Latest / Curtis Sliwa & Larry Mendte In The Morning / Dr. Gregory Poland, Health and Medical expert of infectious diseases at the Mayo Clinic Interview

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Dr. Gregory Poland, Health and Medical expert of infectious diseases at the Mayo Clinic Interview · Curtis Sliwa & Larry Mendte In The Morning

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Right on time. We have on the line doctor Gregory
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  Speaker 1: Poland health and medical expert who was a leader in
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: vaccines and infectious diseases at the Mayo Clinic and president
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: of the HRIO Research Institute in New York, and Doc,
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  Speaker 1: I gotta tell you I have vertigo from the Food
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  Speaker 1: and Drug Administration the FDA. One moment, they claiming that
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  Speaker 1: Taylor lettuce used by Taco Bell is responsible for hundreds
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  Speaker 1: of Americans with explosive diarrhea because of testing they did.
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  Speaker 1: Then the next day they walk it back because they
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  Speaker 1: say the results are a false positive. Where do we
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  Speaker 1: stand with all of this? This is like a seesaw.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah right there, As best I understand it, there was
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  Speaker 2: controversy over a sample, but other samples have been positive,
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  Speaker 2: so they believe they have focused the outbreak on Taylor
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  Speaker 2: Farms in Central Mexico, big distributor. In fact, they're the
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  Speaker 2: largest salad producer in the world. So there may be
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  Speaker 2: more than one outbreak, not just one concentrated outbreak, but
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  Speaker 2: it is pretty clear that it is due to shredded lettuce.
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  Speaker 3: I want to talk about Legionnaire's disease if I can
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  Speaker 3: for a second, because in the last ten years, New
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  Speaker 3: York has had three outbreaks and over twenty people have died,
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  Speaker 3: two in just the last year. And we're dealing with
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  Speaker 3: this recent outbreak right now. What is the problem why
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  Speaker 3: New York. I'm looking around the country. They're not having
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  Speaker 3: these type of outbreaks. It's the water coolers. The way
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  Speaker 3: we're handling that in this city that's different than other cities.
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  Speaker 2: Actually not so much different, but in a sense better.
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  Speaker 2: Now that sounds contradictory, but in New York, you diagnose
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  Speaker 2: the cases, clinicians think about it, Towers get tested, although
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  Speaker 2: all of that is not what it used to be
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  Speaker 2: because of cuts to CDC outbreak response to water ecologists
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  Speaker 2: who manage this. So what's supposed to happen in these
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  Speaker 2: in these large buildings is they're supposed to test every
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  Speaker 2: month and treat every month. They may or may not
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  Speaker 2: do that. There may or may not be enforcement. And
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  Speaker 2: just to kind of provide some perspective, I think this
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  Speaker 2: surprises people. In an average year in the US, we
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  Speaker 2: have upwards of ten thousand cases of Legionella a year.
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  Speaker 3: Wow.
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  Speaker 2: So it's it's more than just the New York outbreak.
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  Speaker 2: This is the This is a concentrated outbreak in time.
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  Speaker 2: Although outbreak response seems to be helping, the peak of
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  Speaker 2: cases in New York City was that first week of July,
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  Speaker 2: and it's really dwindled. So when you hear about a
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  Speaker 2: death yesterday, for example, that's somebody who got sick a
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  Speaker 2: couple of weeks ago, it doesn't reflect an ongoing outbreak,
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  Speaker 2: it reflects infection earlier.
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  Speaker 1: Now, doctor Gregory Poblan, I'm going to test your acumen
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  Speaker 1: with your bedside skills as a doctor. Because our producer
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  Speaker 1: Natalie had a tradition in her household that before any
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  Speaker 1: dinner or lunch, there would be a big bowl of
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  Speaker 1: lettuce in a salad. And ever since this Cocko Bell
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  Speaker 1: Taylor Iceberg lettuce scare, she is no longer having any salad,
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  Speaker 1: any lettuce. Can you assuage your fears because a lot
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  Speaker 1: of people out there, likewise, they believe in salad, they
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  Speaker 1: believe in iceberg or romain lettuce. What should they do
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  Speaker 1: if they want to continue to eat these veggies?
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  Speaker 2: So this, this particular outbreak seems to be related to
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  Speaker 2: shredded lettuce, but we have to recognize that all sorts
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  Speaker 2: of vegetables, herbs, even produce. Fruit produce can get infected
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  Speaker 2: with this parasite. So what can you do to prevent this?
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  Speaker 2: Number One, The outbreak has been with this shredded lettuce
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  Speaker 2: from Tailor Farms marketed as market side lettuce. They particularly
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  Speaker 2: distribute to Walmart, so you may want to be careful
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  Speaker 2: there until this is resolved. But here are the things
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  Speaker 2: you can do. Number One, wash your hands before and
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  Speaker 2: after handling produce. Wash the food thoroughly, eat the food cooked,
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  Speaker 2: not raw. That doesn't work with lettuce, and with lettuce,
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  Speaker 2: I wouldn't buy the chopped stuff right now. Buy a
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  Speaker 2: whole head and remove the outer layers of produce where
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  Speaker 2: the cysts, the O cis is what they're called, tend
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  Speaker 2: to concentrate. If you do that, I think you can
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  Speaker 2: still safely eat lettuce. I am yeah, does that count
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  Speaker 2: for everything? I'm looking at the CDC site and the
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  Speaker 2: current outbreak list, and you would think it was just this,
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  Speaker 2: You'd think it was just this new disease with Tailor Foods,
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  Speaker 2: But they have a list here of there's been a
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  Speaker 2: major salmonella outbreak, there's an E Coli outbreak, there's a
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  Speaker 2: listeria outbreak right now, So you have all these outbreaks
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  Speaker 2: that are food related across the country. Is just cleaning
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  Speaker 2: the food? Is that all it takes to protect yourself? Cleaning, cooking,
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  Speaker 2: if you can, those are the things you can do
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  Speaker 2: to reduce You can never eliminate the risk. The real
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  Speaker 2: issue here, which we have to talk about is that
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  Speaker 2: the US has substantially cut funding for surveillance and outbreak response.
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  Speaker 2: And in fact, this is interesting. The FDA had put
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  Speaker 2: into place a traceability rule so that outbreaks could be
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  Speaker 2: traced back quickly and easily to their source. Those foods recalled.
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  Speaker 2: Guess what happened. Not only were personnel and funding cut,
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  Speaker 2: but this rule was delayed until July of twenty twenty eight.
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  Speaker 1: This particular, this particular problem with tailor lettuce. I keep
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  Speaker 1: hearing that it's the result of a fecal matter from humans,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm saying to myself, now, wait, you think does
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  Speaker 1: this mean the guys and gals who are in the fields.
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  Speaker 1: Let's face it, they don't have portasans out there. It's
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  Speaker 1: very primitive conditions. They're in a hot, sweltering sun. They've
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  Speaker 1: got these irrigation water ditches right over there. Is that
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  Speaker 1: what this is the result of the fact that probably
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  Speaker 1: you know, mother Nature calls them, they respond and it
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  Speaker 1: ends up on the products that they're picking. They go
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  Speaker 1: to the packing house and arrive been a wholesale retail
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  Speaker 1: operation and then on Natalie's table as part of the shalet.
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  Speaker 3: Sorry about it if you're eating breakfast right now, we
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  Speaker 3: really apologize the pun.
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  Speaker 2: The pun in our field is you can either pay
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  Speaker 2: for prevention or I know it's a bad pun, pay
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  Speaker 2: for it on the back end.
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  Speaker 1: Doctor Joke.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly nailed it. In fact, I recall a great presentation
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  Speaker 2: I saw by the state epidemiologist in Minnesota. He went
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  Speaker 2: to Mexico and traced how this happens. Now, remember what occurs,
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  Speaker 2: and you you nailed it. These are agricultural workers who
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  Speaker 2: are paid by the peace that they pick. Okay, the
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  Speaker 2: bathrooms are a mile or two away. What do you
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  Speaker 2: think is gonna happen that water drains into big slews
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  Speaker 2: where they wash the lettuce? What do you think is
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  Speaker 2: gonna happen the sanitation and you know the cultural idea
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  Speaker 2: of hand washing and hygiene is a little different in
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  Speaker 2: those conditions. And within twenty four hours of it being picked,
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  Speaker 2: it's washed, wrapped, shipped and on your grocery shelf. See.
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  Speaker 3: Now, usually doctors come on the air and tell everybody
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  Speaker 3: they got to eat their fruit and vegetables. But now
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  Speaker 3: I think there's a whole lot of people after hearing that,
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  Speaker 3: including me, that are thinking to themselves, I'm gonna steer
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  Speaker 3: clear of fruit and vegetables because the people that pick
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  Speaker 3: it are you know, doing you know what on them.
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  Speaker 2: It's uh, my kids said, Dad, you always talk about this,
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  Speaker 2: but nobody's gotten food poisoning from free doos or twinkies.
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  Speaker 2: Good point.
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  Speaker 3: That's an excellent point. Tell your kids, thank you, all right.
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  Speaker 3: Doctor Gregory Polwand, a health and medical expert who is
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  Speaker 3: a leader in vaccines, were always happy that he takes
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  Speaker 3: some time to talk to us as you with the
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  Speaker 3: Mayo Clinic. He's also president of the Atria Research Institute
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  Speaker 3: in New York.