Hantavirus a potential STD, but can't hide: Dr. Deborah Birx | NewsNation Prime

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:00]For more, we are joined by Dr. Deborah Burks, the former White House Corona virus response coordinator under President Trump. Dr. Burks, really appreciate your perspective on all of this. And I do want to start with Haunt Virus tonight. We now have 16 more people in the US being monitored for haunt virus and they were actually exposed to the infected woman on a plane who later died. Do you believe that we have a handle on the number of people stateside potentially exposed to this and do you expect that number will grow from 41?

[00:00:28]No, I think we have a very good handle.

[00:00:30]I think um CDC's done a great job tracking all of these individuals who were exposed. Remember, we did have that one woman who got on the plane in South Africa. They got that woman off that plane, but a significant number of people got exposed. Of course, we had the people exposed on the ship who are in Nebraska. And then we have people from around the world. And you know, the Canadian, you just summarize that so well, the Canadian and the French woman, both of which are positive. But I think as you can see as it's tailing off, we're find it's been over a week and we've had one positive. So I think we are through the really high count. I do think we have to figure out how we are going to isolate people when they've only been exposed and how we start using molecular tests that are very early sensitive that would keep them to be able to be out of these containment units eventually and tested at home. um because both every one of our states have haunt virus testing because we have haunt virus throughout the United States. So um a different strain not the humanto human transmission strain.

[00:01:34]>> Are we prepared for the next pandemic?

[00:01:37]>> You know I think intellectually and theoretically we're prepared but I think we have to dramatically change um our guidance and our trust with the American people. And I think many countries have had a very good deep dive into what they could do better with the next pandemic based on the COVID response. I think we need to do that in the US. I think we need clear guidance of how to keep schools open with the next pandemic. How to use tests proactively. That's what we did in the United States and the southern schools and many universities were able to stay open. So we have solutions, but I think we need to really convince the American people both on both sides of the the people who are very concerned and the people who aren't concerned at all that we have really looked at this and we know how to do this better. This virus hun virus and Andy strain in particular is less contagious than co that is good news. We have seen the Andes strain spread without direct contact specifically tied to the largest outbreak so far in Argentina that started in 2018. Uh we saw that it started with a man who was infected by rodents, but in all about six of the 34 cases in that outbreak actually had no direct contact uh with those who were ill. What do you make of this and and can the Andes virus perhaps spread a little more readily than we think?

[00:02:57]>> Well, you know, we have not done a good job testing everybody who is exposed during these outbreaks. And then we would really understand you know we we track people by symptoms but we should never be tracking viruses through symptoms because we all get different symptoms. Some people may get very little symptoms and write it off and not know they have hontes virus but be able to pass it on to others. We know that haunt like other respiratory viruses can remain suspended in air and we breathe it in and you don't know that that person was infected that you are standing next to. So I think really we need to do a better job and stop tracking viruses through symptoms and start tracking viruses through molecular testing.

[00:03:39]>> And meanwhile the New York Post among others reporting that the anti strain of haunt virus can survive in human semen up to six years. They are describing that this can essentially become a sexually transmitted infection. Are I mean what what do we need to do about this? Are there tests that will be able to detect this in haunt virus patients should this be a major concern going forward? There are tests and I you know we learned this remember when we had the Ebola cases in the United States and Europe um from exposure in Africa and then we started testing and finding privilege what we call privilege reservoirs of the virus and another place where it was found was the eye and the semen and so now that we've gotten better molecular testings we're able to find out where these viruses can hide and hide silently and I think this is another really important aspect of us understanding humanto human transmission.

[00:04:31]>> I want to return to a topic we were just talking about because last night we spoke with Dr. Pere, a former HHS assistant secretary. He believes we are not prepared for another pandemic. Let's take a listen to what he had to say.

[00:04:44]>> Are we prepared for the next pandemic?

[00:04:48]>> Well, we're not. So, uh and and we need to do uh a much better job. We've backslid particularly in the last 18 months. Uh so we have tremendous more uh to do and I think everyone in this country knows why we what in fact what we just experienced over uh over five or six years ago.

[00:05:05]>> Do you agree with him? Have we backslid over the last 12 18 months?

[00:05:11]I think our relationship our public health relationship to the public is more difficult than it was before CO but I don't I can't say that we're quote not prepared because we learned with CO that the group that was really responsible for our success in being able to get PPE to nurses be able to get test out to everyone. I mean, we were doing over two million tests a day. Being able to get therapeutics and vaccines was all due to the innovation of our private sector.

[00:05:43]And I think government alone cannot be prepared. But government plus the private sector plus the public, that's the three-legged stool that we have to ensure that we're always strengthening and have good relationships with. What is the biggest mistake in your estimation we made during the COVID response and what needs to be fixed most urgently before the next pandemic?

[00:06:06]I think that we we knew how to control the virus through testing. In other words, there were several universities, many actually, that stayed open all through the fall of 2020. Their sports teams were active in the summer of 2020. They were open the whole fall and many of the high schools and and K through 12 were open. and they were testing finding the asymptomatic individuals not waiting for symptoms and they dramatically changed transmission in those in the schools and I think that's what we need to do we need to be proactive and I think people got very frustrated by their children being quarantined when we could have used tests to keep them in the class >> thank you for watching subscribe below and download our NewsNation app right now on your phone and you will get fact-based unbiased news for All Americans.