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00:00Dr. SIEGEL what do we know about this vaccine and its ability to actually you know work a year from now . Well these are very early days and so they're in different stages of trying out this vaccine . This is we hope that it will be it'll be effective but it's far too early to know at this point. It certainly does sound like it would be an amazing solution if it does indeed go through all the steps and get passed and approved. Now I know you work a lot on medicine for immigrants and for refugees. It can be a political hot potato here. What are you seeing about how those populations are being treated right now in the United States . Well in the United States it varies depending on an immigrant's status . The current administration for public health reasons has stopped asylum seekers from entering the country which is concerning from a refugee. International health and international law point of view . But most more broadly speaking the key issue here will be will undocumented migrants and asylum seekers be able to access the health services. And what is your research telling you so far . Have they been able to . It varies according what I understand as it varies according to state but most to the state. But most of my research is actually focused on refugees abroad. And we've been working in looking at various studies of the Rohingya refugees in Myanmar and the South Sudanese refugees in Uganda. And we have some concerns that these populations particularly those that live in camps very high density poor health conditions to begin with . And we're very concerned that what will happen if cholera actually becomes prevalent amongst this population. Exactly. I mean what does a population without governments do. Dr. SIEGEL is the UN trying to take care of these populations . Yes. I mean the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has the overall ordination but ultimately it's the governments themselves are responsible for asylum seekers and refugees on their own territories. And then the UN and the nongovernmental organizations support them . The concern is that witness pandemic or in a specific area grow significantly. Will governments still allow refugees and asylum seekers access to district hospitals where the very sick need to be treated. See you mentioned a couple of populations though hunger population for example. But in Europe right now you know the the epicenter of the virus obviously was at least Spain becoming Germany and places like Turkey now as well . There's also a massive population of immigrants and asylum seekers and refugees in these countries. Are they being taken care of by the individual governments . Again I think it depends on every country is a little bit different. So for example there have been many migrants and refugees now in Germany and Sweden that have been registered and will be receiving healthcare free health care . There is some concern as you may be aware in Greece and some of the restricted camps where there have far too many people in these limited amount of camps for asylum seekers and migrants . And the health care is very poor there. So there is certainly concern that if. Will they receive proper care. And then you've got over a million or so refugees in Turkey. Turkey has been very generous in terms of the Syrian refugees but the capacity to provide care for such a large population when a government will also have to provide and perhaps prioritize their own citizens is very concerning .

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Johns Hopkins' Spiegel Concerned About Lack of Virus Protection for Refugees

Dr. Paul Spiegel, director of the Center for Humanitarian Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, discusses the clinical trials of a coronavirus vaccine and his concerns about migrants, asylum seekers and refugees not receiving the health care needed to help protect against the Covid-19 pandemic. He speaks with Bloomberg's Vonnie Quinn on "Bloomberg Markets." The Bloomberg School of Public Health is supported by Michael R. Bloomberg, founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News. (Source: Bloomberg)

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