Preparing for Disease Risks During the World Cup

0:00 Speaker 1 Live long and prosper Well, we’re coming into the summer season. We all want to live longer. With us today is doctor Peter Michelos, and he’s got a new book coming. How do we live longer and enjoy life more? Well, Doctor Peter, what do we have on the agenda for this Sunday’s Discussion.

0:21 Speaker 2 Well, today, John, we’re going to talk about an important topic, and that is the World Cup is coming to town, and some people have expressed concerns because basically this turns out to be a mass migration event and at one point two million people that are going to come to New York City and nationally it could be anywhere from

0:44 five to ten million people nationally and about about the majority of the games seventy eight out of one hundred and four of the games are going to be played here in the US. So we have people coming in from all around the world with different issues, for example, different levels of vaccination. One of the big concerns, of

1:06 course is always measles because there’s a declining rate in measles vaccinations around the world, and that’s one of the concerns. And COVID and RSP, which is respiratories and social virus and the neuro virus which we hear about a lot spreading fast on cruise ships, which can cause severe diarrhea and people can get quite six. So that’s one of

1:29 the concerns that people have with these events. And met Life Stadium holds eighty two five hundred people, so there have been a lot of preparations with all the hospitals. And in New York, of course, we have the oldest hospital in the United States, which is a Bellevue Hospital, and they have a whole biocontamination ward, including an active

1:51 TV ward. Nobody likes to talk about it, but there are cases of TB coming into the United States from outside the United States. You know, measles, of course, we said, is a great risk. And one of the things the good thing about measle is you can actually do a blood test and you can check to see if you

2:09 have antibodies against against the measles, and it’s called the IgG antibody test. If it comes back positive for antibodies, you’re safe, you’re covered. If it comes back negative, that means you don’t have any antibodies. If it comes back equivocal, it means you don’t have enough antibodies, so that might be a case for getting a booster. And people can

2:30 actually go to most of the labs now even without a doctor’s prescription. You can order it online, go to a lab and you can find out you’re tightest for all the different childhood vaccinations, to see if you have enough protection. Of course, the biggest fear that everyone has is ebola and things like you know, the margas virus,

2:51 which can come from some of the countries that have big travel restrictions now, from the DRC Democratic Republic of Congo and from places like Uganda, because people are always terrified of ebola because that is an extremely high fatality rate, and that’s why now flight’s coming from those countries they have to go through only Dulles Airport right now, where

3:13 they can be screen Meanwhile, we’ve already forgotten and stopped talking about antavirus, but there’s actually thirteen people still in quarantine at the University of Nebraska and Omaha and these quarantine units, and you know, some of the people have been released home detainment, but you know, these people were basically forcibly told that they have to go into quarantine.

3:37 Thank god, nobody died from that here in the United States. That was the incident that happened on the Dutch ship down in Argentina, the MV Honduras, on one of those polar cruises. So the things you can do to protect yourself if you’re going to be going to these stadiums are, of course, washing your hands. Whatever you do, make a

3:56 conscious effort to not touch your face, do not touch your nose. And if you don’t have access to a sink where you can wash your hands for at least twenty second, carry one of those little alcohol based sanitizers splits your hands, and I would avoid shaking hands more.

4:10 Fist taps are probably better when you’re in a place with eighty thousand people, and I would probably stick to the hot food.

4:18 Speaker 1 How about how about the everybody’s breathing on each other? I mean, and you have if you have a lot of people from out of town. When I say out of town from Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, I mean when you get off the airplane, when you come in to JFK Airport and get off the airplane, does anybody

4:43 check you?

4:46 Speaker 2 Not right now, they’re not. But what I would do is if I was in a stadium, for example, when I was sitting people around me within like ten feet and someone started coughing and hacking, I just I would put I’d carry a mask in my pocket and I’d probably put it on just to reduce the chance. Because

5:02 you know TB is happening. People go on the subway, believe it or not. You know, people catch TV. That’s why we have TV wards. Nobody likes to talk about it, but measles can spread if somebody has measles then goes into a stadium with eighty thousand people.

5:16 Speaker 1 Bottom line, it’s like we’re all these foreigners coming in, especially for the soccer matches. Everybody should be more more careful, is that bottom line? Yeah?

5:26 Speaker 2 Bottom line, be more alert, don’t touch your face and hands, try to wash your hands, carry a sanitizer if someone’s hacking and calling it not a bad idea to carry a mask with you. And update, you know, make sure your vaccinations are updated like measles, because measles. A lot of these countries people haven’t been vaccinated against measles, So

5:44 just common sense precautions and of course, as we always talk about eating a healthy diet, you know, keeping your vitamin D levels up. These are all things that have been shown to help increase and boost our immunity. And keep listening to WABC so you can stay healthy and safe and live long and prosper.

6:01 Speaker 1 Thank you so much, doctor me Hello, and we’ll talk again real soon.

6:06 Speaker 2 Thanks for always getting the truth out on the Cats round Table.