What Ebola Has Taught Us About Managing COVID

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Robert D. Glatter, MD: Hi. I'm Dr Robert Glatter, medical adviser for Medscape Emergency Medicine. I want to welcome two public health experts based in New York City who recently authored an article in The Lancet arguing how the United States response to Ebola in 2014 could have better shaped and informed our response to COVID-19.

Dr Syra Madad is senior director of the Special Pathogens Program at NYC Health and Hospitals, where she is also part of the executive leadership team which oversees New York City's response to COVID-19 in the city's 11 public hospitals. She also played a key role in the response to Ebola in Texas in 2014-15. Dr Craig Spencer is director of global health and emergency medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian Columbia University Medical Center, where he is also associate professor of emergency medicine. He coordinated the Doctors Without Borders national response in Guinea during the Ebola outbreak and also became an Ebola survivor himself. Welcome.

Craig A. Spencer, MD, MPH: Thanks for having us.

Syra Madad, DHSc, MSc, MCP: Yes, thank you.

Glatter:I want to first congratulate you both on putting together this insightful article highlighting the lessons learned in responding to and managing the Ebola outbreak in 2014.