CDC - We Were There - Advancing Excellence & Integrity of CDC Science

CDC - We Were There - Advancing Excellence & Integrity of CDC Science



CDC’s “We Were There” lecture series on historically important investigations resumes today, May 25. “How Deadly Burgers Made Food Safer – The Impact of the 1993 E. coli O157 Outbreak” is 1 to 2:30 p.m. EDT. In that outbreak, more than 700 people were sickened and four children died from E. coli O157 infections tied to hamburgers served at fast-food restaurants. You can view a streamed presentation on the We Were There website and on Facebook Live or watch an archived version later. The link will be live 5 minutes before the presentation.

Live Webcast - Thursday, May 25th

If you cannot make it in person to the next lecture “How Deadly Burgers Made Food Safer — The Impact of the 1993 E. coli  O157 Outbreak,” no need to worry. It will be streamed LIVE on the day of the event. Simply follow one of the links below.

Facebook Live:
View the lecture on Facebook Live via the CDC Facebook page – www.facebook.com/cdc

Stream #1 No Captions:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/dwxer96bR7q

Stream #2 Open Captions:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/QyXBRzYjVCS

The web links are not secured. The links can be viewed by anyone with access to the url.

Captions are only available on the stream #2 link.

Welcome to "We Were There"

“We Were There” is a quarterly lecture series featuring past and present CDC investigators – the original Disease Detectives – as they share their personal perspectives on historically important, CDC-led epidemiologic and laboratory investigations. This series will provide insight into the rich past of CDC and give the audience a chance to hear first-hand accounts from the responders.

For more as to how the “We Were There” series came to be – visit our About “We Were There” page.

The Upcoming "We Were There" Lecture:

E. coli   O157

In 1993, four children died and more than 700 people in four states were sickened with severe and often bloody diarrhea. Public health investigators quickly linked the disease outbreaks to E. coli  O157, spread through hamburgers served at fast-food restaurants. Most of the cases occurred in Washington.

MORE >

The Fourth “We Were There” Lecture:

Conquering Polio in America: The Cutter Incident and Beyond

In 1955, some batches of polio vaccine given to the public contained live polio virus, even though they had passed required safety testing. Over 250 cases of polio were attributed to vaccines produced by one company: Cutter Laboratories. This case, which came to be known as the Cutter Incident, resulted in many cases of paralysis. The vaccine was recalled as soon as cases of polio were detected.

MORE >

The Third “We Were There” Lecture:

Folic Acid, Birth Defects and Perspectives from China

In the late 1980s, researchers at CDC made a discovery that would prove to be one of the greatest achievements in the history of public health. While performing a population-based study on birth defects, investigators found that folic acid in a multivitamin could reduce the risk of neural tube defects.

MORE >

The Second "We Were There" Lecture:

History, Mystery, and Discovery: 40 Years of Legionnaires’ Disease

In 1976, more than 200 attendees of an American Legion convention in Philadelphia fell ill, and dozens died. Doctors were unable to pinpoint the cause of this mysterious and deadly outbreak. CDC’s disease detectives went to work, and though it took several months and countless hours, the responsible pathogen was eventually identified.

MORE >

"We Were There" Inaugural Lecture:

“And the Band Played On… Early Days of the AIDS Epidemic in the United States: Views from Atlanta and Hollywood”

On May 25, 2016, OADS offered the first in the “We Were There” lecture series. The inaugural event, “And the Band Played On…Early Days of the AIDS Epidemic in the United States: Views from Atlanta and Hollywood,” commemorated the 35th anniversary of the first AIDS MMWR article with a presentation by Dr. Harold Jaffe and Dr. Jim Curran.

MORE >