CDC Official Draws on TV Skills for Flu Updates

Dr. Richard E. Besser, one of the nation's top public health officials, has won raves for his televised swine flu updates. His parents said he had been calmly reassuring since childhood, but Dr. Besser said weekly stints in the 1990s as a television health reporter in San Diego helped. "It made me comfortable being around cameras," Dr. Besser said. After 13 years at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Besser, 49, was plucked from relative obscurity in January to become the agency's acting director. He has been reassuring. He has explained complicated issues simply. He has even acknowledged not knowing many answers.