Discussion on Plague Containment and Risks

In the olden days, the, the, the, uh, you know, great plagues that we've

had, and we actually had this organism in the

West Coast, San Francisco, for

instance, uh, many decades ago. It's normally transmitted by

fleas. So there are fleas that are carried with the

rodents. The fleas carry their Yersinia pestis,

the plague organism, and through flea bites, that's how people

actually get the illness. This was a direct pulmonary

laboratory spread. Very frightening.

Yeah.

So, uh, Doctor, today Marco Rubio said, "If we don't get this contained,

this could spread quickly." Give us some thoughts about if this is truly a lab

leak or an accident. Uh, why the 200 people containment, and

does it spread quickly if it starts to get outside that lab?

Well, if this worker was sick at her place of employment,

which was

the lab, and she coughed, vigorously coughed, she could have

spread it to others. And there's apparently 189 that they're

carefully surveilling right now.

Now, this is a bacteria, not a virus, so it's readily treatable-

Right

... with antibiotics like doxycycline, ciprofloxacin.

In the hospital, we can use IV aminoglycosides like

gentamicin, so it's treatable. But it's one of these

nearly immediate fatal pathogens.

People can't survive a pneumonia with this for very long at all, and that's the

great concern.