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“The solution is right at our fingertips,” says doctor and disease detective Dr. Neil Vora, talking about why ebola and hantavirus are also climate warnings on the Climate Curious podcast. From halting deforestation, to safeguarding animal farms, and cracking down on commercial wildlife trafficking, Neil shares the solutions we already have that could help us halt these devastating diseases.
Read more: https://time.com/article/2026/05/22/the-ebola-and-hantavirus-outbreaks-offer-an-ominous-warning/
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Created by TEDxLondon
Executive produced by Josie Colter
Produced by Ben Beheshty
Curated by Deesha Chandra
Hosted by Maryam Pasha and Ben Hurst
Communications by Tara Cooper and Issey Gladston
00:00 Welcome
00:46 Outbreaks as warning signs
01:34 Ebola basics and origins
01:56 Deforestation drives spillover
02:30 Current outbreak challenges
03:07 Why spillovers are rising
04:22 One health and climate action
05:30 Policy and prevention solutions
06:29 Frontline Heroes Stories
07:51 What you can do
08:50 Closing credits
Welcome
[00:00:00] Ben Hurst: Welcome to Climate Curious Quickies, bite-sized nuggets of Climate Goodness from our TEDx experts in under 10 minutes. In this week’s climate, curious, we’re connecting the dots between [00:00:15] the recent virus outbreaks of Ebola and Avius with climate change and asking, can we stop these outbreaks before they start to help us diagnose a situation and explain how zoonotic diseases can spill over from wildlife to [00:00:30] humans.
[00:00:30] Ben Hurst: We have a climate curious og, the physician and disease detective, Dr. Neil Ra. On why taking care of our planet is also a medicine. Here’s Dr. Neil Vora. Stay curious.[00:00:45]
Outbreaks as warning signs
[00:00:46] Neil Vora: Lot of you may have heard about the Ebola outbreak happening right now, or the Han virus outbreak on a cruise ship a few weeks ago. Uh, it’s very clear that these are medical crises, but what we don’t hear enough about is that these are also. [00:01:00] Signs of a planet in distress. These are symptoms of a planetary crisis, and we’re going to be seeing more and more outbreaks of diseases like this because of a changing climate and because of a world [00:01:15] in which nature is in decline.
[00:01:17] Neil Vora: My name is Neil Vora. I’m a medical doctor and I serve as the executive director of the Preventing Pandemics at the Source Coalition. I used to work for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fighting outbreaks around [00:01:30] the world, including in Western and Central Africa for the two biggest Ebola outbreaks ever.
Ebola basics and origins
[00:01:34] Neil Vora: So Ebola is an awful, awful disease. It is, uh, a disease that can kill 50% of people in some outbreaks. Uh, it was first discovered in the [00:01:45] 1970s. We still don’t know the exact source of Ebola, uh, but we think that it originates in fruit bats and basically jumps from fruit bats into people.
Deforestation drives spillover
[00:01:56] Neil Vora: And Ebola is actually a disease of deforestation.
[00:02:01] Neil Vora: Computer models show that. Ebola outbreaks increase in areas that have suffered from deforestation. And there’s a few different reasons for this, but basically it, CR, deforestation and climate change can [00:02:15] create conditions that allow zoonotic diseases like Ebola to happen more frequently. So Ebola is caused by a virus.
[00:02:23] Neil Vora: There’s actually several different species of viruses that cause what is known as Ebola disease in the current [00:02:30] outbreak.
Current outbreak challenges
[00:02:30] Neil Vora: Right now in the Congo and in Uganda, the species that is causing the outbreak is a more rare form of Ebola called Bundi Boggio. Uh, and it’s one for which we do not have a vaccine.
[00:02:44] Neil Vora: We don’t have [00:02:45] proven therapies. And so that is part of the challenge in controlling this outbreak. But I wa do wanna emphasize that prior Ebola outbreaks have been controlled without vaccines. And we already know what it takes to stop Ebola outbreaks. And [00:03:00] so it’s really important that those public health measures get implemented quickly and robustly across the affected areas.
Why spillovers Are rising
[00:03:07] Neil Vora: Ebola and Han Virus. These outbreaks that are happening right now are. Signals of what’s happening more [00:03:15] broadly around the world, and that is that viruses are increasingly jumping from animals into people. We call that spillovers. And these spillovers have been on the rise around the world for decades, and they are on the rise because of [00:03:30] actions that we humans are doing.
[00:03:32] Neil Vora: We are doing this to ourselves by engaging in things like deforestation. And commercial wildlife trade and intensive animal agriculture in these awful facilities that don’t have good [00:03:45] sanitation. And so if we were to address these drivers that lead to spillovers, we would actually be able to prevent some of them from happening at all.
[00:03:54] Neil Vora: But I also wanna be very clear, this current outbreak of Ebola, the, the outbreak of Honda [00:04:00] virus, I’m not saying that these are certainly the result of, uh, uh, of climate change or the, certainly the result of deforestation. There’s a lot of different factors, and we still don’t know the precise sources of these two [00:04:15] particular outbreaks.
[00:04:15] Neil Vora: But overall, around the world it is. Human activities that are causing these spillovers to increasingly happen.
One health and climate action
[00:04:22] Neil Vora: There is a growing recognition around the world that human health is linked to the health of other animals and the planet. In some academic circles, this is called one health, but this is an idea that many cultures have known and understood for thousands of years, and it is increasingly important that we recognize our.
[00:04:44] Neil Vora: Impacts on [00:04:45] the planet and how our changing of environments and changing of the climate is actually going to have health impacts on ourselves. And these are not future threats, but these are threats that are already taking place here and now. And so if we [00:05:00] were to go upstream and start addressing climate change more proactively, uh, by, by, by improving how we, uh.
[00:05:10] Neil Vora: Manage forests, or by sequestering more carbon, we could [00:05:15] actually reduce some of these adverse health impacts. Millions of people are projected to die in the coming decades because of climate change, but these are also avoidable deaths. There are things we can do now to save lives right now and also in the future.[00:05:30]
Policy and prevention solutions
[00:05:30] Neil Vora: This current Ebola outbreak is a tragedy of huge proportions. So many people are suffering because of this, and so what I really hope to see is robust international engagement to support the Congolese and Ugandan [00:05:45] responses to this outbreak. Uh, beyond that, though, I am. Hopeful that the world will rally behind certain opportunities.
[00:05:54] Neil Vora: For example, later this year, there’s a UN meeting on pandemics, and it’s really important in that [00:06:00] meeting that discussions happen around. The connection between human health and the health of other animals and the planet. We need to be doing more to protect forests, to fight climate change, to improve how we raise farmed animals to [00:06:15] stop the sale of live wild birds and mammals in urban settings.
[00:06:18] Neil Vora: These are all things that we can do. The solutions at our fingertips already available right now that would reduce the frequency of these spillovers, which would save countless lives.
Frontline heroes stories
[00:06:29] Neil Vora: There are so many amazing people that I’ve met along the way in fighting outbreaks. The people who are responding on the front lines of the response, particularly the Congolese nurses, doctors, other healthcare workers, those in Uganda doing the same thing.
[00:06:44] Neil Vora: These are [00:06:45] heroes. They’re putting their lives on the lines by doing this work. I remember when I was in Liberia, I was working out of a rural county and there was an, there was a an Ebola community care center in that same area, and [00:07:00] overnight one day. That care center ran out of gloves. And how can the nurses that were working in that care center.
[00:07:08] Neil Vora: Take care of patients with Ebola without gloves, right? These are people who are facing such [00:07:15] limited resources. They’re putting their lives on the line. It also reminds me of the time also when I was in Liberia, uh, a, an infection control specialist himself ended up getting Ebola because it is highly [00:07:30] transmissible in those close contact settings.
[00:07:32] Neil Vora: And he begged me to help him get evacuated to the US to get care, but I could not grant him that wish. And he ended up dying of Ebola and so. My heart goes out to these people who are sacrificing [00:07:45] so much. Uh, they are heroes and they deserve our support as they fight this outbreak.
What you can do
[00:07:51] Neil Vora: There’s something for all of us to do when it comes to fighting climate change and addressing the threat of new infectious diseases.
[00:07:57] Neil Vora: First of all, I would encourage [00:08:00] you to build your own level of awareness on these topics, so go to reliable sources of information. And second of all, as you’re trying to figure out what it is that you precisely can do, I would encourage you to ask yourself these three questions, which I am, uh, adapting from the [00:08:15] Japanese philosophy of Ikigai.
[00:08:17] Neil Vora: The first question is, what am I good at? Next, what brings me joy? And third of all, what does my community need from me? And my hope is that you land at the [00:08:30] intersection of the answers to those three questions for you yourself. And as Clover Hogan has said before. We don’t need 100 perfect activists. We need 1 million imperfect activists, so you don’t have to strive to be perfect.
[00:08:44] Neil Vora: [00:08:45] There’s something that each of us can do, but only you know what it is that you can do.
Closing credits
[00:08:50] Ben Hurst: Thanks for listening to this quickie. This episode was created by our superstar podcast team at TEDxLondon. Until next time, stay [00:09:00] curious.
