Public Health On Call

Today, guest host Shelley Hearne, director of the Lerner Center for Public Health Advocacy talks with former EPA leader and inaugural White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy about why climate change is a people and public health problem, not a planetary problem.

A report from the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis sheds light on disturbing instances of the Trump administration's politicization of science during the COVID-19 public health emergency. Subcommittee member Congressman Bill Foster (D-IL) talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about what's in the report, how to better protect agencies like the CDC from political interference, and lessons learned to prepare for the next pandemic.

Since the reversal of Roe v. Wade, there's been a flurry of activity at the state levels to protect, significantly restrict, or ban abortion. Legal and public health expert Joanne Rosen returns to the podcast to talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about how removing the "constitutional guardrails" is playing out in courtrooms across the country, the "chilling effect" much of this has on practitioners, and how the recently passed Respect for Marriage Act could have implications for protections at the federal level. Referenced in this episode: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2798214.

In the last episode of Season 6, Lindsay Smith Rogers talks with co-hosts Dr. Josh Sharfstein and Stephanie Desmon about 2022: how it started, what happened, and how it's going now. They reflect on the changing COVID response, listener feedback, standout episodes, notable guests, looking ahead to topics for 2023 and more. This episode was recorded in person as a video and can be viewed on the @johnshopkinssph YouTube channel. Please vote for the podcast in the Signal Listener's Choice Awards! Info here: https://bit.ly/PHPodVoting

Last week, hundreds of public health leaders and scholars gathered in Philadelphia for the annual Bloomberg American Health Summit and to discuss critical topics ranging from gun violence and environmental justice to food policy and preventing overdose. This special episode of Public Health On Call features three panels from the main plenary session: Extreme Risk Protection Orders, Innovations in Harm Reduction, and Youth Suicide Risk in Latinx Communities. You can watch the full sessions here. Please vote for the podcast in the Signal Listener's Choice Awards! Info here: https://bit.ly/PHPodVoting

Dr. Shaun Truelove, an infectious disease epidemiologist, returns to the podcast to talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the latest models for the COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub. They discuss the possibility of another COVID surge this winter as well as what models can tell us about other respiratory diseases like flu and RSV, and factors like the flu and bivalent vaccines. Please vote for the podcast in the Signal Listener's Choice Awards! Info here

For the first time, the WHO released a report of fungal "priority pathogens" that are causing invasive diseases in humans and are becoming more prevalent and more resistant to treatment. Dr. Hatim Sati, technical leader of the report, talks with Stephanie Desmon about why fungi pose such a threat to human health, the lack of diagnostics and treatments, and how better research and surveillance can help.

Guest host Bilal Khan, a Johns Hopkins public health student who recently worked as an advisor to senior public health leaders in Pakistan, talks with Dr. Rabika Fatima, a Karachi-based doctor volunteering at medical relief camps near the floods, about what's happening on the ground in the aftermath of Pakistan's devastating floods. Organizations working on the front lines include: JDC Foundation, Al Khidmat Foundation, IMI Pakistan, and The Indus Hospital.

Unintentional injuries like auto and firearm accidents, drownings, and poisonings, are the leading causes of death in US children over age 1. Dr. Sadiqa Kendi, Division Chief of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Boston Medical Center and a Bloomberg Fellow, talks with Lindsay Smith Rogers about her work on the Mass PIER project and some insights they've gained from reviewing pediatric injuries. Learn more about the project findings here.

COVID-19 infections may look different in 2022 than they did in 2020, thanks to vaccines, infection-induced immunity, and new treatments—but that doesn't mean we can rest easy. Dr. Paul Sax, clinical director of infectious diseases at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Clinical Infectious Diseases talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the overall state of COVID-19 treatments and vaccines, what we still don't know about this virus, and why it's important to stay vigilant.