“Redfield’s Warning”: In Explosive New Book, Former CDC Director Details What Happened Behind the Scenes During the Pandemic

By Louis Conte, Health Freedom Editor, The MAHA Report

“I’ve always believed that knowledge is better than ignorance. Even Unpleasant knowledge,” writes former CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield in his new book, Redfield’s Warning: What I Learned (But Couldn’t Tell You) Might Save Your Life.

These two sentences introduce the reader to the ethical and compassionate reasoning that has typified Redfield’s long and often controversial career.

Redfield details how his personal life, his military and medical career, and his fascination with viruses have often put him in the center of medical controversies. What emerges is a compelling portrait of a man who dedicated himself to his patients and his nation.

As I read Redfield’s Warning (to be published November 4 by Skyhorse Publishing), it occurred to me that this was a man who was often presented with choices that could have made his life more comfortable, who continually chose the more difficult but truthful path.

Redfield takes us back to the dark days of the AIDS epidemic. He was not working in some quiet lab on a military base, far from the action. He was directly treating patients who were dying of AIDS, “Who became my friends,” Redfield writes. He hoped he and other doctors would find a way of treating these AIDS patients – , would find a cause and a remedy that would prevent more deaths. Keep in mind the fear and stigma of AIDS at the beginning of the outbreak. No one knew the cause or how contagious the disease was.

Redfield’s previous study of Hepatitis B among military service members in Korea was critical to the eventual understanding that AIDS was sexually transmitted by both homosexual and heterosexual activity. That was not a popular message in the early days of the AIDS pandemic.

Redfield correctly identified that Hepatitis B was being spread in the military by contact with sex workers near military bases. He figured that out by studying the sex workers. In Redfield’s Warning, he writes, “The practice of good science does take you to some unexpected places. Truthfully, during my training I never anticipated conducting a study of Korean prostitutes.”

Redfield took his experience with Hepatitis B and applied it to AIDS. Citing Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People, Redfield notes that he was subject to harsh criticism in those days – for having what was viewed as an outsider’s point of view – but that subsided when he was eventually proven to be correct.

It would become a pattern that typified Redfield’s public service – one that the book walks the reader through: the troublesome history of public health over the past fifty years. He touches on outbreaks ranging from SARS to Ebola and notes public health successes and failures without the typical rah-rah sloganeering of the COVID-era messaging.

Redfield also details what went on behind the scenes of the federal response to the Covid pandemic.

It is not a pretty picture.

Politics and personalities – not science – often ruled the day. Many may disagree with Redfield’s analysis of the federal government’s decision making, but he presents his opinion and the criticism he receives while allowing the reader to evaluate and make up their own minds.

Against Mandates

Redfield opposed the Covid vaccine mandates, writing, “I did not believe it was in anyone’s best interest to take away personal choice. I have always had enough respect for the American public to believe that if I can present information to them showing that being vaccinated benefits them personally and public health in general, they would make the obvious choice.”

He also disagreed with the one-size-fits-all vaccination effort stating, “There was little science behind forcing twenty-five-year-old police officers or soldiers to be vaccinated either. But they were covered by the same regulations as elderly people who were at risk. I don’t believe the vaccine should have been mandated for people under fifty years old in good health.”

What is remarkable about Redfield is that he honestly details the mistakes mainstream medicine and public health made with Covid but also discloses his mistakes at the CDC because he wants us to learn from them. He wants us to learn from our failures so that we can better prepare for the next pandemic.

“While we have been diligently pursuing methods to prevent and treat outbreaks, the fact remains that we were caught essentially unprepared for COVID-19,” Redfield admits. “We made mistakes. Damage was done. I was on the front lines of that war, and I learned some vitally important lessons. In addition to the scientific research currently being conducted, there are several other things we should do to correct those mistakes and to be better prepared for the next pandemic.”

Redfield fears bird flu will finally evolve to the point where it spreads from human to human. He also fears that humans will trigger another pandemic by recklessly engaging in dangerous gain-of-function experiments, which he openly opposes.

“If, as I believe, it (Covid) was created and escaped from a lab,” he writes, “the next obvious question is: Why was it created? My answer is scientific arrogance. Just because we can do something is not enough reason to do it.”

Finally, Redfield looks to the future and sees Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s commitments to gold-standard science and transparency as keys to a more successful future for public health in the United States.

“The days of believing authorities because they are in an authoritative position are over,” Redfield wisely notes toward the end of Redfield’s Warning, “The way to convince people to follow recommendations is to provide evidence that the recommendations are not arbitrary or politically motivated but based on science. We need to provide context. We need to admit when we are wrong. We need to be willing to change as the data changes. Policy recommendations are never going to be a perfect science. But, in our commitment to science and telling the American public the truth, we will save lives.”

Redfield’s book is both a gift and required reading for anyone who cares about where our public health has been and how it must change.