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CNN Live Today
Interview with Dr. Michael Friedman, Former FDA Commissioner
Aired May 17, 2002 - 11:41 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Susan, come with me. I think I got two cases of smallpox.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Firm, deep seated pustules, all in the same stage of development.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, it is probably just a bad case of the chicken pox.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, it is (UNINTELLIGIBLE), it is all of the major criteria.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We haven't had case here since the '40s.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If it's here, we need to lock this place down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Now, see, that may look familiar to you if you were watching NBC about 13 hours ago. What may be a real live threat now made its way into TV's fictional life. Last night on "ER," the staff at Chicago's County General, as you saw there, scrambled with a likely smallpox outbreak.
It was the season finale, and it had real, live health workers braced for a crush of phone calls. Many state and local health departments across the country have fact sheets on smallpox ready at hand to send out today to concerned viewers if any of them get so concerned that they have to make a phone call. Well, after "ER" you can sleep easy knowing that it was all just a ratings-boosting plot line.
But, can a smallpox outbreak happen for real? Dr. Michael Friedman is a former FDA commissioner. He is now working on homelandhealth.com, a new web site for doctors and patients designed to provide up to date information on health matters. Dr. Friedman joins us from Orlando -- good morning. How are you?
DR. MICHAEL FRIEDMAN, FORMER COMMISSIONER, FDA: Good morning. HARRIS: Did you watch that -- the show last night?
FRIEDMAN: Yes, I did.
HARRIS: What did you think of that?
FRIEDMAN: It was a TV show.
HARRIS: That's easy for you to say.
FRIEDMAN: Well, I think it taps into the country's concern about how well prepared are we for meeting any biothreat that may occur. Anthrax, smallpox, and a host of others. The government, the Health and Human Services Department, the Centers for Disease Control, they have been very active in preparing us, getting the right information, and the right materials. The pharmaceutical manufacturers have been incredibly active coming up with the treatments and the vaccines needed.
HARRIS: If you watched the episode, how accurate do you think their portrayal was of what could possibly a smallpox outbreak?
FRIEDMAN: Well, it wasn't clear from the episode what the disease was. Any kind of a skin eruption like that in sick children always demands very close attention. The show did demonstrate the interactions between the state and local health departments, the Centers for Disease Control, and local health authorities. It will be that interplay, it will be that cooperation that will really be important to have the strongest public health infrastructure.
HARRIS: For those of you who are working in that infrastructure, it was something of a dry run. You got to actually stand by and watch that.
Let me ask you this, because the next question that we all had here was whether or not any of the fears of the health infrastructure actually came to pass. Did many people get upset, and make phone calls to local health officials about possible outbreaks, or anything like that after watching the episode?
FRIEDMAN: I really don't have that information, and I don't know. I can tell you that there have been several other staged exercises with cities and states to try and recreate this kind of situation.
Many of our health authorities have been involved in planning for this. It will that planning that will give us increased confidence for the future.
HARRIS: Now it really -- it is rather understandable that there may be some still latent fears in the general public, because as I understand it, from reading and from writings and listening to questions being posed by professionals in the health field, there are many professionals who still don't know a lot or everything there is to know about smallpox. FRIEDMAN: I think we are facing a tension between not wanting to unnecessarily alarm people, but also wanting to focus proper attention on this, and it is striking the right balance that's important here. The CDC has been very active in educating physicians and health care providers.
The pharmaceutical manufacturers have been very active in that, academic medical centers have been active. A variety of other, important public organizations have been active. And so I think we should see this as really a mosaic of different components of the society contributing to the best possible public health infrastructure.
HARRIS: Gotcha. Dr. Friedman, thank you very much. We sure do appreciate it.
FRIEDMAN: My pleasure.
HARRIS: Take care. Good luck to you.
FRIEDMAN: Bye-bye.
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