What to know about a new Ebola outbreak

0:00Dr. Krutika Kuppalli:Support for Here and Now Anytime comes from MathWorks, creator of MATLAB and Simulink software, to design and develop engineered systems, accelerating the pace of discovery in engineering and science. Learn more at mathworks.com. WBUR Podcasts, Boston. It's a very difficult disease to detect. Diagnostics we typically use to detect Ebola did not pick up this particular species.

0:32Rick Klein:The World Health Organization declares a public health emergency of international concern over Ebola in Africa.

0:48Rick Klein:It's Monday, May 18th, and this is Here and Now anytime from NPR and WVUR. I'm Chris Bentley.

0:58Rick Klein:Today on the show, primary voters gave the boot to one of the few Republican senators who voted to impeach President Trump. Now spending in another race to unseat a Republican critical of Trump has set records. Congressman Massey has often voted more on the libertarian side, but I think the way that he went directly at Donald Trump and his Justice Department of Handling of Epstein is what got him more national prominence and what put a target on his back. But first, there's a concerning outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. The WHO is calling it a public health emergency of international concern.

1:36Rick Klein:Bundy Bujo is a rare species of the Ebola virus with no approved vaccine. Dr. Krutika Kupali is an infectious disease physician with experience in Ebola response. She told Indira Lakshmanan, the outbreak is indeed concerning.

1:53Dr. Krutika Kuppalli:So we know that the first cases reported at the end of last week, and as of today, there have been reports of over 300 suspected cases and 88 deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo. And Uganda has also reported two confirmed cases and one death. So given that we've seen so many cases reported in such a short period of time, I'm wondering if that means this is an especially contagious strain or species. So it's an off likelihood been going on for a while. When WHO released information last week, the first identified case they knew of was in the end of April. But this is likely been going on longer than that.

2:36Dr. Krutika Kuppalli:But it's a very difficult disease to detect because it's in a part of DRC where there's a lot of conflict and instability. Additionally, the diagnostics we typically use to detect Ebola did not pick up this particular species. And so samples had to be sent to the capital in order to do more testing before the outbreak was confirmed. Right. Well, the symptoms of the disease include fever, body pain and vomiting. It's transmitted through blood or bodily fluid. You worked in West Africa during the devastating Ebola outbreak that began in 2014 and killed thousands of people. Tell us how doctors treat infected people and how do you stop the spread?

3:16Dr. Krutika Kuppalli:Yeah, that's a great question. So most importantly, it's having access and utilizing appropriate personal protective equipment. So health care workers taking care of these patients can appropriately protect themselves. And then when it comes to patient care, really the cornerstone of treatment is what we call optimized supportive care. So making sure we're giving patients fluids so they don't become dehydrated, managing their electrolytes, managing their pain, managing any other co-infections that they have. This is very important in helping optimize outcomes in patients who have Ebola. Well, let me ask you, the U.S.

3:52Dr. Krutika Kuppalli:government was the largest international donor to treatment during the 2014 Ebola outbreak, giving more than$5 billion, much of it through the U.S. Agency for International Development. The Trump administration shut down USAID last year. So how is that going to affect this outbreak in trying to stem the tide? Yeah, so this is already affecting the outbreak. So a lot of the types of infrastructure that were in place, things for laboratory and diagnostics, those were shut down when USAID was shut down. And so we're seeing those repercussions now. Additionally, healthcare workers that were employed by funds related to USAID are no longer employed.

4:34Dr. Krutika Kuppalli:So we have a shortage of healthcare workers. So there are lots of real-time implications for what is happening right now related to the changes in funding. The CDC says it's going to withdraw a small number of Americans who've been, quote, directly affected. What do we know about the health of these Americans and how can they be evacuated safely without spreading the disease further? So my understanding is that there are a total of six Americans. I believe reports have said that there's one that is potentially symptomatic. Typically, when these people are evacuated, they're evacuated on a special type of airplane that allows for patients to be appropriately cared for and isolated should they need higher level of supportive care.

5:19Dr. Krutika Kuppalli:It's not exactly clear at this time what the U.S. government is planning. All right. We just have a short time left. What are the lessons you learned from the West Africa outbreak that you think would apply here just in the 30 seconds we have left? Yeah, I think first and foremost, having international coordination, that's extremely important. Having countries talking to each other, working together. Then additionally, engagement on the ground with the communities so they're aware of what's going on. They understand what's going on and they buy in and accept the help from the responders. And then the cornerstones of outbreak response, doing good contact tracing, surveillance, providing optimized supportive care.

5:58Dr. Krutika Kuppalli:All those things are going to be crucial to getting this outbreak under control. Dr. Krudika Kupali is an infectious disease physician with experience in Ebola outbreak. Thanks so much for joining us. Thank you. Have a good day.

6:14Rick Klein:Coming up next, we'll check in on primary elections in Kentucky and Georgia. Republican Congressman Thomas Massey is in the most expensive House race on record, thanks to millions of dollars in ad spending by AIPAC and other pro-Israel groups allied with one of President Trump's super PACs. Indira has more after the break.

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7:49Dr. Krutika Kuppalli:Republicans who have challenged President Trump are under pressure from the White House, and now they're being punished by the GOP and MAGA base. On Saturday in Louisiana, Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, one of only seven GOP senators who voted to convict Trump after the January 6th Capitol insurrection, became the latest casualty. He finished a distant third in his state's Republican primary, the first incumbent senator to lose a primary in nearly a decade. Now, Kentucky Republican Congressman Thomas Massey, who has frequently challenged Trump, is in the hot seat. He's in a race for his political life tomorrow in the most expensive primary race ever, according to Ad Impact, which tracks political ad spending.

8:33Dr. Krutika Kuppalli:There are also important races tomorrow in Georgia. Rick Klein is Washington bureau chief for ABC News, and he joins us now. Welcome, Rick.

8:41Rick Klein:Hey, thanks for having me.

8:41Dr. Krutika Kuppalli:So, Rick, Cassidy voted to convict Trump during an impeachment trial in 2021. He's also a medical doctor who has pushed back against Trump's health secretary, RFK Jr., who, of course, has questioned the efficacy of vaccines. Looking at Cassidy's loss, what is the message to Republican candidates and their teams?

9:01Rick Klein:Truly, there is no room in the Republican Party among primary voters when it comes to being for or against Donald Trump. There is no question that being for Donald Trump is a better position to be in. And there's almost no one who can survive in this environment. You saw it a couple of weeks ago in Indiana, where most of the state senators who had been targeted because of their refusal, along with Donald Trump's redistricting demands, lost their races. You see it here. And we'll see what happens in Kentucky tomorrow. It's a very close race, by all accounts. And what's interesting about that is Thomas Massey's breaks with Trump have been more on the MAGA-based side, whether it's Jeffrey Epstein or the war in Iran.

9:38Rick Klein:Cassidy is personal. I think that vote to impeach the president was something he would never forget. And of course, you mentioned those clashes with the Maha movement have been high profile, although Cassidy did spend a lot of time emphasizing how close he was ideologically to Trump. It is, though, stunning to see him finish in third in a primary.

9:54Dr. Krutika Kuppalli:I'm glad you mentioned those Indiana state legislators because, of course, this has not just national implications but also within state politics that the president took the time to bother to back primary challengers to those Republicans in Indiana who didn't want to go along with redistricting. They said it was gerrymandering. For tomorrow's case, you know, we've got a pretty high profile Kentucky congressman, Thomas Massey. As you note, he has challenged the president on a number of things. I think it's probably most accurate to call him a libertarian. But I'm wondering if what's gotten Trump's hackles up the most is that he pushed for the release of all the government files about former Trump friend and convicted sex offender Jeff Epstein.

10:41Dr. Krutika Kuppalli:Is that what landed him in hot water with the president?

10:44Rick Klein:It's definitely what gave him the most headlines. I think Congressman Massey has often voted more on the libertarian side, like his home state Senator Rand Paul. But I think the way that he went directly at Donald Trump and his Justice Department of handling of Epstein is what got him more national prominence and what put a target on his back. And we've seen when someone gets out like that, the president will warn a few times. And then ultimately, he said he would support a primary challenger. Marjorie Taylor Greene and her break with the party may have had something to do with that. And then President Trump threatened just over the weekend that Lauren Boebert, who's gone out and campaigned for Congressman Massey, that he'd be in the market for a primary challenger to her despite his previous endorsement of her.

11:24Rick Klein:So there really isn't any kind of leeway that the president gives to people in his own party on this. And if he puts a target on your back, it's very, very hard to survive politically. And that's the that's the reality of what they're facing, regardless of how unpopular the president is nationally. This is what it means in Republican primaries.

11:40Dr. Krutika Kuppalli:Right. Well, the president is definitely the undisputed leader of the party. And as you say, even if he's only at 37 percent popularity in the latest national polls, you know, the Republican primary base is a more conservative, more niche group of voters. I thought it was interesting that one Republican in Kentucky told The New York Times that this race, this primary challenge to Massey is, quote, ripping our party apart. Is that what you see?

12:08Rick Klein:Well, there's no question that it's put friends against friends, neighbors against neighbors, and it's also costing millions, tens of millions of dollars of money that many Republicans would rather see put to the fall to efforts to defeat Democrats. You know, whether it's whether it's Massey or another Republican, you're going to get a reliable vote. You're going to get someone that's going to vote for the Republican Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, if in a close arrangement that could matter. So anything you're doing to spend money to either influence a particular race or just be draining away from others is money that could be spent somewhere else.

12:39Rick Klein:And then you've got a situation in Texas where the president weeks ago said he would endorse the primary runoff in that state in the Republican side. And he has not done so. And as he's failed to do so, it's raised questions about who's going to win. And if Senator John Cornyn becomes another one to lose a primary, that could be a competitive election for the fall. So loyalty to Trump is one thing, but the bigger prize that many Republicans have of holding on to the House, holding on to the Senate might actually come into conflict with those loyalties.

13:07Dr. Krutika Kuppalli:Well, Democrats had a lot of momentum until the recent court rulings enabled Republicans to gain advantage in redrawing congressional maps this year. That has been buoying Republican campaigns. But where are Republicans who are swing voters right now? Because we've got Trump engaged in an extremely unpopular war in Iran. And, you know, is he starting to get pressure from within his own party, you know, over the budget, over Iran, over inflation, which is rising?

13:40Rick Klein:It's lingering out there. I mean, the president's approval ratings among Republicans is still sky high and it's higher among self-described MAGA Republicans. We're basically calling themselves Trump Republicans by embracing that. The numbers around independents are the numbers that I think have gotten more attention from political strategists in the last couple of weeks, because that's where you see some real softness of the president's handling of the economy and the war. Gas prices are obviously the biggest driver of that in terms of the daily impact on people's lives. And that's where the president has to be worried about his coattails.

14:11Rick Klein:It's not going to be in Republican primaries. Pretty clearly the president is the dominant force, maybe the only dominant force in Republican politics right now. But that's not the same as a general election. And it may actually mask some of the real political concerns that face Republicans to see how popular Donald Trump remains among those core voters, because those are not the voters that are likely to decide who controls the House and who controls the Senate.

14:33Dr. Krutika Kuppalli:Right, right. All right, Rick, there's a very crowded race for governor in Georgia. There are eight Republicans running, you know, Trump 2020 nemesis Brad Raffensperger, who famously refused to fine Trump the, quote, 11 ,000 votes that he wanted to win that race is all is running. What is this race about real fast?

14:55Rick Klein:Yeah, and even on the Democratic side, the former Republican lieutenant governor of Georgia is now running as a Democrat, although he's not favored in that race. Look, Georgia is clearly a battleground state, and it's a place that Republicans who have not been aligned fully with Trump, whether that's Raffensperger or Governor Brian Kemp or the former lieutenant governor, have been able to survive and thrive. We'll see if that happens in 2026.

15:14Dr. Krutika Kuppalli:Rick Klein, Washington Bureau Chief for ABC News. Thanks so much, Rick.

15:18Rick Klein:Thank you.

15:24Rick Klein:We're going to take one more short break, and we'll be back in a minute.

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17:01Rick Klein:Lots more we're following today at hereandnow.org. Scott Tong is back from Beijing, as is President Trump. So what did the U.S. and China get out of the summit last week between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. There were no big breakthroughs or major deals, but the trade war ceasefire stays in place. Kurt Campbell, head of the Asia Group and former Deputy Secretary of State during the Biden administration, said the summit was a chance for a reset between the U.S. and China. He told Scott Tong it might have helped to reframe the relationship, though not necessarily in a way the U.S. wanted.

17:40Rick Klein:The key here is this is the first in a series of engagements likely this year. I think the Chinese knew that and so are playing a bit of a long game here. I think it's going to turn out that this summit is, frankly, more important in retrospect than we realize. Yes, no big deals, no real sense of any breakthroughs, but I thought it was unmistakable that President Xi was a commanding presence. And I think President Trump came to Beijing, to use his famous metaphor, with not as good of cards as he had hoped. Who would have thunk it that the dominating paradigm of this meeting was Thucydides? Now, let's be clear.