'Preparation is the issue': Dr Marc Siegel addresses World Health Organization's warnings for next pandemic on 'Fox & Friends'
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Fox News medical contributor Dr Marc Siegal appeared on the February 19 episode of 'Fox & Friends' alongside co-host Steve Doocy to react to the World Health Organization's warning against a future pandemic named 'Disease X.'
Speaking at the World Governments Summit in Dubai on February 12, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated, "The pandemic is a matter of when, not if ... And as things stand, the world remains unprepared for the for the next disease, 'X,' and the next pandemic."
The need for a better strategy
While Siegel claimed that the WHO "loves to scare people," and had coined the term 'Disease X' back in 2018, he highlighted that it was a genuine possibility, "especially with all the labs around the world that are doing gain of function research, which are testing virus potential. And the viruses could slip out of the lab."
However, preparation happened to be a serious issue according to Siegel, as he stated, "With covid, it took months before they figured out that it is air-borne, so a lot of the lockdown and these extended strategies did more harm than good because the virus spread anyway."
"What we need is a strategy looking forward, controlling all this research going on in the labs, we're having a moratorium on it," he continued. "And preparation means rapid testing, vaccines that would fit almost any pathogen, and having the response suit the virus that comes out. That is the key."
Risk faced by rural hospitals
Doocy brought up the struggles faced by rural hospitals, citing a study by Chartis that showed that 453 of them were at risk of closure, particularly in the states of Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Georgia, and Mississippi.
"In south (and) the mid-west, the problem is how expensive everything is," said Siegel. "Maternity care, cancer care, end-of-life care, we spend a fortune on that and 40% of our rural hospitals are losing money because of it. And there's burnout, staffing problem, people quitting because of the pandemic."
According to him, the solution involved an increase in tele-healthcare and artificial intelligence, which cuts down on paperwork and should ideally cut down costs. "Medical and nursing professionals should also be re-invigorated," Siegel added.
