The Dose

Hate crimes against Asians in the United States more than doubled from 2019 to 2020. Last month, in one of the most conspicuous acts of violence against Asians in recent history, six Asian American women were shot dead in Georgia. Racism against people of Asian descent is not a new problem, but it has been exacerbated of late by politicians using racist rhetoric to describe the coronavirus. Asians in America are now facing a dual pandemic: a heightened fear of racist abuse, from verbal slurs to physical assault, on top of all the anxiety of living through COVID-19. In this episode, Vivian Shaw and Susanna Park of the AAPI COVID-19 project talk about the deep roots of anti-Asian bias, as well as their research into how the pandemic is affecting the lives of Asians in the U.S.

If you're an optimist, then every piece of good news about vaccine approvals and shots in arms has put the end of the pandemic in sight. If you're a pessimist, then all the new variants with names sounding like computer-generated passwords signal the apocalypse. Will hope win, or will dread? On the latest episode of The Dose podcast, Eric Schneider, M.D., talks about the high-stakes race between the quick-spreading variants of COVID-19 and the effective vaccines that more Americans receive each day. Schneider brings us up to speed on the state of the pandemic and the challenges ahead. Drawing on his expertise in public health, he explains how we can "break the back of the virus" and ultimately win the race. Share your stories of pandemic optimism or pessimism—send an email to thedose@commonwealthfund.org.

Health care workers are among the heroes of the pandemic. One year in, many of us are experiencing stress, fatigue, and grief. But this can pale in comparison to the toll faced by those caring for the sick and dying on a daily basis. On this episode of The Dose, we listen to the stories of one group of frontline health workers: nurses. Often dealing with inadequate PPE and staff shortages, nurses are putting their own lives at risk — and many are experiencing burnout and exhaustion. Our guest, Mary Wakefield, takes us on a journey from rural hospitals to clinics in underserved areas, all through the eyes of nurses. Mary, a nurse with a long career in health care and public service, says the pandemic has revealed that America's public health infrastructure is "incredibly anemic."

Violence kills thousands of Americans each year and sends many more to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. Even though many people recover physically, the issues that cause violence often go unchecked. On today's episode of The Dose, we talk about how interventions, both in hospitals and in communities, that can help break the cycle of violence that traumatizes people over time. Our guest, Fatimah Loren Dreier, is the executive director of the Health Alliance for Violence Intervention, and a Pozen-Commonwealth Fund fellow in Health Equity Leadership. She talks about how trained violence interruption specialists can help people navigate conflict, and how the national protests around police violence towards Black Americans has created an opportunity for communities to rethink the role of the police.

Living with the COVID-19 pandemic for a year, it's hard to process the numbers. What we know is that nearly 500,000 Americans have lost their lives, and that Black, Latino, and Indigenous people are worst impacted. But behind the statistics are stories, and on the latest episode of The Dose, we listen to one of those stories. Our guest, Dr. Magdala Chery, is a primary care physician and Commonwealth Fund Fellow in Minority Health Policy. Magdala is also a daughter, and she experienced firsthand the racial inequities of our health care system when she lost both her parents to COVID-19 last spring. Magdala speaks of her personal tragedy without rancor: she believes that sharing stories like hers will help us see the people of color affected by COVID-19 not as case numbers and fatalities, but as lives.

Almost a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. faces another health crisis – one of loneliness. Between lockdowns, social distancing, and the fear that contact with others could make us sick, many people are living in isolation. But there are ways to cope. On this episode of The Dose podcast, Matthew Pantell and Laura Shields-Zeeman, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, talk about how innovative programs from around the world could help mitigate the effects of isolation.

A year into the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States appears to have learned few lessons from its disastrous early response. Hasty lockdowns and bungled reopenings have now given way to a sluggish and uncoordinated vaccine rollout. This month, the daily death toll crossed 4,000, and hospitals in many parts of the country are overflowing with sick patients. How are we going to get out of this mess? On the latest episode of The Dose, Ashish Jha, M.D., dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, explains how vaccine distribution could be sped up and carried out in a manner that addresses racial and economic disparities. Jha believes that swift action from the incoming administration could help America emerge from the pandemic by mid- to late 2021.

COVID-19 brought the lives of college students to an abrupt standstill – being in a classroom, a dormitory, a dining hall table with friends became risky activities overnight. How did universities navigate the impossible tradeoff between having students on campus with the risks of the coronavirus, and keeping students remote but putting their education in peril? Find out on this episode of The Dose podcast with Dr. Michael Drake, President of the University of California. Drake, who is also a member of The Commonwealth Fund Board of Directors, explains the decisions he made to keep students safe – and learning – on and off campus. Listen here, and then subscribe wherever you find your podcasts.

A new president doesn't get four years to shape health care, he gets six months. And for President-elect Joe Biden, the most pressing health care issue is – no surprise here – COVID-19. On this episode of The Dose, the Commonwealth Fund's President David Blumenthal, M.D., talks about Biden's opportunity to leave a lasting health-care legacy by bringing the pandemic under control. History will judge Biden by how he rises to our new reality, says Blumenthal, in which one in every 1,300 Americans has died of COVID, millions have lost their jobs, and science has been undermined and ignored.

President-elect Joe Biden says he is committed to strengthening the Affordable Care Act so that all Americans can get the health care they need. He also wants to work with people of all political stripes: in his acceptance speech, he said it's time "to listen to each other again." This week on The Dose podcast, we're bringing back an earlier episode on the compromise required to bring about big political change — in this case, change in U.S. health care. The Commonwealth Fund's Elizabeth Fowler, a key architect of Obamacare, talks about the behind-the-scenes effort it took to get the landmark law passed.