Conservation is key for planetary health & preventing pandemics

Neil Vora MD is a former epidemic intelligence service officer with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) with experience combating outbreaks of the deadly Ebola virus and running the New York City contact tracing program for COVID-19. He advocates supporting public health infrastructure to respond to diseases.

He much prefers preventing outbreaks before they occur instead of rushing to respond to them, though, and the best way to do this, he says, is by investing in nature.

On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, Vora shares his knowledge of why the “spillover” of zoonotic diseases — when a pathogen jumps from wildlife to humans — is increasingly occurring due to deforestation and land-use change.

He also says that despite science's importance in studying and combating viruses, art and philosophy are necessary tools to drive the global change needed to prevent further outbreaks.

“If we want to see societal transformation, we're going to need people feeling inspired, and that's where art and philosophy come in,” Vora says.

Listen to Mongabay’s previous Newscast episode covering the recent outbreak of avian influenza here.

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Image Credit: Rainbow over Jambi, Indonesia. Photo credit: Rhett Ayers Butler / Mongabay

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Timecodes

(00:00) Introduction

(01:06) Medical doctor and conservationist: Neil Vora

(04:27) The link between deforestation and disease

(07:33) The 'One Health' movement

(09:41) How disease 'spillover' happens

(13:06) What's happening with marburg and 'bird flu'?

(23:10) Why we need art & philosophy to protect nature

(26:31) Apocalyptic horror films as scenario explorations

(30:04) Solutions and 'radical listening'

(35:09) A rejection of nihilism