Following the perceived mishandling of the first diagnosed case of Ebola in the United States involving Thomas Eric Duncan of Liberia by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2014, there were calls within Congress and the media for the CDC director, Thomas Frieden, MD, to resign. It was believed that Dr. Frieden had not adequately communicated and enforced protocols (or that the protocols kept changing) for dealing with Ebola cases on U.S. soil, and that that had led to a nurse in Dallas, TX, contracting the disease from Mr. Duncan.1 2 3
In a tense grilling before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on Oct. 16, 2014, Dr. Frieden received criticism…