Sep 1, 2026 · 25 min · 10 segments
Are we ready for the next public health emergency? **Rob Lott** speaks with physician, researcher, and *New Yorker* writer **Dhruv Khullar** about the state of U.S. public health preparedness, the…
Dhruv KhullarGuest
Rob LottHost
And as I said, I'm hoping we can talk about a number of your various professional roles and how you navigate those different categories of work on a day to day basis.
But first, I wanted to start with the subject of one of your recent articles, which ran with a question for a headline.
How prepared are we for a public health emergency? This was presented in the context of hantavirus and Ebola.
Well, the first thing I would recommend is not adding cyclospora to any mix because that'll give you explosive diarrhea.
But the unfortunate answer to your question really is that we are not nearly prepared enough and not nearly as prepared as we could be.
So you might think that after going through the deadliest pandemic in a century, we're We would be taking every opportunity to ensure that we do better than last time.
So as you know, so much of public health is about surveillance and coordination.
On the coordination side, the US left the WHO, left the World Health Organization.
That is estimated to already have led to hundreds of thousands of avoidable deaths around the world.
And that is a tragedy in its own right, but it also threatens the health of Americans.
You know, remember that just because a pathogen starts abroad doesn't mean that it's going to stay abroad.
That's true of Ebola, Hantavirus, and bird flu, and any number of other pathogens diseases.
The federal government has fired thousands of employees across health agencies, including the CDC.
And as I said, I'm hoping we can talk about a number of your various professional roles and how you navigate those different categories of work on a day to day basis.
But first, I wanted to start with the subject of one of your recent articles, which ran with a question for a headline.
How prepared are we for a public health emergency? This was presented in the context of hantavirus and Ebola.
Well, the first thing I would recommend is not adding cyclospora to any mix because that'll give you explosive diarrhea.
But the unfortunate answer to your question really is that we are not nearly prepared enough and not nearly as prepared as we could be.
So you might think that after going through the deadliest pandemic in a century, we're We would be taking every opportunity to ensure that we do better than last time.
So as you know, so much of public health is about surveillance and coordination.
On the coordination side, the US left the WHO, left the World Health Organization.
That is estimated to already have led to hundreds of thousands of avoidable deaths around the world.
And that is a tragedy in its own right, but it also threatens the health of Americans.
You know, remember that just because a pathogen starts abroad doesn't mean that it's going to stay abroad.
That's true of Ebola, Hantavirus, and bird flu, and any number of other pathogens diseases.
The federal government has fired thousands of employees across health agencies, including the CDC.
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