Public Health On Call

Johns Hopkins Professor and infectious disease epidemiologist Dr. David Dowdy returns to the podcast to talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about some of the latest studies on the effectiveness of masks in protecting people from COVID

The Stoop Storytelling Series and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health partnered last fall to present a night of storytelling by scientists, activists, and community members sharing personal stories about urgent public health issues. In part 3, Ashley Esposito, a "litter picker" with Bmore Trashpickers, talks about the story that trash can tell about the health of a community, and Dr. Stephen Thomas, director of the Maryland Center for Health Equity at the University of Maryland School of Public Health in College Park and founder of the Barbershop Project talks about the power of barbershops as places of health education. These stories were recorded on September 22, 2022 at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore.

Dr. Gerard Carroll is the Division head of EMS and Disaster Medicine and an emergency room physician at Cooper University Health Care in Camden, New Jersey. He joins Dr. Josh Sharfstein to talk about a pilot program that allows emergency responders to give the treatment buprenorphine after the reversal medication naloxone—right at the scene of an overdose. Dr. Carroll is the co-author of a new paper about his hospital's experience, as well as its impressive results. Learn more: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36192278/

Dr. Johnathon Ehsani is an expert in traffic safety at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He speaks with Dr. Sharfstein about the safety of autonomous vehicles today and what might be possible in the future. He also shares what he thinks of the potential benefits of this technology.

The Stoop Storytelling Series and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health partnered last fall to present a night of storytelling by scientists, activists, and community members sharing personal stories about urgent public health issues. In part 2, we hear from Cleo Hirsch, the executive director of COVID Response at Baltimore City Public Schools about creating "learning pods" for some of the most vulnerable kids in the city, and Tyde-Courtney Edwards, founding director of Ballet After Dark on surviving trauma through dance. These stories were recorded on September 22, 2022 at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore.

Johns Hopkins veterinarian Meghan Davis joins Stephanie Desmon to discuss the avian flu outbreak. They discuss the influenza that has been raging since 2021, with no signs of abating, and what the impacts are on the food supply, the cost of eggs and products that contain them, and on human and animal health.

A devastating CDC report on youth risk behavior paints a grim picture of how today's adolescents are faring mentally. Dr. Kathleen Ethier, director of the Division of Adolescent and School Health at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, joins Stephanie Desmon to discuss the large increase in depression, suicidal ideation and sexual violence being seen among teenage girls and LGBTQ kids. They talk about what schools and parents can do to help.

Dr. Bisola Ojikutu, the executive director of the Boston Public Health Commission, joins Dr. Josh Sharfstein to talk about her shift during the pandemic. She began supporting community coalitions that came together to fight COVID-19. In July 2021, she became the city's leading health official, focused on creating new connections with community organizations—for the pandemic and beyond.

Guest host Shelley Hearne, director of the Lerner Center for Public Health Advocacy, speaks with Jaime Madrigano, Visiting Associate Professor, with the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at the Bloomberg School, whose research examines the health impacts of environmental air pollution and weather. Together they discuss how health and cost implications must be tied to climate change policies, communications, and real community engagement.

For decades, improvement in diagnostic tools for cancer have led to a movement of early screening from mammograms to colonoscopies. Today, Dr. Otis Brawley, a Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Distinguished Professor, tells Stephanie Desmon that many people think screening is better than it actually is. While early screening can save lives, they discuss the how to be sure you're getting high-quality screening when you need it, and about some of the harm of over-screening in certain cases.