S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindman on today's show. The public health concerns around World Cup amid an Ebola outbreak and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. The FIFA World Cup is a little over a week away , and that means millions of people are expected to travel into the United States over the next two months. But as the excitement grows , so are public health concerns. Amid an ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. So what do you need to know ? I'm here with Doctor David Smith. He's a professor , infectious disease doctor and virologist at UC San Diego. Doctor Smith , welcome to the show.
S2: Thank you.
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S2: So it's new to us and to science. We haven't made a vaccine for it. We really don't know the best treatments for it. And we know that it is actively spreading.
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S2: It's spreading about it's spreading the same way. It's spreading at the same velocity. The biggest issue is that we were just caught off guard. We were about two weeks too late in catching it.
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S2: We being the United States , we really pulled out a lot of USAID surveillance systems. And that left us , uh , flat footed here. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. And that's the U.S. agency for International Development. Correct.
S2: Development ? That's correct. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. So , um , and knowing that that was to happen , that that there would be resources cut for things like this.
S2: Right. And it gets me on on your show , I guess. And we were expecting one. We didn't know if it was going to be Ebola. We didn't know if it was going to be in the Congo. We didn't know if it would have been anywhere in the world. But here we are. Um , Ebola does break out. It's from bad. So we're bats live close to people. It can get into communities , and then once it's into tightly knit communities , it's off to the races.
S1: Well , the U.S. , Canada and Mexico released a joint statement on Thursday announcing travel restrictions from regions in Africa at greatest risk of Ebola.
S2: Um , stigma is the enemy of public health. And , uh , that is what we do when we have these travel bans. Let me be clear. There is no real risk for Ebola to have an outbreak here in the United States or in Canada. We have very good health care systems. Somebody comes over here who is sick , we can isolate them , we can treat them. They will do okay , and it will not spread. What we have done by having travel bans is to stigmatize those countries that have it. And we haven't offered them any help. We've gotten out of the W.H.O.. We are minimally engaged with other countries that have the feet on the ground and even some well-meaning , um , very altruistic health care providers are there right now , and some of them will get sick. And the question is , do we bring them back and give them the best care or we leave them , um , out there ? Um , this is just isolationist and it is what we call selfish health , not public health. Mhm.
S1: Mhm. I mean , it's also important to note that San Diego is not actually hosting any World Cup matches , though there will be a couple of warm up matches. Um , and their Iran team is also staying in Tijuana currently , so people are all over the place here. But how do you see the risk of Ebola to our our a specific region currently , even though there are folks sort of all around us , not necessarily here in San Diego. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. Zero. I don't see that we have a risk of Ebola. Um , and if someone were to come with Ebola , we have , uh , processes and infrastructure to treat it and to get somebody cured. Um , I think we will be totally okay for Ebola. What I'm more worried about is just all the other stuff that we have in terms of Covid and influenza and measles , when people aren't vaccinated for measles , especially if they come and bring measles here , and we have a large population who's still susceptible because they haven't got a vaccine. That is a much bigger risk in my mind for San Diego.
S1: I've got a question for you on this , though , because as you mentioned , that our health care system is capable of treating and taking care of a lot of things. Um , and that's definitely on paper.
S2: People would jump on that pretty quickly , and that person would get taken care of and quarantine procedures and all that would be in place. What I'm more worried about is that we stigmatize groups , and that groups who don't have good access to health care are left languishing for a longer period of time , allowing such infectious diseases to boil over. And that is always been the problem of our health care system here in the United States. It's it's full of haves and have nots. Mhm.
S1: Mhm. And um , and obviously that's now further spread around the globe.
S2: But basically before if somebody were in endemic areas with Ebola or other parts of the world with other types of infectious diseases like hantavirus , somebody would come in with specific symptoms that were associated with these diseases , and that would trigger , um , a testing of those samples. And then we would know exactly when it would occur , and then we could , uh , jump on it quicker. That is not the case at the moment. We are struggling to figure out what our surveillance systems are , and we've kind of been left out in terms of the United States without us having good connections with the W.H.O. and other European agencies. Um , attached to the W.H.O. , who are running a lot of these programs right now in Africa , are taking up the mantle to do so. We don't know. We're sort of left out. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. You mentioned the risk for other diseases besides Ebola spreading during the World Cup and other mass gathering events.
S2: And I would expect that bringing lots of people together and lots of shouting , perhaps that's a perfect place for maybe having another Covid outbreak. We don't have a specific variant that I'm terribly concerned about at the moment , but you never know. These things happen quickly and these events tend to , uh , bring them to fruition. The other ones are influenza. Thankfully , we're getting out of the flu season , so hopefully we won't have a flu coming out around too much. And the same goes for RSV. But there's also the measles. There's also a big issue. We have more and more people who are not vaccinated with measles. And these big events might be bringing people who might have measles because they weren't vaccinated in their home countries. And that allows measles to take hold here. And that is those are really infectious viruses versus Ebola , which is much less infectious.
S1: And I want to go back to Covid because I'm wondering if there if we've learned anything more about treating and diagnosing long Covid. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. Long Covid is a continues to be a problem because you never know when you get Covid , whether or not you're going to then develop long Covid. And to be honest , we don't have really good treatments. We know that there are some specialty exercise and , um , mostly around exercise and taking care of yourself really can abate some of those symptoms. And getting Covid vaccines tend to actually improve even after you've had Covid. Um , but really , that science is very new and there are continue to be lots of people out there who suffer from long Covid and more and more every day that Covid continues to circulate. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. You know , we mentioned federal funding cuts and the dissolution of USAID impacting the U.S. response to Ebola.
S2: And funding for various infectious disease programs , including mine , including mine around , um , marginalized uh , diseases and in communities that are hit the hardest and most susceptible and stigmatized have become They just cut. So we've had to pivot many of these areas in my own lab and my own group , and just across the whole United States , actually.
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S2: Some are really angry. Um , and it comes back up. Right. These infectious diseases always pop back up. And then people ask us , what are we doing about it ? And we just kind of have to say as best we can because the funding is is really tenuous at the moment. And it's not just that the funding has been cut , but it's also been quite a bit slow walked. And what that means is that grants might have been awarded or gotten a good score , but the money hasn't come and probably won't come because people are worried about Dei issues , etc. but in infectious diseases , it always hits the most vulnerable of our communities first. And those are the communities that seem to be , um , targeted by the funding cuts.
S1: Um , you know , from where you sit and just looking at our immediate future.
S2: It has to really focus on the public part and less on the selfish part. We need to be a global citizen in public health. When an outbreak happens , it doesn't matter where the outbreak happens. We are all in this together. It will always come for us. That's what infectious diseases do. So you have we have to have a global response to it and it doesn't do us any good , um , to try to build a wall and break ourselves away from the rest of the world. Infectious diseases will find a way and it will only be worse. We have to catch it as early and as quickly as we can to have the best outcomes versus letting it go and go and go until it comes for us.
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S2: I wash my hands. I don't go to big events if they're. I mean , I love going to big events , but if I'm if I'm sick , I don't go. That's my biggest advice for everybody out there , because that gives me a public health minded aspect to these things. I don't want to bring whatever I have to those events , and that's the best thing we can do for all of us. And I think that's that's how we keep each other safe.
S1: That's good. And but if you're feeling fine , do you go to big events or just when you're sick ? Okay.
S2: I know I do. When I'm sick , I don't go , okay , I know I like going to I'm going to go to the Padres this Friday. I'm excited.
S1: All right , all right , fair enough. Well , I've been speaking with Doctor Davey Smith , professor , infectious disease doctor and virologist at UC San Diego. Doctor Smith , thank you so very much for clarifying. Thank you. All this and joining us. Thank you.
S3: Thank you.
S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
