Are Pandemics Inevitable?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 4 November 2014
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Outbreaks are inevitable, pandemics are optional,” says Dr Larry Brilliant, a leading figure in the successful global campaign to eradicate smallpox.
But does the flawed international response to the Ebola outbreak suggest it is now less likely that the world will come together to defeat diseases with pandemic potential?
The Inquiry meets Dr Brilliant and other expert witnesses: Dr Malik Peiris, who identified SARS; Dr Julie Gerberding, president of the Vaccine division at Merck; and Ian Goldin, formerly of the World Bank.
Presenter: Helena Merriman Producers: Charlotte Pritchard and Neal Razzell Editor: Richard Knight
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless |
| 0:06.8 | searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the |
| 0:11.8 | telly we share what we've been watching |
| 0:14.0 | Cladie Aide. |
| 0:16.0 | Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming. |
| 0:19.0 | Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige. |
| 0:21.0 | And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less |
| 0:24.9 | searching and a lot more watching listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:28.9 | Hi thanks for downloading the inquiry here on the BBC World Service. |
| 0:34.0 | It's a new weekly program. |
| 0:35.9 | Our job is to add in-depth analysis to one big question from the news. |
| 0:41.6 | We hope you like it. |
| 0:43.0 | BBC World Service, this is Helena Merriman with the inquiry. |
| 0:49.0 | This week we ask, are pandemics inevitable? |
| 0:57.0 | Now, Ebola is not a pandemic, but it's an outbreak that the world is struggling to contain, |
| 1:06.7 | raising questions about our ability to prevent them. |
| 1:10.0 | We've summoned four expert witnesses, including a doctor who helped to eradicate one of the world's oldest diseases |
| 1:18.0 | and a man who discovered one of the world's newest ones. |
| 1:22.0 | We're going to start by taking you back to 2003. People from |
| 1:28.1 | China to Singapore are wearing masks to protect them against an unknown killer. |
| 1:33.0 | A lot of people have been seeing reports from all over Asia of people coming down with this. |
| 1:39.0 | I don't think that anybody knows what the cause of this is right now and we may be |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.