Viral posts manufactured a lot of things that just weren’t true.
NYC health commissioner already debunking this misinformation.
BUT this event DOES highlight something that is really important… 🧵
In ‘normal’ times—that is, before we slashed USAID and CDC—we would’ve had a lot of boots on the ground responding to the Ebola outbreak in Uganda and the Marburg outbreak in Tanzania.
Guess what, now we don’t.
Because with the new Trump admin restrictions, we couldn’t.
In ‘normal’ times, USAID would’ve help establish border screenings at the airports to detect cases before they could get on a plane.
The first time the Trump administration tried to withdraw from the WHO back in 2020, I wrote for @USATODAY what we needed to do was build up, not tear down, the WHO.
Despite its faults, the WHO plays a huge role as ‘our eyes and ears around the world.’
For anyone paying attention (is anyone still actually even here??)…
THIS 👆👆👆 is exactly how overconfidence mixed with a stunning lack of expertise and stubborn unwillingness to listen to people who actually know what they’re talking about will directly put you at risk.
I could happily speak on the congressional floor for hours about why we need BSL-2, BSL-3 (and BSL-4) labs. So could a lot of really qualified folks, many way smarter than me.
We could also talk about what happens if we don’t have them, and how that puts us all at risk.
As news of the Marburg cases in Rwanda spreads, I want to share some thoughts on where the outbreak stands, what will likely come next, and why this outbreak may (hopefully) end up being unlike other viral hemorrhagic fever outbreaks in the past 🧵