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Should we worry about bird flu in the US?
How worried should we be about bird flu spreading to humans in the US? Are rising bird flu numbers the beginning of the next pandemic? On GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, New York Times science and global health reporter, Apoorva Mandavalli says that now is the time to start taking bird flu more seriously. The virus, known as H5N1, has been circulating in the US since 2024 in poultry and dairy cattle, but fears are growing about its spread to humans after the first bird flu death was reported in Louisiana last month. One big reason for that is that the flu virus is very good at adapting, picking up characteristics that keep it spreading. With Robert F. Kennedy Jr. set to lead the US health department, Mandavilli worries about our ability to deal with a bird flu epidemic, especially given his opposition to mRNA vaccines and endorsement of raw milk, which can harbor bird flu virus, posing serious risks to public health.
“Surveillance has been just really, really poor. We don’t actually know what this virus is doing, how it’s evolving, how widely it’s spread,” Mandavilli says, “That first death was quite a wakeup call.”
Watch the full interview on GZERO World: Trump's health agenda—from RFK Jr. to leaving WHO
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).
New digital episodes of GZERO World are released every Monday on YouTube. Don't miss an episode: subscribe to GZERO's YouTube channel and turn on notifications (🔔).
- Trump's health agenda—from RFK Jr. to leaving WHO ›
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Ian Explains: What's behind RFK Jr.'s "Make America Healthy Again" movement?
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is poised to become the country’s most powerful public health official. What will his “Make America Healthy Again” movement mean for the future of US health policy? On Ian Explains, Ian Bremmer breaks down RFK Jr.’s MAHA agenda and how it could reshape government agencies, medical institutions, and Big Pharma. The MAHA-verse is sprawling, bringing together people on both sides of the political spectrum who want to take on big medicine, eliminate processed foods, remove toxins from the environment, and curb vaccine mandates. The MAHA worldview blends traditional wellness ideas with deep skepticism towards the mainstream medical establishment, which can often verge on conspiracy and medical advice at odds with established science—like raw milk and unfluoridated water. Why does it matter? Because Donald Trump has embraced it. Just like MAGA remade the GOP, MAHA could remake healthcare, wielding enormous influence over not just the health department, but also the CDC, FDA, NIH, and USDA.
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).
New digital episodes of GZERO World are released every Monday on YouTube. Don't miss an episode: subscribe to GZERO's YouTube channel and turn on notifications (🔔).
Donald Trump speaks on the last day of Turning Point's four-day AmericaFest conference on Dec. 22, 2024, in Phoenix.
What would it mean for the US to leave the World Health Organization?
President-elect Donald Trump’s advisors are reportedly urging him to pull the United States out of the World Health Organization on his first day in office, according to a report published Sunday in the Financial Times.
The US currently provides approximately 16% of the WHO’s funding, giving it outsized influence on the institution. Experts say a withdrawal would severely hamper the world’s ability to respond to public health crises like pandemics.
"Politically, Trump’s lack of support could open the door to lowered support from other countries, in an environment of increased skepticism towards international engagement and foreign aid in general—especially among many ascendant right-wing parties in Europe—amid fiscal constraints and pressures to increase defense spending," says Eurasia Group's Laura Yasaitis. "Ongoing pandemic preparedness efforts, such as the pandemic treaty, would be majorly set back, as would other efforts like the polio eradication campaign."
It’s not an empty threat. Trump actually initiated the process of leaving the WHO in 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, accusing the organization of being controlled by China. He never followed through on the actual withdrawal, however, and Joe Biden re-established ties in 2021.
This time around, Trump has aligned himself with figures whose views on healthcare are well outside the scientific consensus. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a vociferous opponent of vaccination, is tapped to lead Health and Human Services, while David Weldon, another anti-vaxxer from the fringe, is set to lead the Centers for Disease Control. Incoming Food and Drug Administration commissioner Martin Makary has also questioned the benefits of certain vaccines, like hepatitis B and COVID boosters. With advisers like these, the WHO would be smart to start planning for a pullout, even if it doesn’t happen on Jan. 20.
Beijing won’t butt in on this one, of course, since they stand to gain the most from US healthcare isolationism. If Trump was worried about Chinese control of the WHO back in 2020, pulling out in 2025 would all but guarantee that Beijing steps into the void.
Dr. Vivek Murthy, the United States Surgeon General, discusses the importance of social connection to our mental and physical well-being with actor Matthew McConaughey, a University of Texas professor.
Should social media apps be labeled dangerous for kids?
US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy is demanding Congress require a safety label on social media apps like cigarettes and alcohol, citing that teens who use them for three hours a day double their risk of depression.
Murthy has a history of advocating for mental health: He issued a similar advisory last year categorizing loneliness as a health crisis comparable to smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.
So far, Congress hasn’t done much to curb children’s social media usage, apart from chastising a few tech CEOs and targeting TikTok as a national security threat. Murthy’s emergency declaration on Monday was a call for concrete action.
“A surgeon general’s warning label,” Murthy argued in a recent op-ed in the New York Times, “would regularly remind parents and adolescents that social media has not been proved safe.”
Would it work? Labels on tobacco did lead to a steady decline in adolescent cigarette smoking over the past several decades (that is, until vapes came along … but that’s another story). Murthy acknowledged, however, that a warning label alone wouldn’t fix that the average teen spends nearly five hours a day scrolling, and also suggested that schools, family dinners, and anyone in middle school or below, stay phone-free.
What do you think? Should social media apps be labeled as dangerous for children? Let us know here.An adult female Anopheles mosquito bites a human body to begin its blood meal at Tehatta, West Bengal; India on 24/02/2023.
Djibouti goes high-tech to take a bite out of malaria
The coastal country of Djibouti, one of the smallest by population in Africa, has a big problem in a tiny package: An invasive species of mosquito from the Indian subcontinent has driven malaria rates through the roof, so the government on Thursday released thousands of genetically modified bugs in a bid to save thousands of lives.
How deadly is the disease? Malaria has probably killed more human beings over the sweep of history than any other single infectious disease, and African governments have been fighting for decades to eliminate it. Djibouti darn near made it: In 2012, the country recorded just 27 cases.
But since then, an invasive species has arrived. Unlike the mosquitoes indigenous to most of Africa, the new bugs thrive in urban environments and bite during the day, making them impossible to avoid. In 2020, over 70,000 people contracted malaria — one in every 15 Djiboutians — of whom 190 died. The invasive bugs are spreading to important cities in Ethiopia and Kenya, and have been found as far away as Lagos, Nigeria, a metropolis of over 15 million.
Fight bugs with bugs: Working with scientists at US firm Oxitec, Djibouti released thousands of genetically modified versions of the invasive mosquitos whose female offspring die quickly. Since only females of the species bite humans, the hope is reducing their number will reduce human exposure.
Similar programs in Brazil met with astonishing success, driving down the population of dengue-carrying mosquitoes by 96%, a model later copied by Panama and the Cayman Islands. We’re watching Djibouti’s plan with great hope.
How can the world build back better public health after COVID?
Every year, over ten million people globally die from high blood pressure, more than all infectious diseases combined. Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control, is tackling this massive problem in public health, among many others, as CEO of Resolve to Save Lives.
He told GZERO’s Tony Maciulis that ensuring easy access to three drugs — amlodipine for blood pressure, metformin for blood sugar, and atorvastatin for cholesterol — could save tens of millions of lives over the next quarter century for just a penny per pill.
It’s part of a set of goals Frieden calls the three Rs: Renaissance in public health, robust primary healthcare and resilient populations. But as the developing world takes on more and more public debt, where will the money come from?
See more from Global Stage.
"We need to invest in public health," says former CDC director, lessons that "we better learn"
If we've learned anything from COVID, former CDC chief Tom Frieden says it's that we need to invest a lot more in public health.
"We need a renaissance in our public health system. We need a robust primary care system. And we need resilient populations," he tells Ian Bremmer on GZERO World.
Without good primary care, we can't get detect outbreaks, diagnose, treat, or vaccinate properly. Resilient populations means those that can withstand the shock of a pandemic because, for instance, chronic diseases are under control.
Trust is also an issue — and that's why Frieden wants the CDC to stay in Atlanta, far away from the White House.
Watch the GZERO World episode: How depoliticizing the US health response will save lives (COVID isn't over)
COVID ain't over
We're not done with the pandemic — yet.
In the US, infections are up five-fold from a year ago, although both hospitalizations are down.
Although COVID will likely become endemic sometime this year in some parts of the world, the virus will still rage on everywhere else.
China's zero-COVID strategy is having a tremendous cost, while barely 17.4% of Africans are vaccinated. That bodes well for new variants.
Meanwhile, rich countries keep hoarding jabs, now also against monkeypox. Did we not learn anything after more than two years?
Watch the GZERO World episode: How depoliticizing the US health response will save lives (COVID isn't over)
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