One-liner
TWiV's special episode features Peter Daszak, President of EcoHealth Alliance, discussing the nonprofit's involvement in global health, research on emerging diseases, and the development of collaboration hubs around the world to better prepare for and understand pandemics.
Synopsis
TWiV Introduction
Vincent Racaniello opens the podcast, highlighting it as a platform focusing on viruses that cause illness.
EcoHealth Alliance's Overview
Peter Daszak explains that EcoHealth Alliance is a US-based nonprofit with a strong emphasis on research, aiming to translate academic findings into on-the-ground initiatives to benefit human health. Founded over 45 years ago as a conservation group called Wildlife Trust, EcoHealth Alliance has expanded its focus to encompass the intersection of health, ecology, and infectious diseases.
Emerging Disease Research
Key ongoing projects include predicting emerging diseases, researching Rift Valley fever and its transmission dynamics, and understanding the link between deforestation and disease emergence. Daszak emphasizes the importance of in-country capacity building, ensuring sustainability once initial funding ceases.
Viral Pathogens and Biodiversity
Daszak speaks on the scrutiny of western Asia for exploring new viral pathogens from bats and addresses the concern regarding the wide variety of current and potentially emergent viral threats such as African swine fever and SARS-related coronaviruses.
One Health and Conservation
Daszak details EcoHealth Alliance's approach—termed "One Health"—which integrates human, environmental, and animal health to understand and mitigate disease spread. They aim to influence government policy by illustrating the economic costs of diseases potentially exacerbated by environmental mismanagement.
EcoHealth Alliance's Global Reach
Throughout the conversation, Daszak describes how EcoHealth Alliance collaborates with laboratories and fieldworkers on a global scale, leveraging research capabilities while maintaining headquarters in New York. The Alliance has presence in roughly 30 countries through a diversified workforce adapted to multitasking and employing expertise from various scientific fields.
Funding for EcoHealth Alliance
Daszak discusses the difficulties in securing federal funding and the importance of diverse financial streams, noting that while EcoHealth Alliance has never received funding from the Gates Foundation, it relies on federal support, charitable donations, and other foundation grants to operate.
Key quotes
- "Do the science and publish in the best journals you can, go for a typical academic strategy, but then try and take the science and do something with it on the ground."
- "Deforestation... drives emergence. In our global analysis of emerging infectious diseases, land use change is a globally significant predictor of pandemic risk."
- "Coronaviruses are a pretty good... you can manipulate them in the lab pretty easily. Spike protein drives a lot of what happens with another virus, zoonotic risk."
- "We've now found after six or seven years of doing this, over a hundred new SARS-related coronaviruses very close to SARS."
- "We work a lot on the underlying causes of pandemics: deforestation, climate change, wildlife hunting. That's our conservation side as well."
Make it stick
- "One Health Approach" – The integration of human, animal, and environmental health for a more comprehensive understanding of and response to infectious diseases.
- "Bats as Viral Reservoirs" – Bats harbor more virus species than other mammals, including potentially pandemic ones like SARS-related coronaviruses.
- "Living Safely with Bats" – EcoHealth Alliance provides educational resources on how to coexist with bats to minimize the risk of disease spillover.
Talking points
- "I was surprised to learn that EcoHealth Alliance has discovered over a hundred new SARS-related coronaviruses, which really emphasizes the unpredictability and potential danger of virus spillover from wildlife."
- "Did you know that deforestation not only impacts the environment but also increases the risk of disease emergence? It's interesting to see how economic factors and conservation efforts intertwine with global health
This summary contains AI-generated information and may have important inaccuracies or omissions.