Katelyn Jetelina: Public health in the US
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What are the current challenges facing public health in the US?
So I wanted to talk to you about two main areas today. One was about kind of where we are with public health and all of its problems. And then the other is your expansive efforts at YLE, which is your local epidemiologist. So let's start off with today, we got the news, of course, that the CDC nominee, Weldon was no longer going to be the nominee. I take that as good news. What do you think?
Yeah, you know, he kind of came out of nowhere. I mean, he was really prominent on the scene in the early 2000s. And when he was nominated, everyone was like, who's Weldon?
Who is Weldon and why was his nomination significant?
And so I was actually very curious about the hearing today because I really wanted to figure out, like, who is he? Like, what does he believe in? All that sort of stuff. And then you're right. It was pulled right before he put out a statement on that PDF. I don't know if you saw that, Eric, around them pulling his nomination and how frustrated and angry he was that it was pulled because he's been labeled anti-vax and He's, I don't know, you know, so yeah, it's a good, maybe a good thing. If he continued to be anti-vax, I'm not too sure. I'm kind of holding my breath because there could always be someone worse, I think. So I think like we're right now, it's an interesting development, but the story hasn't finished yet.
So we'll see how it plays out.
Exactly. You know, it's hard to imagine it could be worse than RFK Jr. in some respects, especially the way he's reacted to the measles outbreak in Texas and New Mexico with his ideas that the vaccine was causing it and cod liver oil and all these other things. And, you know, it's interesting, of course, that he's in there and he's, of course, already changing the way he testified when he was up for nomination. So it's very worrisome. So maybe we can just talk a bit about the measles outbreak and your thoughts about that, because we've got probably hundreds more than haven't been surfaced as far as the 250 plus as of Tuesday this week. And this is obviously well outside the Mennonite community, getting into all sorts of counties in these two states.
Where is that headed, do you think?
Yeah, so you're right. I mean, it's still continuing to grow. Yesterday, is this yesterday? Oh, tomorrow, we're going to get an account update again from Texas Department of Health and New Mexico. But on Monday or on Tuesday, whenever the last update was, it was still growing. And you're right. I mean, it is likely much bigger than the numbers that are being reported. And that's for a Um, uh, you know, it's, these are tight knit communities. There's a lot of mistrust in government institutions. Um, there's a lot of behavioral changes when, um, you know, an epidemiologist comes down and parachutes with a clipboard, but also it's, um, the numbers are just not adding up for me. And I wrote this in my newsletter earlier this week is that, you know, there's been two deaths now with 255 cases reported.
that usually we see one death per 1,000 cases in unvaccinated. So either these two were incredibly unlucky individuals or, which I think is more likely, it's a much larger outbreak. And given what we're hearing on the ground for the measles response teams, it seems like it is bigger than what's being reported. How much bigger? And will we ever know? I don't think so. But it is very clear that it's... taking a lot of resources and this is not a good time to be defunding or destructuring public health right now.
Yeah, I mean, that's what we have, the worst measles outbreak and the first deaths, you know, for many, many years. First child, I think, in 22 years. And then we have a poor response and poor, I mean, what R.K. Jr. said about making vaccines a matter of personal choice. No less, you know, these other remedies that he's advised, like cod liver oil, and vitamin A, it's really sickening as to what is the difference between evidence, a major outbreak, which of course could get much worse. Yesterday, we saw somebody in LA who had been at LA International now is diagnosed with measles and who knows where that's headed.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What are the current challenges facing public health in the US?
0:00–0:46
2
Who is Weldon and why was his nomination significant?
0:46–11:40
3
What are the implications of the measles outbreak in Texas and New Mexico?
11:40–24:36
4
How should public health communication be improved during outbreaks?
24:36–26:41
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