Thomas Frieden, Former Head of CDC, Arrested on Sex Abuse Charge

Dr. Thomas Frieden, who directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from 2009 to 2017, was arrested on a sex abuse charge Friday after he was accused of grabbing a woman’s buttocks. The 57-year-old doctor turned himself in to New York police in Brooklyn on Friday morning and was charged with forcible touching, sex abuse and harassment, according to the New York Police Department. The charges stem from a complaint filed in July by a 55-year-old unnamed woman who claims Frieden grabbed her buttocks in his New York apartment last October, police said. Frieden issued a statement denying the allegations, according to the Associated Press, saying they do “not reflect” his “public or private behavior or his values;” the statement also highlighted his “lifetime of service to improve health around the world.” During his career, Frieden was a widely respected public health advocate with experience both overseas and in the U.S. in battling public health problems from tuberculosis to smoking — and, most recently, Ebola. From 2002 to 2009, he served as New York City’s health and mental hygiene commissioner, where he supported programs to ban smoking in public places and remove unhealthy trans fats from restaurant meals. He was appointed to head the CDC by former President Barack Obama in 2009. As CDC commissioner, he spearheaded efforts to curb the obesity and flu epidemics in the U.S. and oversaw the country’...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Crime healthytime onetime Source Type: news