Latest / THE DAILY BRIEF / Kremlin denies second infection after reported plague death

Transcript

Kremlin denies second infection after reported plague death · THE DAILY BRIEF

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: RUSSIA HAS REFUSED TO ANNOUNCE THE PATHOGEN THAT KILLED A
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: YOUNG RESEARCHER AT THE ANTI-PLAGUE INSTITUTE OF SIBERIA MORE THAN
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: A WEEK AGO. THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION IS DEMANDING MORE
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: INFORMATION ABOUT A POSSIBLE SECOND INCIDENT AT THE LAB, WHICH
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: THE KREMLIN STRONGLY DENIES. WITH THAT, LET'S BRING IN FORMER
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: CDC DIRECTOR, DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, ALSO MY FORMER COLLEAGUE. DIRECTOR REDFIELD,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: SOME SAY THIS COULD BE THE PLAGUE. WHAT DO YOU THINK?
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: You know, Kaylee, I don't know, you know, actually what
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: she died of. I think that's the real problem. The
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: narrative has been plague. I have a couple problems with
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: the narrative. She was working in.
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: A plague lab.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: And if it was wild type plague, it would be
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: most likely that she could be treated within 48 hours
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: and it's very treatable and she wouldn't have died. Now,
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: if this was somehow genetically engineered plague that had been
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: engineered to be resistant to the antibiotics, then they wouldn't work,
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: and the absence of treatment plague is usually fatal. The
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: other challenge I have is the Russian response. If you
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: look in the United States, we have about seven cases
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: of plague a year, largely from prairie.
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: Dogs and other rodents in the West.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: We had a case of pneumonic plague in Arizona in 25.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: But the last case of human-to-human transmission of plague that
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: we had in the United States was in 1924. So
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: plague isn't very transmissible human-to-human. So the fact that they
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: closed five hospitals and they quarantined 200 people, you know,
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: I'm very perplexed by that response.
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: And it suggests to me that it may be another pathogen. Dr.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Redfield, you think that this could be genetically engineered plague?
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's kind of crazy to think about.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: Well, that part of the world, and I've been there
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: when I was CDC director, both in Georgia and Kazakhstan.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: in the old Soviet Union, they had a number of
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: these anthrax plague labs, because both the anthrax and plague
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: are zoonotic in the area. But also, these were two
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: of the pathogens that were, you know, really involved in
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: their dual-use, special-use program. And there have been pretty good
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: reports back from the outbreak in Russia in 1979, where
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: anthrax escaped and the anthrax that escaped was highly resistant
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: to antibiotics in a very abnormal way, suggesting it had
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: been engineered. So I do think, you know, there are
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: unfortunately active biodefense bioweapons programs that do modify the susceptibility
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: of these pathogens, both plague and anthrax. And that is
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: a possibility that it's been a genetically engineered plague that
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: somehow was engineered to be antibiotic resistant and, more importantly,
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: engineered to be transmissible more easily human to human. The
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: public health response that the Russians did just, to me,
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: doesn't add up. They closed four or five hospitals. And
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: they quarantined 200 people. That wouldn't be the normal response
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: if this was just plague. So this is why WHO
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: and the CDC and the president, we just want the
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: Russians to tell us what's going on. There is this
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: thing called the International Health Regulation, which they've signed. which
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: says that they will notify specifically about these events within 48.
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: Hours, and they haven't done that.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and the mother of this woman who died said,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: I know the truth. I'm having to fend off stupid
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: acquaintances who believed all this. The clever ones didn't believe
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: it at all. She believes there's something more at play here.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: But the CDC says at this time there's no indication
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: of a broader threat to the United States. Are we
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: at risk here in the U.S.? No.
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: I would agree with that statement, and I've been in
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: touch with them. I don't think.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: There's any immediate.
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: Risk at all.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: I think the challenge is to include if there's any methogen.
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: Did she die of plague?
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: Or was there a secondary case that has been reported?
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: And was that also plague? Or is this a different pathogen?
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: You know, is this something like, you know, like a
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: hantavirus that can cause pulmonary disease?
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: You remember earlier this year, we had the antivirus in
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: the hantavirus. So I don't know.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: I don't want people to believe that I know because
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: Dr.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Robert Redfield, thank you so much for joining us this morning.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: Be sure to like and subscribe for all the Fox
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: News latest on YouTube and catch full shows streaming now
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: on Fox 1.