it and Mayor Bloomberg signed it into law.

Over time, the measure gained broad acceptance by the public and business community in New York City.

As a commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene from 2002 to 2009 he came to some prominence for banning smoking in the city's restaurants as well as the serving of trans fat.

Frieden was born and raised in New York City.

His father, Julian Frieden, was chief of coronary care at Montefiore Hospital and New Rochelle Hospitals in New York.

Frieden served as Commissioner of Health of the City of New York from 2002 to 2009.

At the time of his appointment, the agency employed 6,000 staff and had an annual budget of $1.6billion.

During Frieden's tenure as Commissioner, the Health Department expanded the collection and use of epidemiological data, launching an annual Community Health Survey and the nation's first community-based Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Upon his appointment as Commissioner of Health, Frieden made tobacco control a priority, resulting in a rapid decline after a decade of no change in smoking rates.

Frieden established a system to monitor the city's smoking rates, and worked with New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to increase tobacco taxes, ban smoking in workplaces including restaurants and bars, and run aggressive anti-tobacco ads and help smokers quit.

The program reduced smoking prevalence among New York City adults from 21% in 2002 to 17% in 2007 which represented 300,000 fewer smokers.

New York City's 2003 workplace smoking ban followed that of California in 1994.

Frieden supported increased cigarette taxes as a means of reducing smoking and preventing teens from starting, saying "tobacco taxes are the most effective way to reduce tobacco use."

By 2007, New York City had made measurable progress in eight of the ten priority areas.

As Health Commissioner, Frieden sought to fight HIV and AIDS with public health principles used successfully to control other communicable diseases.

A very controversial aspect was the proposal to eliminate separate written consent for HIV testing.

He believed the measure would encourage physicians to offer HIV tests during routine medical care, as the CDC recommended.

The program's 2008 status report estimated that the nationwide program resulted in 8million treatments and 1.4million lives saved.

While in India, Frieden worked to establish a network of Indian physicians to help India's state and local governments implement the program and helped the Tuberculosis Research Center in Chennai, India, establish a program to monitor the impact of tuberculosis control services.

He was the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and he was the administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry from 2009 to 2017, appointed by President Barack Obama.

He supported the 62-cent federal tax on each cigarette pack sold in the United States, introduced in April 2009.

One side effect of the increased taxes on tobacco in New York was a large increase in cigarette smuggling into the state from other states with much lower taxes, such as Virginia.

The Tax Foundation estimated that "60.9% of cigarettes sold in New York State are smuggled in from other states".

In addition, some New Yorkers began to make their own cigarettes, and tobacco trucks were even hijacked.

A 2009 Justice Department study found that "The incentive to profit by evading payment of taxes rises with each tax rate hike imposed by federal, state, and local governments".

Frieden introduced the city's first comprehensive health policy, Take Care New York, which targeted ten leading causes of preventable illness and death for public and personal action.