The Former

Robert Redfield, the former Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, issued a warning this week. He said Ebola is "moving very rapidly" and could become a "very significant pandemic."

He said this as the former Director.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is the federal agency responsible for tracking infectious disease outbreaks. The Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is the person in charge of that responsibility. The former Director is what the Director becomes after the Director leaves.

This is the full context for the word "former."

When Redfield ran the CDC (2018–2021), he had the full weight of the federal government behind any statement about infectious disease. If the CDC Director said "pandemic," that was the United States government's assessment. If the CDC Director said "manageable," that was also the United States government's assessment. These statements came with a title, a building, a budget, and several thousand employees whose job was to verify them.

(Redfield now makes these statements as a private citizen with a medical degree and four years of institutional memory. The institutional memory is real. The institution is no longer his.)

When a former CDC Director warns that an outbreak could become a very significant pandemic, there are two possible interpretations. The first is that the former Director is being alarmist and the current Director, who has not issued a similar warning, is correct. The second is that the former Director is being accurate and the current Director has not yet issued a similar warning.

Both interpretations involve the current Director not having said this yet.

The current CDC Director has not been quoted in this story. The former one is doing the quoting. This is a perfectly normal situation that does not require further examination.

The solution, presumably, is for someone with the current title to address the current outbreak. Until then, the former one is available. He has been saying something. The something is about Ebola. The Ebola is, per the former Director, moving very rapidly.

He said "very rapidly." He also said "very significant." He used "very" twice in the same warning. He has the credential to do this. It is former, but it is real.