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The Daily Signal

‘It’s Going to Be Catastrophic’: Why the Next Pandemic Will Be Worse Than COVID

The Daily Signal

The Daily Signal

News, Daily News, Politics, Government

4.81.4K Ratings

🗓️ 9 July 2024

⏱️ 26 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning Americans to prepare for the next pandemic, which he fears will be more catastrophic than COVID-19. Dr. Robert Redfield, a virologist who continues to treat patients suffering from COVID, oversaw the CDC’s initial response to the pandemic and served as a member of the White House’s Coronavirus Task Force under former President Donald Trump. "We are going to have another pandemic," Redfield told The Daily Signal. "I do believe it's going to be much more catastrophic than the COVID pandemic." Redfield predicted the next pandemic would be the bird flu, also known as H5N1. Its mortality rate is significantly higher than COVID: 52% of the 888 infected patients with H5N1 have died since 2003. "COVID's mortality was about 0.6%," Redfield said. "Bird flu's mortality is going to be north of 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%. It's going to be catastrophic." With more than 100 million chickens and turkeys already infected in the United States, Redfield said bird flu has also been found in 27 different mammals. And while there remains a low risk of infecting humans right now, another mishap like the COVID lab leak could quickly expedite bird flu's transmission. "This is why I've called for a moratorium on gain-of-function research until we can have a broader public debate about it," he said. "I'm not convinced it needs to be done. I don't think there's really any benefit from it. Some of my colleagues disagree with me, but I think we shouldn't do it until we know how we do it in a safe, responsible, and effective way and we clearly can't do that at the present time." Redfield served on a nonpartisan commission convened by The Heritage Foundation, which issued a blistering critique of China’s COVID-19 cover-up. The commission, which released its report Monday, blamed the communist government in Beijing for obfuscating the truth about the pandemic's origin and causing widespread damage and death as a result. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

The public health institutions of our nation have lost trust.

0:05.0

It takes decades to build trust. It takes hours to lose it.

0:11.0

The public health community at large has lost a lot of trust.

0:21.0

This is the Daily Signal Podcast for Tuesday, July 9th.

0:24.4

I'm your host Rob Louie, and that was the voice of Dr Robert Redfield,

0:29.1

former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

0:33.0

Dr Redfield served as a member of a nonpartisan commission

0:37.6

studying COVID and China.

0:40.3

The Heritage Foundation's Commission was formed with the purpose of reviewing the facts and circumstances related to one of the most devastating pandemics the world has ever seen.

0:51.0

And it assessed and calculated the human toll and economic

0:54.8

damaged caused by the Chinese government. Dr Redfield joins us on the

0:59.2

Daily Signal podcast today to talk about the report's findings and some recommendations that he and the

1:05.1

other commissioners are putting forward for Congress and the American people to

1:08.7

consider. He also shares with us some of the threats that we face in the future.

1:13.2

Be sure to listen to our interview right after this.

1:17.0

So what is going on with Ukraine?

1:23.0

What is this deal with the border?

1:25.0

How do you feel about school choice?

1:27.0

These are the questions that come up to conservatives, sitting at parties,

1:31.0

at dinner, at family reunions. what do you say when these questions come up?

1:36.4

I'm Mark Eine, the host of the podcast for you, Heritage Explains brought to you by all of your friends here at the Heritage Foundation. Heritage we bring you the most important policy issues of the day and break them down in a way that is understandable.

1:56.8

So check out Heritage Explains wherever you get your podcasts.

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