Dr. Tom Frieden arrived on the Atlanta campus of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to take on the job of CDC director on June 8, 2009 — three days before the World Health Organization declared the first flu pandemic in 41 years, caused by the H1N1 virus. That into-the-deep-end start set the stage for the next seven and a half years.
Frieden, who had been New York City health commissioner, steps down on Friday at noon EST. During his tenure, the country’s premier public health institution faced back-to-back-to-back health crises. The largest ever Ebola outbreak. A multi-state outbreak of fungal meningitis, triggered by contaminated steroid products made by the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass. The Zika epidemic in the Americas.
The CDC’s Emergency Operations Center, which is only stood up in times of outbreak responses, operated during more than 90 percent of Frieden’s tenure.
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