Mother Nature is Screaming: Two Viral Spillovers – Ebola and Hantavirus Emergencies – Expose our Vulnerabilities

When I arrived in Geneva for the World Health Assembly in late May, the World Health Organization (WHO) was scrambling to contain two extremely rare outbreaks—Andes Hantavirus on the cruise ship MV Hondius, and Bundibugyo Ebolavirus traversing the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It was almost as if Mother Nature were screaming at humanity to care for our planet and habitat.

What I saw at the Assembly, and talking with Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, was an international agency energetically coordinating a global response to Ebola with affected countries and the Africa CDC—surging diagnostics, laboratory, and surveillance assets to the region.The day before the Assembly, Tedros declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern without even waiting to convene an Emergency Committee. That was unprecedented. Days later, the Africa CDC declared a Public Health Emergency of Continental Concern. Tedros told me he would soon travel personally to the conflict zone. Now he is on the ground in the DRC.

What was the United States doing? The acting CDC director issued an order banning entry to the United States to any foreign national who’d been to the DRC, Uganda, or South Sudan within the previous 21 days. All U.S. citizens returning from the region would be funneled into Washington Dulles, Atlanta Hartsfield, Houston, and JFK in New York, where they would undergo health screenings.

The Departments of Defense, State, and Health and Human Services are working to establish a special screening facility in a military base in Kenya for US citizens exposed to the virus but on May 28 a Kenyan High Court judge temporarily blocked the facility. On June 2, the court extended the block for three weeks. The rights group that challenged the facility argued that the United States was willing to impose risks to Kenyans but not Americans. Opposition to the U.S. plan has triggered protests in Kenya, with two protesters shot dead.

Citizens have an unqualified right of return to the United States. The Supreme Court has stressed that lawful permanent residents also have significant rights to enter, including robust due process rights. Yet, shortly after his initial order, the CDC acting director barred entry to lawful permanent residents, separating them from their families. That policy is likely unconstitutional but, by the time the Supreme Court may weigh in, it will be too late.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio—instead of supporting and coordinating with the WHO—took a pot shot at Tedros for his handling of COVID-19 by returning to the lab leak theory of COVID’s origins. The WHO is fighting today’s crises, while the Trump administration is mired in past grievances.

At best, travel restrictions are self-defeating. Ample evidence shows that border closures don’t work. The sheer number of tourists, businesspeople, citizens, and residents entering United States ports of entry makes it nearly impossible to prevent the import of infectious diseases. Curbing outbreaks at their source is far more likely to protect the American public.

At worst, the administration’s actions are simply cruel. Our leaders seem prepared to watch an unraveling public health crisis in Africa—with untold suffering and death—so long as it doesn’t affect the United States. (The US is funding select countries in the region bilaterally, but it is highly transactional). And it’s not just neglect. Travel restrictions actively undermine the crisis response by impeding movement of vital supplies like diagnostics, medicines, and personal protective equipment (PPE), while making it harder for health workers, humanitarian personnel, and non-governmental organizations to assist affected countries.

Travel bans violate the International Health Regulations (IHR), which proscribe unnecessary interference with travel, trade, and human rights. While Trump refused to adopt the 2024 IHR amendments, the United States remains a party to the treaty and remains bound by the IHR apart from the most recent amendments. When Tedros convened the Bundibugyo Ebolavirus Emergency Committee, its experts recommended against travel restrictions.

Discriminatory travel restrictions also fuel distrust. Affected countries quickly sequenced the virus and shared it with the WHO and globally, spurring research and development of vaccines and antiviral medications. The University of Oxford has fast-tracked a viral-vector vaccine targeted to the Bundibugyo species. Oxford is also conducting separate studies on investigational mRNA-based Ebola vaccines. (Recall that Secretary Kennedy withdrew funding for mRNA vaccine research.) That transparency was met with crippling travel restrictions. The United States has already lost allies and trading partners throughout the African continent following the disastrous foreign assistance freeze and cuts last year, with continuing deadly ramifications. The administration continues to shatter trust on the continent built over decades of PEPFAR funding and research partnerships.

US global health leadership is being eviscerated by design. The Trump administration has confronted the ongoing Andes Hantavirus and Bundibugyo Ebolavirus emergencies with a hammer. Quarantines and travel bans have replaced scientific acumen and public health leadership. And even if the administration did come to understand that fighting an epidemic at its source is a form of enlightened self-interest, our agencies are too weak to be effective. USAID has been dismantled. The CDC has been starved of global health funding, while experienced epidemiologists and public health workers have been fired or have resigned. We announced our withdrawal from the World Health Organization and replaced it with “America First” bilateral agreements. The administration seeks to eliminate the CDC’s global health center and reportedly will offer CDC services on a fee-for-service basis.

In Geneva, feelings toward the United States spanned disbelief to distain. US scientists and public health agencies were once unmatched for their expertise and dedication to global health. The United States was the WHO’s largest funder and most influential member. On my final day at the Assembly, member states by consensus, and without objection, pointedly refused to even acknowledge President Trump’s letter of withdrawal from the Organization. Instead, the Assembly put out a matter-of-fact statement saying that the United States remained a “member” of the WHO and would lose its voting privileges if it failed to pay its mandatory dues by 2027.

Oh, how far the United States has fallen in international trust and esteem.

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