Public Health On Call

Although the majority of children who catch COVID recover without incident, some progress to multi-system inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C), thousands wind up in the ICU, and nearly 1,000 American children have died. Mark Kline, Physician-in-Chief, Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Children's Hospital New Orleans talks with Stephanie Desmon about why omicron is such "a different animal," what's next for vaccine trials for kids under five, and how Louisiana is taking big steps to protect children with vaccination mandates.

The Global Health Security Index, released by the Nuclear Threat Initiative and the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, looks at every country's capacity to respond to emergencies like a pandemic. Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo returns to the podcast to talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about some takeaways from the 2021 report and what we've learned—and didn't learn—from the pre-COVID-19 2019 report. They also talk about the report's use as a tool for countries to shore up gaps in their ability to respond to future crises and why even the most prepared countries, like the US, still struggled with COVID-19 response.

Lincoln, Nebraska has fared quite well compared to counties with similar demographics: the county is in the top 10% in terms of lowest mortality rates and hit the President's 70% vaccine uptake target in July 2021. These successes are in no small part due to the leadership of Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird who talks with Josh Sharfstein about difficult decisions and her hope that stories of the community's courage, bravery, and generosity will be legacies of COVID-19.

Infectious disease specialist Dr. Monica Gandhi returns to the podcast to talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about what the COVID pandemic might look like on the other side of omicron peaks. They discuss how to rethink our safety approaches to move towards accepting COVID as endemic, managing other respiratory viruses like flu, and searching for consensus in the path forward. They also discuss an interesting theory about omicron's origins.

What do we know now about the number of doses needed for people on immunosuppressant medications to be protected from severe COVID? What about the use of "passive" protection like monoclonal antibodies? Why are negative antibody tests more helpful than positive ones? Why are large agencies like the CDC and FDA not discussing individualized medicine when it comes to vaccine protocols? What's the next step in researching COVID-19 vaccine protocols for this unique population of patients? Johns Hopkins transplant surgeon Dr. Dorry Segev returns to the podcast to talk with Stephanie Desmon about what we now know and what still needs to be figured out.

Early in the pandemic, clinicians began to treat people sick with COVID-19 with the plasma of people who have recovered from COVID-19. The idea was that protective antibodies in the plasma would help prevent severe illness and death. Nearly two years later, the evidence is in—and it's being hotly debated. Dr. Arturo Casadevall returns to the podcast to talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the results of the COVID-19 Plasma Project and his take on divergent recommendations about using plasma as a therapy.

For decades, infrastructure policies harmed communities of color. New highways displaced residents through eminent domain, public transit systems were left in disrepair, and urban construction projects often catered to wealthier families. Andrea McDaniels, Director of Communications for the Bloomberg American Health Initiative, talks with Professor Keshia Pollack Porter of the Bloomberg School about how President Biden's $1 trillion infrastructure plan has the potential to rectify many of these inequities, some of the challenges of the federal law, and how infrastructure is intrinsically tied to health and well-being.

Dr. Josh Sharfstein checks in again with virologist Dr. Andy Pekosz about omicron and what we now know in terms of increased transmission, immune evasion, and lethality. Spoiler: If you're unvaccinated, you shouldn't assume that omicron will most likely lead to a mild infection. They also talk about what the omicron variant could mean for the future of the pandemic.

Dr. Shaun Truelove, an infectious disease epidemiologist, returns to the podcast to talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the latest model for the COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub. How quickly will the wave pass? How much harm will it cause? What happens in February and March? And can we trust these kinds of predictions? Learn more: https://covid19scenariomodelinghub.org/

In September 2020, President Biden pledged to vaccinate 70% of the world's population by September 2021. More than a year later, however, the US has delivered about 270 million of the 11 billion doses needed to vaccinate the planet. Lawrence Gostin, a Georgetown University professor and public health expert, returns to the podcast to talk with Stephanie Desmon about how things have gone so wrong, why he isn't optimistic about vaccination equity improvements in 2022, and how vaccine manufacturers could be doing so much more to help.