Dr. Arthur Caplan- Professor of Bioethics At New York University Langone Medical Center Interview

Dr Caplan believes we need a new system of screening for life threatening diseases such as cancer and measles. Dr Caplan breaks down how to keep yourself healthy. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now let's get to doctor Arthur Caplan, professor of Bioethics
at New York University Land Gone Medical Center. Doctor Caplin,
thanks for being here as.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Always, Hey, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
So a measles outbreak at a Shakira concert, or at
least one case of measles. I guess what they fear
right now is an outbreak? Tell us what happened and
what could happen.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Somebody was there who definitely had measles. I don't know
exactly how they linked them back to being at the concert,
but they were there. Measles is the single most contagious
infectious disease out there, really easy to catch it. If
you walk in a room where somebody's been with measles,

(00:43):
you can still pick it up. I believe it's like
twelve hours later. It lingers in the air, highly transmissible
through breathing, sneezing, that sort of stuff. So the fear is,
we get this gigantic outbreak in Texas. You know about that.
We've talked about that before, and it's spreading and you
get these big venues where people are crammed together concerts,

(01:08):
shakiras or whoever, or indoor events, sports, events like the
Knicks Pacers or something like that. And the real worry
is somebody goes there either stupidly shows up knowing they're infected,
or more likely they're not symptomatic, but they are infected.
So we really have to make sure that people are
vaccinated against the measles. It's coming back. It's a real danger.

(01:33):
You can't always protect yourself, you know, from exposure if
you're gatherings of fifty thousand people or something, so short
of running around trying to wear a mask, the best,
much better is to just get the vaccine. And this
is a reminder. You got to do it. Kids got
to do it too.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Yeah, you're reminding people, but it's going to take more
than that. It's going to take a public information campaign,
don't you believe across the country in the schools.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Well again, I'm a little disappointed with RFK Junior in
his CDC department because I want them to do that.
I want them to come out and not just say
misos vaccines work, which they've said, and you know, be
informed and make a choice. I want them to come
out and say, look, you gotta do this. It's your
ethical obligation to protect babies and kids and the elderly.

(02:24):
It's your ethical obligation to help your neighbor. It's a
minor thing to do. The vaccine's safe. Don't be afraid
of it. There's rumors all over social media that it's dangerous,
but it isn't. Those links to autism and so on
never been shown. But we're not getting the push we
really do need that. You're right.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
I want to talk about President Biden in the announcement
he made this week about the fact that he has
stage four prostate cancer, and I want to stay away
from the politics of it. I'm sure you do too,
because some people say that and I believe it too,
that he time this announcement because he wanted to cover
up some bad news this week. But let's get to

(03:04):
about the fact that he must have had this for
a long time, so either doctors missed it or he
was covering it up.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
So I'm no oncology expert on prostate but I've talked
to colleagues and here's what I think is important to
keep in mind. This is a very aggressive form of
prostate cancer, spreads fast, it's in his bones. He has
a really serious case. I would not give his survival

(03:34):
adds as long. So people are saying, well, can't you
screen for it? Don't you know about it? Couldn't you
have detected it? He's the former president, he must have
had good healthcare. I'm gonna tell you, Larry, there is
a test, a prostate cancer test, but some doctors don't
recommend it because it's not that accurate. It is entirely

(03:57):
possible that he went for many years, talked about it
with the doctor. Doctor said, I don't know all older
men get a little bit of prostate cancer, which is true.
The test isn't that accurate in terms of detecting it.
So maybe they just decided together not to use it. Now,
even if you are tested, you know, it doesn't mean

(04:20):
they're going to find it. As I say, it's not
that accurate a thing, but it doesn't make everybody rethink
shouldn't we use even a not so good test. So
I don't know about cover up. I'm not sure what's
going on there, but let me jump to something else.
Also this week we had Fetterman, senator from Pennsylvania, suffering
apparently from mental illness. His colleagues in the Senator worried

(04:44):
about them. Member Larry, Mitch McConnell, who was staggering around
with all kinds of ailments. We still need a system,
and I don't know that our politicians will ever give
it to us. But if we don't want to have
these situations, we need independent medical exams, doctor's appointed, say
by the National Academy of Medicine. Take the president, the

(05:05):
vice president, senators, congressman in for a real physical done
by experts, not the president's doctor who's expert at one area,
and then be transparent. We could fix all of this.
I don't know ongoing and ongoing. What's going on? Who
knew what? Who was sick? Did he have cancer when

(05:25):
he was president? Was McConnell Kentucky guy sick? We should
solve this. Let the politicians off the hook.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
Doctor Arthur Caplan, professor of bioethics at New York University
Land gone, Thanks a lot, Talk to you next week.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
Hey, Thanks Larry,