Capital Club COVID-19 Response: Looking Back and Moving Forward with Dr. Alex Jahangir
Welcome back to the Colloquium Podcast! In this episode, I welcome Alex Jahangir! Dr. Alex Jahangir is a professor of orthopedic surgery and medicine. He's an orthopedic trauma surgeon and director of the division of orthopedic trauma at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Additionally, he is the Executive Medical Director of the Vanderbilt Trauma, Burn, and Emergency Surgery Patient Care Center. He is the current chair of the Metropolitan Board of Health of Nashville and was named chair of the Metropolitan Nashville Coronavirus Taskforce in March of 2020 by Mayor John Cooper.
In this episode, we take a closer look at Dr. Alex’s experience of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. He shares how the first 30 days of responding to the virus looked like. He also talks about the response from the state and the federal government and what he thinks he and his team could have done better. Dr. Alex also shares his thoughts on vaccination rollouts and anti-vaxxers. Join us and listen in!
[00:01 – 08:14] Opening Segment
- Welcoming Alex to the show
- Alex shares his background
- Being an orthopedic trauma surgeon
- He talks about his position in the National Board of Health
- Helping the community in Nashville during the pandemic
[08:15 – 18:59] What the first 30 days of Responding to the Pandemic Looked Like
- How his training as a trauma surgeon helped in dealing with a crisis
- Building a communications team
- Alex on what they could have done better
- His thoughts on the response of the state and the federal government
[19:00 – 32:45] On Vaccine Rollouts
- What the health department did right
- Purchasing a lot of cold storage early
- Partnering with the state and pivotal organizations
- How Nashville is doing on vaccinations
- Alex on the state distributing vaccines on a county level
- Alex’s thoughts on the vaccines being politicized
- His thoughts on anti-vaxxers
[32:46 – 36:36] Closing Segment
- Alex on dealing with fatigue
- Is this something we just live with forever?
- How you can get more educated about the virus and vaccines
- Closing words
Tweetable Quotes
“It is fascinating to see what happens when you put out a lot of money and every resource and take out red tape, how the world can do great things. Vaccines have come out, [that’s] what happens when a bunch of people roll in the same direction and you take away bureaucracy.” - Alex Jahangir
“People listen to leaders. Whether that leader is is a president, or a governor, a pastor, leadership matters. I don't know why people feel that division is so fun and so important. I think there are a few people that really do it, and they know how to manipulate the system. If you asked me what lesson I've learned over the past 18 months, [it’s that] we need to re-engage in civility.” - Alex Jahangir
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