The CommonHealth

Welcome to The CommonHealth, the podcast of the CSIS Bipartisan Alliance for Global Health Security. The CommonHealth replaces the Coronavirus Crisis Update.In it, we delve deeply into the puzzle, at home and abroad, that connects pandemic preparedness and response, HIV/AIDS, routine immunization, primary care, and the geopolitical impacts these have on human and national security.

Sam Radwan, founder of Enhance International, has worked on health developments inside China for two decades. He shares his insights and raises some difficult questions. Over 80 year olds continue to be highly vulnerable; only 66% have been vaccinated. China’s 400 million rural poor live with starkly different medial support realities, and we have little visibility into what they are experiencing. An increasing number of Chinese will be traveling abroad to seek medical care, as medical literacy rises. Hong Kong is gearing up as a medical center. Can we imagine a radical decoupling in the health sector, between China and the United States? The deterioration of the US-China relationship is pushing in that direction and will have consequences for reform of the health care sector in China. We need to watch the Chinese government’s drive to restore economic growth. His hope: “cooler heads will prevail” as we realize we need one another in health.

In this newest episode in our series on China, Mike Osterholm reflects. There is no easy explanation for why the Chinese government did so little to prepare while knowing Zero-Covid was failing. Even as Omicron reached an R-naught of up to 16, and 8 million elderly above 80 had received no vaccine. We are now seeing progress by the Chinese in data sharing through George Gao’s recently published Lancet paper. Luckily, there Is no evidence of a dangerous new subvariant emerging, though we have to be cautious and humble. China has experienced a massive increase in deaths. After the Omicron surge that swept the United States in 2022, Omicron settled into a “high plains” continued outbreak of 380-550 deaths per day. That pattern may be seen in China. On the Covid origin controversy, we will likely never know the source. Prospects for an informed U.S.-Chinese dialogue on preparing for the next pandemic? “We are back in the 1970s.”

Dr. Scott Rivkees served under Governor DeSantis as Florida’s Surgeon General and Secretary of Health for 27 months during the pandemic, in what became a rocky political experience. Behind the scenes, what was he able to achieve, in serving Florida’s 67 counties, and in particular, in protecting seniors, managing schools, setting early vaccine priorities? What were the hard lessons for public health professionals, as vaccine hesitancy grew, and morphed into refusal? How well did CDC fare in this period? In his current position as a Professor of Practice at the Brown University School of Public Health, how has he used his columns to push against misinformation and conspiracy theories and urge medical professionals to be more vocal?

As part of our series on China post-COVID-19, Chris Murray reflects on where things stand, almost two months after President Xi threw off Zero-Covid controls. A huge Covid-19 wave has likely led thus far to a million deaths. It is likely not over. Don’t expect greater Chinese government transparency on numbers. That remains a highly sensitive matter domestically and, no less important, an integral component of China’s foreign policy image and prestige. The Chinese government is driving to get through the outbreak as fast as possible, tough it out, and reopen the economy. China's elderly bear the biggest toll. 

In our continued series on China post-Zero Covid, Dr. Scott Kennedy recounts the revelations from his six weeks in Beijing and Shanghai in late 2022, and reflects on what has transpired – societally, politically, medically -- since President Xi suddenly threw off the Zero-Covid controls in early December.  What is the “toll” for not preparing for the colossal speak of Covid? What to make of a “crisis of confidence” that the government has to face, that is going to “hurt?” What can we expect in the spring in terms of “normalization?’

As 2023 opens, Yanzhong Huang, Council on Foreign Relations/Seton Hall University, kicks off our new podcast series focused on China. Over the past month, since Xi threw off Zero-Covid, China has experienced an extraordinary pace and scale of infection. “The worst is yet to come” as Lunar New Year migration rush – 200 million – spreads the virus into the countryside. Why should Americans care? Are travel restrictions counter-productive? How should we think about what lies on the other side of this extraordinary outbreak?

In this 153rd episode, Doctors Kristina Box and Judy Monroe walk us through the recently concluded Indiana Governor’s Commission on Public Health. Why Indiana? What are the Commission’s mandate, methods, findings and recommendations? How did Commissioners navigate the polarization and anger? Indiana’s $55 per capita investment in public health lags far behind the $91 national average: how is Indiana to catch up? What’s CDC’s special value to Indiana’s public health? How important is the Commission to the rest of the nation?  

In Episode 152, we share the audio of the one-hour conversation J. Stephen Morrison held at CSIS on October 19 with Dr. Raj Panjabi, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biodefense at the National Security Council. The focus is the launch of the new U.S. National Biodefense Strategy and Implementation Plan and the issuance of the President’s National Security Memorandum-15. What do these steps promise, in strengthening the protection of Americans and advancing U.S. leadership globally? What is it going to take to ensure success, in terms of high-level sustained political will, sustained finances, and the partnership and mobilization of state and local authorities, industry, university researchers and others?

In this special CCU episode, #151, we bring you the audio of a conversation that J. Stephen Morrison held with Dr. Ashish Jha on September 27. How is the bivalent vaccine launch going? How does the White House navigate the wildly divergent realities of the pandemic? We are living a tale of two cities: the drive to normality, built on major achievements that have lowered the threat of severe illness and death, versus persistent danger and uncertainty, and the multiple accumulating barriers to action: the fiscal, political and technological impasses, and our frayed institutions. What are his reflections, six months into the job, on the role of the White House Coordinator? Will the White House exit an emergency context in early 2023? Give a listen!