WEBVTT

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Well, we're joined now for some expert
commentary from Tampa Bay, Florida

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by Christian Bresho, former head of the Institut
Pasteur, the Medical Research Centre, of course

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Christian, good to have you with
us. Thank you for the invitation

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So what are the chances that
these people on board are infected

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From what I understand, we might not know
for a while because of the incubation period

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Is that right? Yes, absolutely. The average of incubation
period is about two weeks, but it can be up to six weeks

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And hence the 42 days limit, which has been
assigned by the authorities for different countries

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But clearly the antivirus and this strain of antivirus
is severe. And unfortunately, three people have died

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But the transmission from human
to human is rare and is not high

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So in other words, it is still possible
that some of these people can be infected

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But overall, what we are witnessing now over the
past few days is that the transmission is very low

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So I really want to emphasize first
that this is nothing like COVID-19

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I mean we understand the fear of populations in Canary when the boat has disembarked all the passengers
but there is no risk I mean the problem is more to understand how we can improve our process you see

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and, of course, to follow up all
these individuals out of precautions

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And I think that what has been
said makes a lot of sense

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Yeah, you're right to point out the difference there.
Obviously, seeing the kind of images we're seeing now

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people might, you know, have flashbacks or think about
COVID. But that awareness in some ways, you know, is good

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because I imagine this time authorities are much
more prepared for this kind of thing, are they not

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Absolutely. And I think that it's fair to
recognise that the WHO has been effective, you see

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WHO has been very much criticised and
it was logical, I mean, to criticise

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It makes sense. But today, I think that
their reaction has been meaningful

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And as I said, I think that, again, out of precaution,
what is being organized makes a lot of sense

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I think that what it also points out for the future is, first, you
cannot predict which virus will be at the origin of the next pandemic

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pandemics, you see, there have been a lot of efforts of, I would say
a few years ago, to try to predict which virus might come and so on

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Well this is all very good but at the end of the day we cannot predict Nobody would have predicted about antivirus
However what is important is the way we react as you said I mean you see surveillance and then handling the case

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And in this context, to close, I just want to say that what we
are lacking is to get more efficient diagnostic tests, you see

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because what all these passengers are going to undergo, they
are going, for example, in France to the Institut Pasteur

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and they will be tested, which is very good. And then they
can go back to their home and be isolated up to 42 days

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However, we should have been able to
have all the tests performed on the boat

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you see, immediately. And now you have a
lot of progress in science, in technology

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And this is something I'm working for, the Global Advisor
Network. We have very much advocated during COVID-19

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We must reinforce the diagnostic procedures. But how would you test
for people on a boat, which is, you know, the outbreaks just happened

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Do you expect people just to have kind of
testing kits on hand? How does that actually work

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That's a good question. Well, first, I mean,
honestly, we don't have these tests now

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We should have them and we need to work on this. I'm
referring to a lot of progress, but absolutely appreciate

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that it still work to be performed Now you could imagine I mean to send a team on the boat with the diagnostic
kits and to perform the tests you see You can imagine a lot of things Also I think that what would be

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important for the future is to have isolation
procedures, not only in countries which are

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of high economic income, but also in countries
with low economic or middle economic income

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For example, on the coast of West Africa, well, we should
have the possibility to deploy rapidly units for isolation

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And so the boat would not have to spend, I don't know, he spent at
least five days, you see, with the 147 passengers and the infected

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In this case of antivirus, this has not been a problem
because, again, the virus does not spread very rapidly

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But let's imagine that that would be a virus with
a very rapid spreading and massive spreading

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That would be another story. So what I'm just
telling is that in this case, we are safe

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Unfortunately, three people have died. So
this is very serious. We need to be serious

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We need to follow up these people.
This is not over. Absolutely not

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However, we also need to take advantage
of this to reinforce our procedures

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All right. We have to leave it there,
Christian Bresho. Points taken

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Thank you very much. Sorry to cut you off there, but thank
you very much for speaking to France 24 this afternoon