Public Health On Call

Although Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine was authorized for kids ages 5-11 back in November, uptake has been markedly slower than other age groups. Social and behavioral scientist Dr. Rupali Limaye talks with Stephanie Desmon about why vaccination rates are lagging among kids, and a new free course that trains people to be "vaccine ambassadors" and have productive conversations to help promote vaccine acceptance in their communities. Learn more about the course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/covid-vaccine-ambassador

Since 1996, more than 1 million Americans have died of drug overdoses. Beth Macy, journalist and author of Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America—which was recently made into a miniseries of Hulu—talks with Lindsay Smith Rogers on the podcast. They discuss the overdose crisis, who's accountable, what research says about what works, and why so many see the situation as a "crisis of compassion." Read more from Macy's recent Washington Post op-ed.

The state of Indiana was focused on bolstering its public health system before COVID-19. The pandemic has only made this work more urgent. Dr. Judy Monroe, former state health officer of Indiana, CEO and President of the CDC Foundation, was tapped by Indiana's governor to co-chair a commission looking at the public health system and making recommendations for future policies. Dr. Monroe talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about these reforms and their implications for the rest of the country. This podcast was produced in collaboration with the CDC Foundation podcast, Contagious Conversations. Learn more at cdcfoundation.org/conversations.

Candida auris is a species of yeast that is increasingly becoming a hospital-acquired drug-resistant infection. Dr. Tara Palmore, the hospital epidemiologist at the George Washington University Hospital talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about this emerging pathogen and the risks it poses to vulnerable patients, why COVID-19 has made matters worse, and what's needed to stop it.

Dr. Lisa Cooper, a forward-thinking national leader in health equity, returns to the podcast to talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about her new book, Why Are Health Disparities Everyone's Problem? Dr. Cooper speaks about her upbringing in Liberia, her family's move to the US, and her initial introduction to health disparities in the US. They talk about Dr. Cooper's groundbreaking work examining why and how health disparities exist and what to do about them.

The Beijing Winter Olympics kicks off this week in a much different pandemic context than the Tokyo Summer Olympics six months ago. Former Olympian and public health expert Dr. Tara Kirk Sell returns to the podcast to talk with Stephanie Desmon about what we know about how omicron and China's Zero COVID policy will likely make this Olympics much more complicated, the limitations of trying to maintain an Olympic bubble, and the dangerous potential for outbreaks given China's relatively low population immunity.

The Supreme Court recently dealt a blow to vaccine mandates for larger employers, saying OSHA had overstepped in requiring employees to be vaccinated or tested weekly in order to work. So how can the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, uphold its core responsibility to keep workers safe? David Michaels, former OSHA Assistant Secretary under Obama, talks with Stephanie Desmon about where OSHA can continue to step up safety in light of COVID-19 and how a lack of vaccine mandates underscores the importance of implementing other measures to help keep workers safe from all airborne infectious diseases.

Public health leaders are tasked with enormous jobs which have been made even more difficult during the pandemic. Dr. Jay Varma, physician and advisor for former New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio on the pandemic response, returns to the podcast to talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about why public health officials have to be subject matter experts, politicians, lawyers, visionaries, and humble public servants, and how aspiring leaders can get the cadre of skills required for success.

To understand what is driving beliefs and behaviors around the world, the Johns Hopkins Center for Communications Programs created a global dashboard with data from an ongoing survey of more than 22 million people from 100 countries. Marla Shaivitz and Dominick Shattuck talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about what they've learned about global opinions on COVID-19, vaccines, trusted sources of information, and more. Check out the COVIDbehaviors.org dashboard online.

Some COVID patients continue to suffer from symptoms long after the initial infection clears. The formal name for "long COVID" is Post-Acute Sequela of COVID, or PASC. It's a condition that benefits from a comprehensive approach. Dr. Jonathan Whiteson of NYU's Post-COVID Care Program talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about how the field of physiatry is well positioned to work with PASC patients, what they've learned about treating symptoms like fatigue and brain fog, and the future agenda for research.