This is the only News I'm David for Chinese state television reported Sunday the death toll from the Corona virus has risen to 304 that announcement came after several countries announced Rick travel controls Saturday on foreigners who have been in China but as Lisa reports the World Health Organization is advising against closing borders spokesman Christian Lindenmayer says closing borders will not keep out the virus but the only way to control the check fever for example to identify travel history to try to monitor who's coming across the border and to see whether they have any signs of infection is through official border crossing points China is taking draconian measures to stop the spread of the corona virus on City the epicenter of the disease in 15 other cities have been quarantined placing an estimated 50000000 people under lockdown Despite these efforts the virus continues to spread at a rapid pace the line for v.o.a. News Geneva u.s. Secretary of state Mike Pompei o was in Belarus Saturday seeking to normalize time at a time when relations between Minsk and Moscow are under a strain Reuters Lucy field reports pump a 0 the most senior u.s. Official to visit in more than 2 decades said the u.s. Supported the country's independence but was aware of its ties to Moscow we want to be able see we told our team diplomatically here by almost double. Do that again it. Happened exactly here before to Washington in the European Union frequently criticized authoritarian rule in valorise but they've lifted most sanctions since President Alexander Lukashenko free political prisoners and showed more tolerance for opposition that's Lucy fielder of Reuters and this is v.o.a. News. The Palestinian Authority has threatened to cut all ties with the United States and Israel including security relations as Reuters him or McCarthy reports President Mahmoud Abbas made the threat Saturday after rejecting a Middle East peace plan put forth by President Donald Trump the plan which is induced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls for the creation of a demilitarized Palestinian state that excludes Israeli settlements built in occupied territory and his knee a total Israeli security control addressing the Arab League in Cairo a bass said security relations will also be safe it. You know. And we the Palestinian Authority inform you Israeli government there will be no ties either with you or the us as we have said the same to the u.s. Including security ties foreign ministers from Egypt Saudi Arabia Jordan Iraq and Lebanon among others say there could be no peace without recognizing Palestinian rights and a comprehensive solution that's him or McCarthy Reuters it's a busy weekend across Iowa with the 1st nominating contest of the 2020 presidential election on Monday A.P.'s Ben Thomas reports. That Senator Elizabeth Warren rallying supporters in Urbandale Iowa to canvass for our flights as the presidential campaign kicks into high gear for Democrats ahead of Monday's Iowa caucuses bears get things done in South Bend Indiana Mayor people to judge is making multiple stops and now I have one more chance. To ask you to support me let me say this Senator Bernie Sanders says Democrats must unite to defeat a president he describes as dangerous if we do not win we will support the winner and I know that every other thought candidate will do the same the former Vice President Joe Biden is offering his face. And for the country Joe Biden America suffrage is the law picketers of national interest and no one no one not even the president of the United States will be above the law I promise you that I'm Ben Thomas and the National Football League championship game the Super Bowl is Sunday in Miami Florida with the Kansas City Chiefs taking on the San Francisco $49.00 er's the 40 niners last won the Super Bowl in 1995 but are trying to capture a record tying 6th Super Bowl title and the Kansas City Chiefs have not been in the big game for 50 years their quarterback Patrick ma Holmes is leading their powerful off fans more than 100000000 Americans are expected to watch the game on television entertainers and Jennifer Lopez highlights the halftime show I'm David Berg away. This is Encounter on v.o.a. Here's Carol Castillo. Welcome to Encounter on The Voice of America on this edition of the program our periodic update on Africa why is the Pentagon considering a force drawdown in Africa at a time when extremist groups are rooting deeper into the region Hello again I'm Carol Castiel the Trump administration hoping to prevent the United States from becoming entangled in more long wars once the military and intelligence forces to scale down their ambitions under plans now being discussed fewer resources would be allocated to monitoring regional threats terrorist groups that might spout anti-American speech but do not have the wherewithal to mount a significant attack on u.s. Territory however critics say without military and intelligence personnel on the ground working with partner nations to help combat regional terrorist organizations it becomes difficult to assess which groups have or could have the capabilities to mount an attack on the United States West African leaders specifically the presidents of Senegal and Togo are urging the United States to stay in the fight both expressed concern that terrorism is on the brink of spilling into their countries which have not previously grappled with such a threat to parts of this a hell that drive stretch of land south of the Sahara Desert have fallen to militants linked to the Islamic State and al Qaeda who are offering shelter to fighters fleeing the Middle East since the collapse of the Islamic State in Syria while there is little data on foreign militants operating in West Africa some senior u.s. Officials in the region say fighters from Syria and Iraq have turned up in Nigeria and Mali well with us to analyze the u.s. Role in combating terrorism in Africa and consequences of a potential u.s. Retreat are 2 distinguished analysts Judge government is the director of the Africa Program at this. For Strategic and International Studies That's a think tank here in Washington and prior to joining c.s.i.s. Judd served as the u.s. National intelligence officer for Africa from 2015 to 2018 and Joshua deserve He's senior policy analyst for Africa and the Middle East at the Heritage Foundation another think tank based here in Washington and Joshua specializes in African geopolitics counter terrorism and refugee policy in prior to his current post he worked as associate director for the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council I think tank here in Washington and both now join me at the v.o.a. Broadcast Center in Washington welcome back to the program thanks here thanks Well Joshua miserably let me begin with you talking about these reports indicating that the Pentagon may be considering a pullback of u.s. Intelligence assets from West Africa potentially to accommodate maybe a shift in defense priorities moving more toward countering the threat of China in the Asia Pacific How do you see that 1st it's important to acknowledge that these are ongoing discussions so we're not sure what this will look like if and when it does happen so it's important to bear that in mind but I think there's reason to be concerned about discussions around drawing down American personnel in the Sahara Legion the violent trends are very concerning they're all in the wrong direction and violence has increased it's virtually doubled every year since about 2015 in that region you're a very capable terrorist organizations and the u.s. Is there with some boots on the grounds but perhaps the greatest contribution we make to this fight is through our intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance activities drones primarily but other activities as well and we share that with our friends partners who do have a significant number of boots on the ground that are carrying out a lot of kinetic counterterrorism operations so this is. An increasingly violent area full of very dangerous actors that is already under resourced as far as counterterrorism So there's reason to be concerned about a u.s. Strike down judged every month do you share Joshua's concerns that the Pentagon is discussing a possible drawdown just as violent trends are on the upswing Yeah I think this is really shortsighted I mean the backdrop here is that since the administration came into office and published the national security strategy in the national defense strategy they wanted to refocus our efforts on China and Russia and sort of de prioritize counterterrorism but our investments in West Africa in the Sahara are so small the numbers vary but in general people talk about $6000.00 u.s. Troops in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa the large majority is actually the Horn of Africa which doesn't seem to be on the table so now we're talking about maybe a 1000 troops most of them are probably not even doing combat certainly none of them are doing combat but sort of involved in the way that we think about our military most of these are security they're doing institution building and so I think this idea of let's take the very limited effort that we have it has real impact in terms of helping the French as Josh said helping the French do their operations to move over to China and Russia I think that we are losing a small investment that has a lot of impact and moving it over to a place where we already have a lot of investment for very little gain back to you Joshua as you said there's just talk right now but they are talking about it so we have to take it seriously let's talk about other foreign troops you mentioned France they have boots on the ground approximately 4500 French troops are in West Africa and the regional soldiers obviously and u.n. Peacekeepers are they concerned about the potential u.s. Retreat Yeah absolutely the Europeans are very concerned the French especially they just brought a high level delegation here to personally make a pitch. To the American administration of course their minister defense was just here so they're very worried because they are doing a lot of the heavy lifting in the so how and they do rely on the u.s. Again for intelligence and reconnaissance but also logistics support things of that nature that it would be hard for them to fill if the u.s. Isn't doing that role the other European countries are worried about the violence and the so how because you have immigration that comes up from that area into Europe you have Diaspora communities in Europe from that area there's a whole host of concerns throughout Europe now I think maybe that part of this potential drawdown is borne out of the administration's frustration that what they perceive as the Europeans not doing enough in the So how except for the French the French very clearly have a lot of skin in the game here but the so how is some troll to a lot of European foreign policy in their national interests but the administration I think feels that some of the European countries are not doing enough we're actually seeing increasing engagement from a whole host of European countries so perhaps this is partially a negotiating tactic but it also is a real discussion and it does as Judd rightly pointed out this is all born out of the national security strategy which wants to focus on China and Russia I think rightly but the d.o.d. Has taken that seriously and is looking to draw down red but on the other hand judge and we know from my previous discussions that these microphones China and Russia are encroaching in Africa so why would the Pentagon consider reducing the small footprint we already have there that as you said is disproportionately beneficial when we also need to counter China and Russia right on the continent I think this is the big paradox here and as several senators of raise and center of the press has raised that as we have departed as we have signaled that we're not that interested in this region that particularly Russia has taken advantage of that I think China is going to be less swayed by the day to day to. Article positioning in presence of the u.s. What we're really talking about here is an administration still not sure how to assess the importance of Africa to our national security I think that's really what's at play here so in the 1st instance the view is that we should be focused more on Russia and China in those theaters right in Europe in Asia etc And the 2nd one is well if there is terrorism in Africa or if Russia makes gains in Africa does that really affect the u.s. Bottom line and it seems to me that this conversation of does Africa matter does terrorism threaten the homeland these questions seem to be really the backdrop of all of these debates in discussions around how do we allocate our resources well let's talk about some of the threats because if we're talking about al Qaeda and I asked this so-called Islamic state it appears to me that we would be better off countering these threats in the region before they get strong enough to hit the u.s. Homeland but Josh what let's look at these threats there's a veritable alphabet soup of groups that m u j w a j and I am I was reading about they're either affiliated with a.q.i.m. That would be the Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb the so-called Islamic state talk a bit about the groups that are on the ground sure so primarily you can lump them in 2 buckets so there is al Qaeda associated groups and there is ISIS associated groups the Al Qaeda there's more al Qaeda associated groups and I would argue they're more effective although the ISIS groups are also unfortunately becoming more effective traditionally in this region you really only have one primary terrorist organization a.q.i.m. Al Qaeda in these Islamic Magreb which itself came from an Algerian terrorist organization but now you have this intense proliferation so you do have this alphabet soup that you reference and there's potentially around a 10 or a dozen discrete terrorist organizations operating now in the same hell and again there are operational. Abilities are on a spectrum but they are increasingly effective particularly this coalition group this Jane him group that you referenced again this is made up of 4 different groups that came together it's led by a.q.i.m. a Pledges allegiance to the emir of a.q.i.m. And they are responsible for the lion's share of violent attacks and fatalities in the region I referenced earlier that violent incidents have doubled every single year since 2015 fatalities about the same as well doubling every year since 2015 and $1.00 country in particular Kenya Faso they had virtually no terror problems 567 years ago and now they're suffering scores of attacks every year so that just gives a sense of the escalation here and this seriousness of the problem now these African terrorist groups traditionally will speak a strong game about the United States and threatening yet but they really haven't had the capacity to attack but the great lesson to me one of the great lessons of 911 was that if you allow groups like this to have safe haven unmolested they will eventually turn their attention farther afield if I can just add to Josh's point because I see these groups as really the most for middle extremist groups that operate right now in sub-Saharan Africa they remind me of sort of its heyday and I'll explain a little bit why and Josh touched on it 1st of all it's a coalition of groups as is just mentioned several different elements that work together under the Jane and banner but important to note at least until very recently reports they have worked with ISIS so these big global network distinctions haven't so far really made much of a difference in terms of what's actually happening on the ground in fact the leader of ISIS greater Sahara is a former 2 commander who just had served as a personnel dispute and went on to the it went over to make his own group so multi-group cooperation between ISIS and a.q. The Jane. Faction it's multi-ethnic it's twice it's Arab It's Fulani we understand from Human Rights Watch reports that they preach of Bomba which is the predominant language of Southern Mali they preach in Moray which is the language of the mosques in Burkina so their aspirations are not sort of constrained by a particular geography or ethnicity which is the next point that it's not just in Mali it's not just in the Jarrett's in Burkina but also attacks in northern binning attack in coastal town Grandison and Cote d'Ivoire so very expansive but I think it's really interesting about them is that they're both high tech and low tech Yes they'll do machete attacks and I'll get on motorbikes and but they're also doing attacks like the u.n. Facilities back in April of 2018 they painted one of their trucks white as a u.n. Truck and went right into the airport in Timbuktu and blew it up I visited a couple months later and they're so good at finding divisions within communities either exploiting them or creating them and then the able to make what is an extremist attack a much more local intra communal fight and so that's what makes me most concerned about this group is how effective they are finding opportunities in the social fabric in West Africa we'll have more in just a moment but 1st you're listening to Encounter on The Voice of America my guests are Judge government from whom you just heard he's director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and Joshua Missouri he's a senior policy analyst for Africa and the Middle East at the Heritage Foundation and we're analyzing the terrorism threat in West Africa as the United States contemplates retreating from the region this is a reminder that our encounter podcast is available for free download on our website at the News dot com slash encounter we also follow us on Twitter or connect with us on Facebook at Carol Castiel v.o.a. Well here's a shout out to a loyal encounter listener fun as the Big Gay Hulu from Kwazulu-Natal South Africa . If you want to hear your name and home country on the air please send an e-mail to encounter at v.o.a. News dot com or like us and leave a comment on our Facebook page so back to our discussion about terrorism threats in West Africa and u.s. Policy back to you Joshua misery let's talk about the factors that are driving these threats to what extent they are homegrown To what extent they are being stoked even more by perhaps fighters coming back from the Middle East fleeing Syria in the wake of the demise of at least the so-called Caliphate of the Islamic state what are the various factors at play yes I think you can actually trace the escalation in the hell back to the fall of more Gadhafi in Libya when that happened there were highly trained well armed who were it's a very large tribe that spans a salary and they returned home to northern Mali essentially and in northern Mali they joined both secessionist groups which have a long running history in that region but also terrorist organizations and they brought a certain capacity and again weapons with them and weapons didn't just come with it but they made it into these a listen that works and spread throughout the region even up into the Middle East and down sub-Saharan Africa so you saw a real escalation in violence in Mali that took a French intervention to push back as it moved south towards the capital Bamako But the problem was never solved and it's just metastasized and so now it's spilled over the borders and Mali it may not have as many violent incidents now as perhaps Burkina does or some other countries but it still remains the hot bed and sort of volcano that's spewing out this this instability and unfortunately the government embalm a Co It is a basket case frankly and until there is an effective competent honest government in bomb a ko the best outside intervention can do including United States is essentially put a Band-Aid on this judge government your take on what fan. Actors are driving these groups to what extent it's outside to what extent it's indigenous economic India logical poor governance Yeah I agree with Josh that Libya was the the match that lit the fire but the important part of that analogy is that the tin ear was dry that governance issues preexisted the Libya crisis there had been 3 rebellions before Moammar Gadhafi fell and the governments of Mali successive governments in Mali have viewed the north as not really part of Mali and not worth the investments and as we have been in this crisis now for several years it is clear that is still the problem that the government of Mali has no political incentives to redistribute power and to address some of the governance issues in the north or to share power and they actually see political cost to do that because the majority of the population in Mali is in the south and that population believes that making concessions to the to our eggs in the north and let me just add one other thing that becomes relevant when we talk about Parky not the government it's not just in action or neglect it's human rights abuses particularly in Burkina Faso which I think does want to integrate and address this problem and sees it as I central but is doing all the wrong things we know from literature corneas surveys that 71 percent of former militants say they joined an extremist group because a family member or a close relative was detained or killed by security services and the high level of abuses in these areas is pushing more and more people into the arms of the extremist groups back to you Joshua in my introduction I referred to the presidents of Senegal and Togo that they're concerned about terrorism spilling over into their countries do they have a point yeah absolutely traditionally those 2 countries haven't had at all the same struggle that other selling countries have but part of this escalation we're seeing in the so how. Is that these groups are these terrorist organizations are starting to operate farther and farther afield and then judge mention the grand Boston attack in Cote d'Ivoire that's a coastal resort town in Cote d'Ivoire and so that is significantly removed from the normal areas of operation for these groups and that was actually one of a series of 3 attacks that the al Qaeda affiliate in that region launched and I think part of those series of attacks was to demonstrate exactly this that they did have broader reach and people should fear them so Senegal and Togo both have very legitimate reasons to worry that this is going to continue to it escalate continue to expand even though they're somewhat geographically removed they're not in the epicenter like Mali or Burkina and Gera these groups are expanding just very rapidly so I would absolutely be concerned for these countries and how about the financing Judge Deborah where these groups getting their financing or do they have any other sponsors backers in your view it's fairly opaque I think some of the most conservative judgment is they're doing it on kidnapped for ransom pillaging taxing local communities I think that is a big portion of how they sort of remain active now you know others have suggested that perhaps they're getting financial transfers from the networks that may be true but I would scribe that to less consequential to their existence and their operations back to you Joshua So we're mostly talking about al Qaeda affiliated groups but there's also Islamic state groups and to what extent are they cooperating or are they rivals so there are Islamic state groups Islamic state greater Sahara is one then in more in the Lake Chad Basin region Nigeria there's Islamic state West Africa province which is a very unfortunate very effective terrorist organization so in the Middle East context ISIS and al Qaeda did not get along fact there was many examples of them even killing each other but there also are examples of tactical cooperation. Because these groups can be fairly pragmatic So if there is a target of opportunity or something that they think will be mutually beneficial frequently they can cooperate and we're seeing some of that in the So how we should suggest their partners or anything like that they're not they remain distinct but again you are seeing some few signs of cooperation pragmatic cooperation here and there they're etiologies there's a lot of overlap but there are still some different sort of philosophical approaches that keep them apart but it is yet another worry some element here that there is you know cross pollination between these groups how do you see that should add or subtract to what Joshua said I agree about the different networks that operate I'm having a harder time at least right now to think about it identify huge differences in ideology and they tend to operate largely the same way in terms of developing relations with communities some people will look at beheadings and say well that's an ISIS tactic but I don't see a huge amount of difference in what they're trying to do or how they operate day in day out now there is a group that clearly was not operating the way ISIS wanted them to and outspoken so Boko Haram had been affiliated with ISIS under the leadership of Abubakar Shekau and then they had a falling out because Boko Haram largely just pillages and kills was not listed in governance or or winning hearts and minds and so ISIS sort of took its affiliation away from Chicago and headed to another group and that's why in Nigeria you have Boko Haram or Jass unaffiliated with either the global networks and you have this other faction ISIS West Africa that Josh mentioned that is affiliated and does a lot more hearts and minds and because of that much more effective as we close gentleman back to you Joshua to the beginning where we began with the consequences of a potential u.s. Withdrawal both of you seem to intimate that the costs of. Withdrawing you know outweighed the benefits the small footprint that we do have there the United States has a disproportionate positive influence on security in the region and therefore our security how do you see this playing out do you think that perhaps with the election coming up Mr Trump you know talking about wanting to withdraw withdraw withdraw if that's a factor or do you think that cooler heads may prevail I think there is going to be and again we're completely in speculative territory here but I do think there's obviously going to be some sort of drawdown or optimization is the term of art that is being used but I'm hopeful that some core capabilities will remain I think the cooperation with the French and our other European partners and local partners will remain the u.s. Has invested in a big drone base and are good as new share just came online fully very recently so it would be a bit surprising if the u.s. Just walked away from that significant investment I guess it could turn it over to the Cherian XP but the Nigerians capacity to operate some like that is just not to the level that the u.s. Could do it it's always useful to look at these things and make sure that they are being as efficient and money is as well spent as possible so I'm not completely pessimistic about this I am concerned but we just we also just have to wait and see what this ultimately looks like and you get the last word whether you're optimistic pessimistic and obviously this is a bipartisan interest yeah sure it's about us national security well that's where I'm optimistic if this is going to be reversed or it's going to be modified or it's going to be sort of done in a rational way it's because members in Congress are speaking up about this and I've been very impressed about the bipartisan nature of concern whether it is Senator Coons and Senator Graham on the Senate side or Representative Anthony Brown on the hill side and others who have written letters to Secretary Asper to voice their concerns about this and I think that if that kind of pressure will. Well if anything is going to make sure that we don't do things that we regret automatically that we walk away from what I think is probably a reckless policy. And really question and asked to stress us this well on that relatively optimistic note I'm afraid that's all the time we have on this edition of encounter I'd like to thank my guests Judd government director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and Joshua Missouri Viki senior policy analyst for Africa and the Middle East at the Heritage Foundation gentlemen as always thanks so much for coming in and sharing your insights encounter was produced in Washington thanks to Kim Lewis for booking our guests our engineer was Kevin Fowler I'm Carol Castillo join me again next week for going to ban suster now and the World Health Organization says it is still too soon the call of a global public health emergency but the new virus 1st discovered in a food market in the central Chinese city and what is spreading the death toll from a new coronavirus is rising dramatically into. China and the numbers of people infected around the world keeps rising China is locking down entire cities creating a quarantine of nearly 60000000 people all this as China's largest holiday migration the Chinese Lunar New Year gets underway what do we know about this deadly virus and what do you need to know to protect yourself we begin with v.o.a. Health reporter Carole Pearson. People from China are being screened at the airports both in their country and abroad they're being checked for fever and other symptoms of a new respiratory virus the virus is a corona virus so called because it appears to be surrounded by a crowd the common cold is one example of a corona virus and so are deadly respiratory viruses SARS Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome it originated from animals civets at a food market and China then came another coronavirus the Middle East Respiratory virus known as murderers murders. The bows and John McCain camels all in the Middle East. You know so who are all these emerging credible. Interview. People this latest corona virus is associated with the food market and grew hot in a city of 11000000 people respiratory viruses are airborne transmitted by coughing or sneezing touching and infected surface and then touching your mouth nose or eyes Freeman says it's easier to catch a corona virus than it is to catch Ebola which spreads by bodily fluids so far this new virus doesn't seem to target any one group but age has its disadvantages if you're elderly 65 or older you have a greater chance of complications but there is no age restriction on this complications can include pneumonia bronchitis kidney failure fluid build up in the lungs and death you wind up getting a secondary bacterial infection you can get put on an antibiotic if you have respiratory distress and you need help with breathing you could be put on a respirator but there is no. Specific affected treatment so the novel coronavirus. Scientists around the world are studying this virus but we need to don't know. Where the virus came from and then the next steps are really looking with this virus does how we're going to can really develop diagnostics to the virus do we get better or worse I would spread to the community in the meantime the c.d.c. Recommends frequent hand washing coughing into your elbow or at tissue and if you suspect you have the virus contacting a doctor Carol Pearson the away News Washington. U.s. Health officials say they expect more coronavirus cases worldwide but they say the threat level to the American public remains low those same health officials also say that China's response to the outbreak has been good but they added that having u.s. Medical teams on the ground to help the Chinese is strongly recommended. Right now there is no spread of this virus in our communities here at home and this is why our current assessment is that the immediate health risk of this new virus to the general public is low in our nation the coming days and weeks are likely to bring more confirmed cases here and around the world including the possibility of some person to person spread but our goal of the ongoing u.s. Public health response is to contain herself break and prevent sustained spread of the virus in our country so 1st of having lived through the SARS episode I can say that the posture of the Chinese government levels of cooperation and interaction with us is completely different from what we experienced in 2003 and I want to commend them for that they are still obviously learning just as we are about of rapidly emerging infectious disease situation but getting w.h.o. C.d.c. Experts on the ground to be able to assist the Chinese experts this is a major interview major issue major public health issue and we basically just need the best public health people we have. Working on this right now. As you've heard the epicenter of this outbreak is a wild game market in one of the largest cities in central China since then Chinese authorities have ordered a temporary ban on the sale of wildlife it is not the 1st time wildlife markets have bred new diseases and experts say it won't be the last view a science reporter Steve Barrett goanna explains. Thank you how much you know most wild animals are spared from dinner tables for now as Chinese authorities crack down on game markets officials are temporarily closing markets that sell wild life for food the same thing happened in 2002 after city cats at a live animal market in southern China infected people with SARS that outbreak ultimately killed 800 people so it's very disconcerting that we can't seem to learn this lesson about where this risk is coming from veterinarian William Carrick She is vice president of Eco Health Alliance he says live animal markets pack lots of stressed out animals together in a small space it's a perfect environment for spreading disease you know most animals of course are not infected or not should it matters is that it only takes one or 2 and as they come to market where it's crowded there's a the animals there they can start spreading around like a new kindergarten one of them shows up sick and next thing you know they're all everybody else is taking it home to their parents. Harris says game markets especially can breed new diseases because they bring together animals and their germs that would normally never mix it's a golden opportunity for a germ to find a new species to infect. Thousands of animals pass through these markets every day and there are thousands of these markets around the world with millions of shoppers with numbers like that Kerry says the chances of what I'm about risk making it through winning the lottery and getting into people is pretty high people don't always shop at live markets by choice Carrick's says when there's no refrigeration it's the best way to know your meat is fresh so it's almost safer to see it at all as life is a lot healthier you know. No one found it on the road and I was trying to sell it to you as good meat and some of those Russian reasons was that exist but that world is also changing around the world supermarkets are rip. A single life markets their offerings may be less exotic but Kara Shad's they're safer for everyone Steve Bera going to feel a news what is becoming evident is a critical role science a new technology are playing to help limit the spread of this newly discovered strain 1st identifying the pathogen and 2nd developing effective treatment Steve joins me Steve I'm a 1st talk about your reporting importances SARS head about about 800 deaths or 200 deaths killed 20800 world over 800 and then and then this is it between the new coronavirus is just a little over 100 right now and the c.d.c. Estimate the flu season this is an estimate will have 8200 estimated deaths that's so are we you know we're preparing ourselves or are we making scaring ourselves I think this is a tightrope that health officials always walk they're always on the lookout for the next big one and you never know where it's going to come from but at the moment this is not spread in the same way that you know let's say measles it's doesn't spread eventually is contagious measles is more contained a more contagious aids the death rate is high enough for an infectious disease but it's you know not as high as a bull for example it's you know I think the biggest concern with this is that there's just a lot we don't know at the moment you know I mean you put it in perspective rightly I think it is not it is has not killed as many people as the flu does every single year but you know we feel like just because we see the flu every year that we're familiar with it and we kind of discount the overall toll that it has this is all new all right so what are we doing in the u.s. Is helping but the world is helping and they're able to identify this actually quite quickly that it's to coronavirus point quickly that was kind of remarkable they it was 1st announced on believe it was the 31st of December it was the 1st time the. Told everybody was Ok we got this new disease a week later on January 7th they announced they had the sequence the kind of d.n.a. Code of the virus once you've got that d.n.a. Code you can get to work on developing treatments and vaccines. A week is that super fast still no treatments still no vaccines but the pace of discovery at this point has been has been pretty fast and China has quarantined the city. They tried they did say that when they 1st scoring team the city before they were able to really clamp down about 5000000 people got out which is you know not as not insignificant not insignificant but at the moment they they seem to be locking things down pretty tight and how much is the world helping us I realize the United States is we have the c.d.c. We've got a lot of our scientists working on China's organ What about the rest the world the World Health Organization is is really in the lead on this and just yesterday the director general of the show and the leader of China met and China agreed to allow international experts in which is something that they have not done to this point and that you know that's that's a big step this you know there is a lot of experts around the world who are very good with the stuff we've been through this many times and having them on the ground should should be a big help when there was criticism or during SARS that deference in China wasn't completely candid about about the about the crisis and about the the magnitude is there a sense that China is you know is playing it straight telling us everything they know notified the rest of the world when this was identified as it as a potential crisis yes and no they've gotten a lot of praise for the way that they've handled it so far compared to the way they handled SARS but there still are a lot of concerns I think partly because you know transparency is not you know one of China's strong suits there are still a lot of concerns that we're not getting everything all the information that we need to know how the fish oils yesterday were were asking the Chinese for more co-op. Aeration with things like they want to see the raw data of how this virus is spreading from person to person and trying to at least as of yesterday have not shared that data yet and for why would they share that that I mean any known reason why they wouldn't give that I don't know any interesting about the importance that Ebola is less and that this is more contagious to people Oh yeah absolutely I mean Ebola is hard to get you've got to get in touch with some of these blood this is our catch their flu bodily fluid that this is just droplets and sneezing droplets not airborne and that's important it's you know it's in your sneezes or coughs or something but it's not just floating through the year that's one of the things that makes missiles so so contagious this is not the case with with this virus now which really needs a better name it's droplets right now and if you don't come into contact with those droplets. Doesn't seem to be likely that you can get the disease state Thank you Steve Barrett going to v.o.a. Science correspondent to do so is the world doing enough to stop this Corona virus from spreading further and what is the United States' role in developing safe and effective treatments Dr Anthony found the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases says the outbreak is serious and he says scientists around the world are doing everything they can to control the virus before it is too late Dr found he spoke with plug ins Miller saying. The outbreak is very serious there are travel related cases in multiple countries throughout the world including the United States that has 5 travel related cases fortunately we've been able to handle them in a way of identifying them isolating them and doing contact Tracy so there's no spread from one person to another and there doesn't appear to be spread from person to person outside of China although there are several travel related cases doctors it's still too early to call this a global public health emergency you know. It really becomes almost semantic it certainly is an emergency in China and as you get cases outside of China he's going to wind up having more spread because there's no reason to believe that the virus is going to act differently in Thailand Japan single poor or in South Korea then it's acting in China so I don't want to outguess the w.h.o. When when and if they declare a public health emergency of international concern but they're going to have to meet again and reevaluate this because things really look very serious there Dr I want to get back to your points about about China it has received some criticism for not being transparent enough but from what I've seen so far there's China seems to have taken sort of a more proactive stance than it has in the past I'm talking about the response to SARS for example and the bird flu. Well I think you're absolutely correct you know I have been involved with interacting with them way back for many years including the 2002 SARS outbreak as well as the prepared them make flu outbreaks if you compare what the transparency is now with the novel coronavirus with what it was in 2002 and 3 with SARS is orders of magnitude different they were agreed just Lee nontransparent back then leading to a major delay in an adequate response that's not the case now they are definitely much much more transparent than they were back then but we still don't have 1st hand knowledge of what's going on there because it still is very much a closed situation they are reporting on a day by day real time basis what's going on but as a scientist I would like to see the data myself so I can't. Guarantee and confirm what's going on there I can only say comparatively speaking they've been much more transparent now than they were then what about the u.s. Response so far. Limiting ports of entry for example is that enough the airports here in the United States that are doing active screening. Which captures not all but a substantial percentage of the people that are coming in from Hahn which is the area that's predominantly involved in China those are the kind of things that have worked in the past that kind of active airport screening it's called entry screening the Chinese are doing exit screening in fact what they have done is something even more dramatic than that they have cut off all transportation air train and ferry out of. What do you think the u.s. Contribution to this health crisis is going to look like when all is said and done . Well we have always been throughout most outbreaks and pandemics the leaders in developing countermeasures and diagnostics they're reputed acts and importantly vaccines were not the only ones that are doing that but we are a major player when it comes to developing these countermeasures in response to the outbreak this is a moving and evolving situation that could turn out to be much worse than it currently is at the present time so what do people need to know about coronavirus who's at risk and what can they do to protect themselves. Well right now if you're in China particularly in wool and you're at a considerable risk the risk for the American public right now is low that could change if we start getting a lot of cases that spread human to human So right now the evaluation is that the risk is still low. But we have to take it very seriously because it could evolve into something that's much more difficult to control Well I mean obviously we're making a vaccine we have the sequence we have the specimens and now from 5 people who are in this country and we're doing research based on that information of that material Ok this is going to be broadcast to a global audience Dr found she is there anything else in your mind that you think our viewers should be aware of. Well I think that this is still a threat and we need to pay serious attention to it and take it very very seriously I mean hopefully it will be contained but it could turn into a global pandemic. Hong Kong a city of $8000000.00 has temporarily closed some of its borders to mainland China and it's also stopped issuing travel permits to Chinese tourists but the travel bans and the lock downs at the height of China's busiest travel season is having an impact on local economies and workers and tourist destinations throughout Asia reporter Steve Sanford has more from southern Thailand. Last year Thailand's tourism industry welcome nearly 11000000 Chinese visitors boosting a sluggish economy but signs of caution were evident on the faces of some tourism workers worried about the spread of the krona virus. And make fun of how some foreigners saw the mask and were afraid to come because they thought I was sick but now they understand the situation I wear a mask to protect myself not because I'm sick right now when I see a Chinese customer I'm Ok and I don't reject them because I am providing a service. Despite the claim down on people leave the movie and in neighboring Chinese cities some airlines were still flying passengers home Monday to see their families worry about their John and I'm going to just stay home for now because it's still a critical situation out there so I'm who are really worried about this problem and so is my family despite a rising number of suspected cases all along with news that the virus can lay dormant for up to 14 days government officials remain confident that the crisis is still under control and you need it up here right now we're at the 2nd level of 5 there any increases in Thailand of human to human transfer of the virus and brain but danger level out there still many of the season 2 are guides who experienced the harsh for natural effects of the 2003 SARS crisis say that safety should come before profits. To. Be owners so the tourist companies should understand the situation but only worry about the income of the country of businesses Oh even for myself this is not the right thing for us to be concerned about otherwise bad things will happen Michael Steele for v.o.a. News in Krabby Thailand. Aggressive strategies like travel bans in quarantines may seem the right thing to do but my next guest warns such actions can also bring unintended political financial and social consequences aren't Gostin is a professor of medicine. Georgetown University is founding chair at the O'Neill Institute for National global health law he is a member of the World Health Organization Advisory Committee and pandemic diseases and served on 2 global commissions on the 2015 Ebola epidemic welcome to plug then it's a pleasure thank you for having me the key word is unintended consequences not me let me focus 1st on the China u.s. Trade deal we're in the Phase one but this outbreak have any impact on that well it shouldn't in fact if it were possible for the u.s. C.d.c. To go in in force in China I think it actually could have a wonderfully. A beneficial approach for not just from public health but to plumb the sea it would signal to China and the world but you can have different politics different ideologies but we come together as a nation as a world community together and so I would love to see u.s. Involvement I think it could if we played this right it could improve our relationship with China we see that often like with world castrates whether it's you know a Thai food in some other country and wiping out c.l.o. Some city or on some island or are then the chap Anees we were over there helping them with the economy so we see a lot of that diplomacy in the face of a country is China and not welcome mean u.s. Help unless well China just announced very very recently that it would allow foreign. Help but it's not hasn't specified back. W h O's health emergencies program probably in going forward will have a presence but how much of a presence is is yet to be seen. As President Trump has offered u.s. Assistance to China but it's very very unclear to what extent there will be a real Qadr a surge of Internet. National experts in China but have real you know power and authority and expertise on the ground where the clock seems to be ticking while they're all thinking about whether or not China will accept more of help and whether you know what the other nations are going to tell me the clock is ticking it certainly is you know in China yes with from their point of view there's probably nothing more important to. Paying in the Chinese government than projecting an air of I've got this under control competence you know technical capacity and so on to get to let a large Qadri of foreign experts in or if the w.h.o. Declared an emergency I think that it would we would talk initially the image that China is how we get we've got several issues one of course is the quarantine of an entire city of 11000000 I mean if got that social consequence you've got British airline there they pulled their flights in mainland China and the u.s. Has a back way of people other nations are evacuate people and then also now reporting that China is doing exit screening which when I hear the accent screen I thought well what I fear and then the 2 to 14 day incubation period what good is exit screening going to do well you know if it exits screening will not pick up people who are asymptomatic and so they don't show their sick who don't show their sick that's right and as far as the. Mass quarantine in Rwanda and a province I mean this is unprecedented in the history of the world and could only happen in China if you think about it more than 50000000 people are trapped in a zone of contagion it could provoke fear panic and the 1st rule of Public Health is to gain the trust and cooperation of the population and I think these kind of mass restrictions won't do that but I imagine people are so worried about food because if you transfer. In a quarantine things have a difficult time getting in and out supposedly nobody's supposed to get out of a quarantine but it's food being brought in and services I mean it is a city still on still running like a city but for the fact you can't get out no it's anything but running no homo but I mean there are some supermarkets are well stocked others aren't but food prices have gone up clinics are over Ron there is a shortages of essential medicines and medical equipment I think the Chinese government is doing all it can to actually bring reinforcements and that's where you get into that if they need help if you know if if a country is willing to help you know be willing to accept it I mean I think the help the China really needs is technical public health capacity to do testing screening treatment isolation and really to find out have a genuine idea who's been exposed it's shocking that so many hundreds if not thousands maybe millions of people have left China that were not on any known contact list what do you make of the fact that the c.d.c. Projects $8200.00 deaths from the flu season that's not just them as I said the ordinary flu it's probably not nothing to ordinary and and this is only kill only killed over a 100 and some I don't mean to be demeaned by saying Only 100 but the numbers are dramatically different 100 if you change a few with corona virus and 8200 projected with the flu Yes I mean that's a very good point I mean certainly SARS Mers influenza have much higher death rates. So far the death rate as far as we know it with the Wong corona virus is relatively low but nonetheless we expect feel who flu comes every year it sweeps the globe we try to get a vaccine and do the best we can this. It's an entirely new novel virus could mutate and we really do need to take it extraordinarily seriously in the magnificent doctor felt she said and others said just as a sort of a personal note is that you know always in these situations as a journalist a truck I don't want to scare people I don't want to overhype something I want to make sure that they have the right information so that they can take precaution but you know we're all sort of in unchartered waters trying to figure out what to do and I think a lot of the anyway thanks very much for joining us there pleasure Lawrence Gostin professor of medicine Georgetown University. And before we sign off we want to pause to reflect on the tragic death of a sports icon known around the world on Sunday u.s. Basketball star Kobe Bryant and his 13 year old daughter Giana and 7 other passengers died in a helicopter crash near Los Angeles Brian played his entire 20 year career with the Los Angeles Lakers he retired in 2016 his accomplishments were extraordinary including 5 n.b.a. Championships 2 n.b.a. Finals most valuable player award he was an 18 time n.b.a. All star anyone to a limpid gold medals and in retirement he did more he became a successful businessman writer and production production executive including winning an Emmy Award and an Oscar having spent his entire childhood in Europe Brian was fluent Italian and Spanish and loved international soccer Kobe Bryant was 41 years old he survived by his wife and 3 daughters and the millions of fans around the world who loved him. This is.

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