What’s ailing us? Many serious illnesses we face are embarrassingly simple to avoid. Ezra Klein talks with Center for Disease Control director Tom Frieden.
Ezra Klein: What is the single biggest opportunity out there in health?
Tom Frieden: I would start with tobacco control. You know what, people sometimes think, “Oh, tobacco. That’s yesterday’s issue.” It still kills more people than anything else in this country and around the world. And there’s a lot more that we can do about it. It doesn’t just kill people, it disables, disfigures, causes diseases. It increases our health care cost. Tobacco is really the number one enemy of health in this country and around the world.
