We Had a Plan for Viruses Like This. Then We Dismantled It. Dr. Nikki Romanik on Hantavirus

Nikki Romanik helped build America's pandemic preparedness infrastructure from inside the White House. She's watching it come apart from the outside.

In this episode of the Scientista Podcast, Sweta and Monica sit down with Dr. Nikki Romanik, Former White House Pandemic Preparedness Deputy Director and Chief of Staff, as hantavirus makes global headlines and the systems designed to respond to exactly this kind of outbreak are operating at a fraction of their capacity. Nikki explains what hantavirus is, what the Andes strain means for transmission, and what the public actually needs to know—versus what's driving fear.

Then the harder conversation: 20,000 HHS employees gone, 3,000 CDC staff departed, laboratory testing paused for thirty infectious diseases. Nikki names what's been lost, who is stepping in, and what it would take to stabilize what remains. 

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