EPIDEMIC with Dr. Celine Gounder

Latest Episodes:

S1E31 / A Patchwork Pandemic / Ed Yong & Howard Koh Jun 26, 2020

Show notes

“We all believe that we need a national plan in the face of a national emergency, a United response for the United States… We're all in these parts of the same country. You can't control the pandemic without some degree of coordination.” - Ed Yong

What kind of coordinated national response is required for a national health crisis like COVID-19? Today on "Epidemic," Dr. Celine Gounder speaks with Dr. Howard Koh, Professor of Public Health Leadership at the Harvard School of Public Health, and Ed Yong, staff writer for the Atlantic. They discuss the "patchwork pandemic" we are experiencing, where the country is divided on how it's responding to -- and being impacted by -- COVID-19. They'll examine the degree of federal leadership that is required for an effective COVID-19 response, and the consequences suffered from failing to implement a nationally coordinated plan.

This podcast was created by Just Human Productions. We're powered and distributed by Simplecast. We're supported, in part, by listeners like you.

#SARSCoV2 #COVID19 #COVID #coronavirus

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S1E30 / A Second Wave? / Howard Markel Jun 19, 2020

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Transcript

“So when will it come back? You know, I'm a historian, so I'm uncomfortable with predicting the future, but as a doctor, if I were making a prognosis, I would say it's going to come back.” — Dr. Howard Markel

“It does get weary when you see the same mistakes being made over and over and over again. And many of the mistakes of past pandemics are being made today, particularly in how we're administering and reacting to it.“ — Dr. Howard Markel

With states gradually starting to re-open, many are wondering whether we will face a second wave of infections. In today’s episode, Dr. Celine Gounder speaks with Dr. Howard Markel, a physician and medical historian at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. They ask the question: can history help us prepare for the future? They discuss the lessons that the Influenza Pandemic of 1918 can teach us about COVID-19, and consider whether the history of the 1918 pandemic is repeating itself in present day.

This podcast was created by Just Human Productions. We're powered and distributed by Simplecast. We're supported, in part, by listeners like you.

#SARSCoV2 #COVID19 #COVID #coronavirus

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S1E29 / A Magic Bullet? Monoclonal Antibodies / James Crowe Jun 16, 2020

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Transcript

"In our case, we're trying to transfer an antibody from one person to another. And it's actually a simpler idea because the recipient of an antibody RNA does not have to really respond to it. They just make it, and they have instant immunity." -Dr. James Crowe

In today’s episode, our host Dr. Celine Gounder speaks with Dr. James Crowe, Director of the Vaccine Center at Vanderbilt Medical Center, about the next phase in antibody-based therapies, which is being spearheaded by Dr. Crowe’s lab at Vanderbilt. They are working on a technique to manufacture immunity in a test tube by isolating a single antibody for a disease that can be used to specifically target and fight that disease. They talk about the upcoming clinical trials of monoclonal antibodies for treatment of COVID-19, and how this method differs from convalescent plasma and vaccination. Finally, they discuss the next frontier- how science may soon take us beyond drug treatments and into a realm where our bodies are programmed to defeat a virus before we’ve ever encountered it… a true magic bullet.

This podcast was created by Just Human Productions. We're powered and distributed by Simplecast. We're supported, in part, by listeners like you.

#SARSCoV2 #COVID19 #COVID #coronavirus

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S1E28 / The Political Psychology of Pandemics / Michele Gelfand & Howard Lavine Jun 12, 2020

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Transcript

"In the United States, we have a relatively low threat history. We're separated by two oceans from other continents. We haven't been afraid of Canada, Mexico, chronically invading us. We haven't been afraid of constant fury from mother nature. And so, as a result, we have a harder time tightening up than other countries under these conditions because it's hard for people to sacrifice the kind of liberty and freedom that we've had for constraints and rules.” - Michele Gelfand

In today’s episode, our host Dr. Celine Gounder and former co-host Ron Klain interview two experts, Michele Gelfand and Howard Lavine, about why Republicans and Democrats are so deeply divided over almost everything to do with COVID. They discuss the shift towards identity politics and why people tend to vote along the lines of their chosen political party instead of in their best personal interests, and how this complicates different states’ responses to COVID. They also examine how a community’s history of threats in the past shapes their response to crises today.

Michele Gelfand is a professor of psychology at the University of Maryland, and is the author of "Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: How Tight and Loose Cultures Wire Our World." Howard Lavine is the Associate Dean of Social Sciences and a professor of political science and psychology at the University of Minnesota. He's the co-author of the book "Open Versus Closed: Personality, Identity, and the Politics of Redistribution,” and the editor of the journal Advances in Political Psychology.

This podcast was created by Just Human Productions. We're powered and distributed by Simplecast. We're supported, in part, by listeners like you.

#SARSCoV2 #COVID19 #COVID #coronavirus

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

S1E27 / Convalescent Plasma / Arturo Casadevall & Michael Busch Jun 09, 2020

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Transcript

“With penicillin, for example, you needed a few days to begin to get better. With antibodies, these people got better within hours, almost as if the antibody was mediating an antitoxin effect.” - Arturo Casadevall

In today’s episode, our host Dr. Celine Gounder speaks with Arturo Casadevall, Chair of the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, about convalescent plasma, the transfer of antibodies from a disease survivor to a disease patient. They discuss the history of convalescent plasma transfer, how it has been used in the past during other infectious disease outbreaks, such as diphtheria and measles, and how the invention of antibiotics led to the decline of this treatment method in the United States. They also talk about the current research studies being done to test the effectiveness of this treatment method on COVID-19 patients. Our host also speaks with Michael Busch, the Director of the Vitalant Research Institute, about how convalescent plasma transfer is currently being used as a treatment for COVID-19 patients at different stages of infection. They also discuss the process of convalescent plasma donation, something that anyone who has recovered from COVID-19 and now has antibodies can do.

Listener Q&A: Should I go on an out-of-state trip with my husband’s family? I am antibody negative, how can I minimize the risk of becoming exposed to COVID-19 on the trip?

This podcast was created by Just Human Productions. We're powered and distributed by Simplecast. We're supported, in part, by listeners like you.

#SARSCoV2 #COVID19 #COVID #coronavirus

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S1E26 / Indigenous Peoples / Rebecca Nagle, Melissa Begay, Jamescita Peshlakai Jun 05, 2020

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Transcript

“I think there's always sort of like Indian humor with everything and so there were a lot of people making jokes about Trump putting a travel ban in place to stop the spread of disease from Europe. A lot of native people on Twitter and Facebook were commenting that it was, you know, a few centuries too late." -Rebecca Nagle

In this episode, our host Dr. Celine Gounder speaks to Rebecca Nagle, Dr. Melissa Begay, and Jamescita Peshlakai about why the Navajo Nation has been so hard hit by COVID, and what their communities are doing to protect everyone—young and old—during this pandemic. The Navajo Nation is the nation’s largest indigenous tribe and has the highest per capita infection rate of COVID in the United States.

Dr. Melissa Begay is a member of the Navajo Nation, and a physician at the University of New Mexico in the Department of Pulmonary, Sleep and Critical Care. Jamescita Peshlakai is an Arizona State Representative and represents eight tribes in her district, including the Navajo. Rebecca Nagle is an Indigenous rights activist, writer and speaker, and a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. She also hosts the Crooked Media podcast, “This Land,” about a Supreme Court case on the land rights of indigenous peoples in Oklahoma.
This podcast was created by Just Human Productions. We're powered and distributed by Simplecast. We're supported, in part, by listeners like you.

#SARSCoV2 #COVID19 #COVID #coronavirus

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

S1E25 / A COVID Vaccine / Seth Berkeley & Peter Hotez Jun 03, 2020

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“Terrible diseases like smallpox, polio, yellow fever where, you know, the capital in the United States in those days, Philadelphia, in the 1700s, 10% of the population died. When you vaccinate against them, you prevent them, and they no longer are problems.” - Seth Berkley

In today’s episode, co-hosts Dr. Celine Gounder and Ron Klain speak with Seth Berkley and Dr. Peter Hotez about a topic that has received a lot of attention lately-- vaccines. They discuss the processes involved in developing a vaccine for COVID-19, including when we can realistically expect a vaccine to become available to the public. They talk about the concept of herd immunity and how high vaccination rates are an essential component to this process. They also discuss the anti-vaxxer movement and how mis-messaging may be playing a part in fueling the flames of this movement in regards to a COVID-19 vaccine. Finally, they talk about the need for continued vaccine research in order to be prepared for the next inevitable pandemic.

Also, co-host Ron Klain says his farewell to “Epidemic” fans as he announces that this will be his final episode as a co-host of the podcast.

Seth Berkley is the CEO of the GAVI Vaccine Alliance. Dr. Peter Hotez is Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.
This podcast was created by Just Human Productions. We're powered and distributed by Simplecast. We're supported, in part, by listeners like you.

#SARSCoV2 #COVID19 #COVID #coronavirus

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

S1E24 / Is the CDC MIA? / Jim Curran & Mark Rosenberg May 29, 2020

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Transcript

"I think there are some people who are afraid that the truth will hurt the economy. That if we let CDC speak the truth, that will hurt stock prices, that will hurt people's jobs and the manufacturing sector. But even when the truth may hurt, even when it's painful, we've got to know the truth. And right now, people are taking steps to keep CDC from speaking the truth.” -Dr. Mark Rosenberg

In this episode, our co-hosts Dr. Celine Gounder and Ron Klain speak to former CDC scientists Dr. Mark Rosenberg and Dr. Jim Curran about the CDC’s lack of action during the COVID pandemic, and how CDC guidelines and research have been suppressed and muzzled. They discuss the agency’s complicated history with politicians, parallels with the HIV epidemic, what’s happening to the CDC’s work in the time of COVID, and what’s at stake when politics take precedent over science. Dr. Mark Rosenberg is a retired medical epidemiologist with the CDC and President Emeritus of the Task Force for Global Health. Dr. Jim Curran led the CDC’s HIV/AIDS Division before becoming an Assistant Surgeon General and now Dean of the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University.

This podcast was created by Just Human Productions. We're powered and distributed by Simplecast. We're supported, in part, by listeners like you.

#SARSCoV2 #COVID19 #COVID #coronavirus

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

S1E23 / Our Immune System versus the Virus / Stanley Perlman & Jon Yewdell May 26, 2020

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Transcript

“Antibodies are the easiest part of the immune system to measure. It's not the only part that's required for protection against this virus.” - Stanley Perlman

In today’s episode, co-hosts Dr. Celine Gounder and Ron Klain continue their discussion of the immune system. They speak with Stanley Perlman and Dr. Jon Yewdell about what happens when a virus enters the body and the different types of cells involved in each stage of the immune response against the virus. They talk about what is known so far about how the immune system reacts to a COVID infection and the degree of immunity that results post-infection. They also discuss how understanding the immune response is an important factor in developing an effective vaccine for COVID and putting an end to the current pandemic.

Stanley Perlman is a professor of microbiology, immunology and pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Iowa. Dr. Jon Yewdell is a researcher at the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, where he studies viruses, immunity to viruses, and the cell biology of viral infections.

This podcast was created by Just Human Productions. We're powered and distributed by Simplecast. We're supported, in part, by listeners like you.

#SARSCoV2 #COVID19 #COVID #coronavirus

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

S1E22 / A False Choice: The Economy versus Public Health / Rashad Robinson, Alicia Garza, Marshall Ganz May 22, 2020

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Transcript

“Every night... we are literally cheering and clapping and beeping our horns for people that in many ways we're unwilling to fight for so that they could have $15 an hour. We call people essential workers now who we treated for so long, like anything but essential.” -Rashad Robinson

In this episode, our co-host, Dr. Celine Gounder speaks to Rashad Robinson, Alicia Garza, and Marshall Ganz about essential workers such as caregivers, domestic workers, and agricultural workers. They discuss how these low-paying jobs are often staffed by immigrants and people of color, and how due to systemic racism these jobs have historically been excluded from laws and unions that protect workers. Essential workers are now being given the false choice between going to work and risking their health, or staying home and not being able to feed their families.

Alicia Garza is the principal at Black Futures Lab, the co-creator of the Black Lives Matter Global Network, and the strategy and partnerships director for the National Domestic Workers Alliance. Rashad Robinson is the President of Color of Change, a racial justice organization, and Marshall Ganz is a labor organizer and senior lecturer at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

This podcast was created by Just Human Productions. We're powered and distributed by Simplecast. We're supported, in part, by listeners like you.

#SARSCoV2 #COVID19 #COVID #coronavirus

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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