On working together to ensure a safer future
Tom Frieden
President & CEO, Resolve to Save Lives; Former CDC Director, Obama Administration
June 28, 2021
THE COVID-19 VACCINES are remarkably safe and effective against the virus. They’re crushing the curve of the virus and are changing the face of the pandemic in the United States. By the fall, we’re going to be at the new normal. The global pandemic is far from over, but the worst is behind us in the United States.
I encourage people to get their kids vaccinated. Although COVID-19 usually doesn’t cause severe illness in kids, it can, and that illness can be life-threatening. It can also result in long-term consequences and kids can spread disease to others, who can become severely ill or die from the infection. All of us are better protected, the more of us are vaccinated.
This is our once in a lifetime opportunity to make the world a safer, more secure place.”
I’m hopeful the world will recognize that we have to work together to fight infectious diseases. We will all be safer if we partner with countries around the world to strengthen systems for finding, stopping, and preventing health threats. We must strengthen our public health institutions, not just the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but state and local health departments across the United States, global health agencies, and public health programs in countries around the world, particularly in lower-income areas. We’re at risk of being blindsided by the next pandemic, but I think the will to make progress so that doesn’t happen again is stronger than ever. This is our once-in-a lifetime opportunity to make the world a safer, more secure place.
