Is The US Ready For A New Global Health Threat?

What A Day

News, Daily News

4.6 • 12.6K Ratings

🗓️ 20 May 2026

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The World Health Organization met on Tuesday in Switzerland to discuss a deadly outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. According to the WHO, the outbreak, which has killed more than 130 people and infected more than 500, could last for months. Those numbers could be much, much higher than what they've been able to report. The Ebola outbreak comes in the midst of another deadly health crisis you've probably heard a lot about: hantavirus. It's part of a family of extremely dangerous viruses that are primarily spread by rats and mice. As all this is going on, you're probably wondering who's running the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention? And who is currently the Surgeon General of the United States? The answer to both? Currently, no one has been confirmed by the Senate. To find out more about what's happening with America's public health system, we spoke with Apoorva Mandavilli. She's a science and global health reporter at the New York Times.

And in headlines, President Donald Trump shows off the White House ballroom construction site, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche sits for a Congressional hearing, and guess who's making a lot of money trading stocks? You're not going to like the answer.

Show Notes:

Check out Apoorva's work – www.nytimes.com/by/apoorva-mandavilli
Call Congress – 202-224-3121
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For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's Wednesday, May 20th. I'm Jane Koston, and this is what a day.
0:06.8	The show celebrating Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy's new career as a big old
0:11.7	hater. Since he lost his primary last weekend, Cassidy has said he would vote against funding
0:16.7	President Donald Trump's ballroom and voted to support Democrats' resolution to limit Trump's war powers.
0:22.6	Hate, hate, hate, hate.
0:29.6	On today's show, Shvavvna!
0:33.1	Oh, sorry, you couldn't follow that?
0:35.5	That was me trying to talk over the sound of the White House ballroom construction.
0:39.5	And Trump makes an endorsement Republicans did not ask for.
0:42.7	But let's start with America's public health system and what it is and isn't equipped to handle right now.
0:47.9	The World Health Organization met on Tuesday in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss a deadly outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of
0:54.9	the Congo and Uganda. According to the WHO, the outbreak, which has killed more than 130 people
1:01.3	and infected more than 500, could last for months, and those numbers could be much, much higher
1:06.8	than what officials have been able to determine. Trump is also concerned about Ebola.
1:12.4	Well, as concerned as he gets about things that don't involve him personally.
1:16.2	Here he is on Monday.
1:17.5	Should America be concerned about Ebola?
1:19.8	I'm concerned about everything, but certainly am.
1:22.9	I think that, you know, it's been confined right now to Africa,
1:27.0	but it's something that has had a breakout.
1:30.2	The Ebola outbreak comes in the midst of another outbreak
1:32.6	you've probably heard a lot about.
	...

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