Gray on plague and Galleri Risk and screening caveats

Oct 5

Dana Perino interviews family physician and Fox News medical contributor Jessica Gray in a segment whose headline describes US monitoring of reports of a Russian plague death. Gray explains the forms of plague, close-contact droplet transmission of pneumonic plague and antibiotic treatment. She says the worker and potentially exposed contacts could have received preventive antibiotics if the reported exposure had been identified and handled through the appropriate procedures. Perino asks why a Russian laboratory researches plague; Gray describes controlled pathogen research and its treatment-development purpose. Gray assesses risk to Americans as low if the reported exposure account is true and contact tracing is effective, while retaining possible mutation or antibiotic resistance and the need for transparency from the Russian lab. In the interview's separate cancer-test discussion, Perino describes new blood tests as nearing FDA approval and asks about earlier diagnosis and saved lives. Gray identifies Galleri, says it detects advanced cancers better than early ones and that no study yet shows reduced cancer deaths, and contrasts better performance for liver, bile-duct, head-and-neck and esophageal cancers with weaker performance for prostate, thyroid, kidney and breast cancers. She describes it as a complement to existing screening.

On October 5, 2026, Jessica Gray publicly assessed Galleri in Fox News's America's Newsroom interview with Dana Perino, who introduced new cancer blood tests as nearing FDA approval. Gray said the single blood draw detects advanced cancers better than early ones and that no study yet shows it reduces cancer deaths. She described better performance for liver, bile-duct, head-and-neck and esophageal cancers and weaker performance for prostate, thyroid, kidney and breast cancers. She presented Galleri as a complement to existing screening. These are Gray's clinical assessment and qualifications; FDA approval is prospective in Perino's introduction.