Redfield's Warning: What I Learned (But Couldn't Tell You) Might Save Your Life

They ignored young army virologist Robert Redfield when he warned Americans that the sexually transmitted HIV virus affected heterosexual women and men just as it did gay men. They ignored Redfield when he called for the importance of early diagnosis for HIV infection. They ignored Redfield for a decade when he warned Americans that the country was not prepared for the pandemic that became Covid-19. They ignored CDC Director Redfield during the pandemic when he warned that the government needed to be more transparent with the American public: to admit that the evidence did not support shutting down the country, that certain groups were in greater danger than others, that vaccines offered only limited protection and should not be mandated.

Now Redfield is issuing another warning. And ignoring him this time puts literally millions of people lives at risk.

Robert Redfield has spent his life studying viruses. And he knows what is coming. His new book, Redfield's Warning, predicts millions of Americans are going to die in the coming pandemic—if we don’t start preparing for it now.

This fact-filled, anecdotal memoir brings readers inside Redfield’s sub-microscopic world, introducing them to the extraordinary wonders and terrifying dangers of viruses, using the lessons of history to reinforce his dire warning. Speaking out bluntly, the CDC director during the first years of Covid-19 reveals what went right and what mistakes were made throughout the pandemic. Most importantly, he outlines a program of what needs to be done now to prepare for the bird flu pandemic that not only is coming—but may already be here. 

For more than four decades Robert Redfield has been one of America’s preeminent virologists. During the Covid pandemic he served as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force and the board of Operation Warp Speed. Among many other positions of responsibility, he has been the administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and Maryland’s senior public health advisor. Currently he is a visiting Senior Fellow for biosecurity and public health policy at the Heritage Foundation.

Both of Dr. Redfield’s parents were scientists at the National Institutes of Health. He is a graduate of Georgetown Medical School and received further training at the Army’s renowned Walter Reed Army Medical Center where he developed a strong interest in infectious disease and the study of viruses, focusing on HIV, hepatitis, and hemorrhagic viruses. His early work reinforced his belief in the power of science but also taught him to embrace his faith and find the courage to speak out even when it is not popular.

Throughout his distinguished career he has tried to honor the spirit of Theodore Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena”: “The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs . . . and knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause . . . who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory or defeat.”