But on these obscure shows, the conservative Christian scientist has found an unusual niche. He’s becoming the point man for President Donald Trump with a fervent crowd that has been deeply skeptical of the coronavirus outbreak, believing it a hoax, a Chinese weapon or a Deep State plot to tank the economy and destroy the Trump presidency.

Redfield doesn’t offer conspiracies when he speaks to the Trump base via talk radio, or on local stations in conservative parts of the country. He emphasizes the “powerful weapon” of social distancing. He tells listeners that he understands that staying home is a sacrifice, but asks them to “close their eyes” and think of the vulnerable people whose lives they can save if they do their part to break the chain of transmission — people like his own grandson, Joey, who has cystic fibrosis.

“Think of those individuals. Those are the individuals our sacrifice will protect, and maintain their life,” he said on radio host Todd Starnes’ show on April 1.

Redfield has become somewhat of the MAGA crowd whisperer, using the mantle of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and his credibility as a religious conservative to bring medical science to the doubting public.

“Dr. Redfield likes the radio format, of being able to interact,” said a CDC spokesperson, stressing that the agency director is speaking in his role as a clinician. He referred comments about any larger communication strategy to the White House.

CDC recently added a communications person to help with the agency's Covid-19 response and Redfield's media appearances, and one White House official noted that Redfield’s professorial style doesn’t really play so well on a channel like CNN.

“Maybe he's getting calls from people because they want to hear from somebody who they know is faithful,” the White House official said. “And they want to hit that as a talking point, 'Hey Dr. Redfield, we know that faith is really important to you in this challenging time' and Redfield can talk to that in ways that other people can't.”

The CDC has had a low profile since the emergence of the testing problems, which let the coronavirus spread undetected through the country for weeks. In addition, White House officials blamed the agency for poorly managing evacuation of cruise ship passengers from Japan. And they pushed back when senior CDC official Nancy Messonnier told reporters in February that the virus was going to cause significant disruption — when Trump was insisting it was under control.

But recently, Redfield has been increasingly visible — at least on the regional stage. The CDC director has done more than a dozen radio appearances since March 24. He’s been on coast to coast: from a network owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to a chat with former SNL cast member Joe Piscopo, a one-time Democrat turned Trump supporter. He’s appeared on a few NPR affiliates — including Atlanta, where the CDC is based — but mostly he’s on stations that skew to conservative audiences, or on shows whose hosts have a clear ideological edge.

One host, Starnes, mused that local officials’ orders on social distancing were “incredibly unconstitutional” and likened mainstream media coverage of coronavirus to a “big Netflix special” in a quest for ratings and attention.

The CDC is usually the lodestar of any U.S. public health crisis. But in this pandemic it’s known as the agency that developed and defended the flawed test that let the coronavirus spread far and wide before American officials understood the calamity’s scope.