Dr. John Nkengasong

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208 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2026 last heard 9 Jul

Dr. John Nkengasong’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Science Friday · Amid shifting politics, can we build stable global health systems? · 9 Jul 2026 podcast

Thank you.

What we are seeing with respect to this current Ebola outbreak in

The Democratic Republic of Congo, commonly called DRC, is African leadership, where the country, Congo itself, is leading an extraordinary response, supported by their own resources, the assets that they've accumulated over the years.

Remember, this is the 17th or so outbreak in that country.

We're also seeing the regional WHO, World Health Organization, and the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention playing an extraordinary role.

The Africa Centers for Disease Control, which we'll call in this conversation Africa CDC, just convened a meeting of head of states in Africa to rally them around this outbreak because it's a serious health security threat.

So we are seeing that.

At a global front, we are seeing the coalescing of assets, and the WHO Geneva is leading that coordination.

The UNICEF is leading that coordination.

Philanthropists like the Gates Foundation, the MasterCard Foundation are supporting.

So we are seeing a multi-layered response to this outbreak.

But again, what is important and pleasing to me is the leadership that

The government of the Congo is exercising.

I just spoke with the minister of her this morning, early this morning at 7.30, and we're exchanging ideas on how it is going there.

So really, this is the kind of leadership that we have been saying we want to see in the regions and want to see in the countries.

Absolutely.

In disease outbreaks, when you do that call and how you do the call is so important.

So that is the extra advantage of having regional authorities, health authorities that can look at a backyard and say, hey, look, there's fire in my backyard and I need to do something with it rather than wait for an organization in Geneva to say, look, it looks like you have fire in your backyard.

We need to do something.

The United States has always been a champion, a leader in global health with a distant second.

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