MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
We wanted to know more about the CDC's response to hantavirus so far, so we reached out to Dr. Debra Houry. She was the agency's chief medical officer until August of last year. Dr. Houry, good morning. Thanks for joining us.
DEBRA HOURY: My pleasure.
MARTIN: So as we just heard, our current understanding is there's a very low risk to the general public. You know, in any public health situation, there's a balance between keeping people informed without raising undue alarm. Has the CDC struck the right balance so far?
HOURY: I don't think they have just yet. I think they're working on it. But I would like to see more daily briefings where we're hearing from the scientists directly so that I'm not the one speaking about it all the time, and my colleagues, and also posting more information. Like, they recently updated their guidance. I think it's helpful to say why it was updated. And then also, when there's differences between countries, really show the data. That way, people understand the transparent thinking that has gone behind these decisions.
MARTIN: Yeah. Do you have any understanding or visibility into why they're not doing daily briefings?
HOURY: I don't. My hope is that they will. During avian influenza, we did. I know during COVID, under the prior Trump administration, they did slow those briefings down. So I think when you talk about something so regularly that it becomes routine, even boring, it really brings the drama down, and people feel like they understand what's going on. So I think that's what's really important to do during this time.
MARTIN: Is there anything else the CDC should be doing now that it isn't, in your view?
HOURY: I think the thing that I'm worried about is what will happen with a future outbreak. Right now they are working closely with the World Health Organization because it's an emergency. But when we've withdrawn from the World Health Organization, that means that we don't work regularly with the World Health Organization, and when there's a crisis is not the best time to learn how to work with someone. And Department of State has just decreased the funding to CDC, so with the work that was done in Senegal just now to, you know, closely work on this outbreak through a country office, things like that, we're not going to have that visibility. So I worry about the CDC of the future.
MARTIN: What - OK. What about right now? What kinds of experts on hantavirus does the CDC have now? We know that there have been, you know, significant reductions at that agency. Lots of people have also left voluntarily, such as yourself. Do they have experts on hantavirus still there?
HOURY: They still do have experts on hantavirus. What they have lost are a lot of the senior scientists above them. So the division director, the center director and myself - that all would have supervised this - left. But they do have technical experts on hantavirus as well as outbreak responses, so from a scientific standpoint, we are in good hands. The issue is we need a scientific leader, and there's no scientific leaders in the Office of the Director at CDC to really help with navigating these tough policy decisions.
MARTIN: So based on what you can see now from outside the agency, what's your take on how the CDC is helping that small group of Americans who were exposed to the hantavirus during that cruise?
HOURY: So they're doing the right thing. They're assessing them, you know, looking for symptoms, thinking about daily monitoring and ensuring that they've got access to higher levels of care should the people develop hantavirus because it's a very serious disease. So I think the close monitoring, being very conservative upfront and considering home monitoring if, after assessment, everything seems in place, is reasonable with what we know today.
MARTIN: Well, to your point, though, just a few of the Americans who were aboard that cruise ship are being treated in health facilities in Nebraska and in Georgia. Others are being monitored for symptoms at home. Does that make sense to you? I mean, is there any elevated risk of contagion if they're not in more sort of restricted circumstances?
HOURY: Not if they're at home and being closely monitored and being - following the guidance, you know, to where they're not leaving the home. They're separate from anybody else in their family, checking temperatures, things like that. And my understanding is those that are doing the home monitoring currently are the ones that had left the ship earlier. Those that were just brought back yesterday are still undergoing an assessment because they likely had much higher and more frequent exposures.
MARTIN: Before we let you go, we know now that a lot of people rejected public health guidance during the early days of the COVID pandemic. Do you think that those folks who were exposed are likely to do what local health officials ask?
HOURY: I think they will because this time, you know, it's really serious for these people, with a 30% to 50% fatality rate. What I would hope, though, is that our political leaders would really talk about the importance of following this guidance. We have seen that political leaders before, particularly in this administration - Secretary Kennedy has not been one to really stand behind data and science, so we need his voice to do that.
MARTIN: Dr. Debra Houry is a former chief medical officer at the CDC. She's now a senior fellow at the Yale School of Public Health. Dr. Houry, thanks so much for talking with us once again.
HOURY: My pleasure. Good morning. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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