Public Health On Call

Latest Episodes:

784 - The Inside Story of the 1964 Surgeon General's Report That Changed How Americans Viewed Smoking Jul 31, 2024

Show notes

About this episode:

In 1964, an advisory committee to the Surgeon General issued a report on smoking and disease that was so damning, it had to be released with cloak-and-dagger preparations on a Saturday so as not to disrupt the stock market. 60 years later, the report remains one of the most important scientific documents of the 20th century. Today: the inside history of a committee and a report that changed the trajectory of tobacco use in America—a report that almost didn't happen.

Guest:

Donald Shopland is one of the original staff members of the Surgeon General's Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health. It was his first job out of high school. Since then, Shopland has had a career as a public health advisor in the field of smoking and tobacco and has assisted with dozens of Surgeon General's reports on links between smoking and disease. He is the author of Clearing the Air: The Untold Story of the 1964 Report on Smoking and Health, available for free here.

Host:

Dr. Josh Sharfstein is vice dean for public health practice and community engagement at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, a faculty member in health policy, a pediatrician, and former secretary of Maryland's Health Department.

Show links and related content:

Have a question about something you heard? Looking for a transcript? Want to suggest a topic or guest? Contact us via email or visit our website.

Here's our RSS feed

783 - Diaper Insecurity And Why It Matters For Child Health and Well-Being Jul 29, 2024

Show notes

About this episode:

Diapers are expensive. For low-income families, diaper insecurity refers to the financial, health, and economic tradeoffs they may face in trying to afford them. Evidence is mounting that giving families cash for diapers can not only help to substantially alleviate these burdens, but it could help keep kids out of the child welfare system.

Guest:

Mike Shaver is the president and CEO of Brightpoint, a Chicago-based nonprofit whose mission is to advance the well-being of children by investing in families to disrupt the systemic and multi-generational cycle of racial, social, and economic inequality.

Host:

Show links and related content:

Have a question about something you heard? Looking for a transcript? Want to suggest a topic or guest? Contact us via email or visit our website.

782 - Everything You Need to Know About Sunscreen Jul 26, 2024

Show notes

About this episode:

Choosing the right sunscreen for you can be overwhelming with so many options on the market. This episode debunks common myths and uncovers essential facts about sunscreen, explaining the differences between UVA and UVB coverage, mineral vs. chemical sunscreens, and why European sunscreens are often considered superior to American-made ones. We address concerns about sunscreen safety and discuss the importance of sun protection for all skin tones all year round.

Host:

Stephanie Desmon, MA, is a former journalist, author, and director of public relations and communications for the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, the largest center at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Guest:

Shafat Hassan, MD, PhD, and MPH candidate at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Show links and related content:

9 Things to Know About Sun Safety and Skin Cancer—The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
The Winter Skincare Routine—The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Instagram
What Happens To Our Skin in Winter?—Public Health On Call

Have a question about something you heard? Looking for a transcript? Want to suggest a topic or guest? Contact us via email or visit our website.

781 - Preparing For The 2024 Paris Olympics Jul 24, 2024

Show notes

About this episode:

Every four years, the Olympics brings athletes and spectators together from all over the world in one of the largest mass gathering events. Planning begins years in advance, and public health security is a major consideration. Experts are brought in to map out possible threats and think through preparedness for everything from terrorist attacks to addressing rumors to responding to infectious disease outbreaks. Today: Considerations for Paris 2024 and lessons learned from the last two historic Olympics held during the pandemic.

Guest:

Lucia Mullen is a preparedness and response expert at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and a member of the WHO's Collaborating Centre for Mass Gathering network.

Host:

Lindsay Smith Rogers, MA, is the producer of the Public Health On Call podcast, an editor for Expert Insights, and the director of content strategy for the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Show links and related content:

The Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 Olympic Games held during the COVID-19 pandemic: planning, outcomes, and lessons learnt–The Lancet
Mass-gathering decision making and its implementation during the COVID-19 pandemic—The Lancet
Bonus Episode: The 2022 Pandemic Olympics–Public Health On Call
Episode #337: The Tokyo Olympics and COVID-19–Public Health On Call

Have a question about something you heard? Looking for a transcript? Want to suggest a topic or guest? Contact us via email or visit our website.

780 - The Mental Health of Migrant Children Jul 22, 2024

Show notes

About this episode:

Maryland receives the greatest number of unaccompanied migrant children of all U.S. states. Many have experienced significant trauma, underscoring the need for enhanced mental health services and improved language access in healthcare for this group.

Guests:

Sarah Polk is an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Her areas of clinical expertise include general pediatrics and adolescent medicine, with a particular focus on adolescent mental health and sexually transmitted infections.

Kiara Alvarez is an assistant professor in the department of Health, Behavior, and Society at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Host:

Stephanie Desmon, MA, is a former journalist, author, and the director of public relations and communications for the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, the largest center at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Show links and related content:

Commentary: Migrant children are vital to the fabric of our communities (The Baltimore Banner)
The Health Care Crisis At the U.S.-Mexico Border Part 1: Children and Families (podcast)
The Health Care Crisis At the U.S.-Mexico Border Part 2: Border Walls and Traumatic Brain and Spinal Injuries (podcast)

Have a question about something you heard? Want to suggest a topic or guest? Contact us via email or visit our website.

779 - The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Takes A Step On Climate Jul 19, 2024

Show notes

About this episode:

The CMS Innovation Center at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid is tasked with research and development to improve health care costs and delivery. It's also grappling with a challenging reality: The health care sector is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions which, in turn, are changing the climate in ways that impact our health. This is especially true of Medicaid/Medicare recipients such as children, older adults, and low income communities who bear the brunt of health issues from climate change. The Center's new Decarbonization and Resilience Initiative aims to understand the scope of the problem and identify creative solutions by collecting, monitoring, assessing, and addressing hospital carbon emissions and their effects on health outcomes, costs, and quality.

Guest:

Purva Rawal is the chief strategy officer at the CMS Innovation Center at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Host:

Show links and related content:

TEAM Decarbonization and Resilience Initiative Fact Sheet—The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
@‌CMSinnovates on X

Have a question about something you heard? Looking for a transcript? Want to suggest a topic or guest? Contact us via email or visit our website.

778 - The White House's New Rules Around Gain-of-function Research Jul 17, 2024

Show notes

About this episode:

Gain-of-function research involves altering a virus to make it more transmissible or deadly in order to develop vaccines, therapies, and perform other research. But the practice has long raised concerns about safety. In May, the White House released new policies around gain-of-function research hoping to shore up both safety measures and trust in this field of research. In this episode: a breakdown of the new policies and their general reception among scientists and the public.

Guests:

Gigi Gronvall is a senior scholar at the Center for Health Security and an associate professor in Environmental Health and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Host:

Show links and related content:

United States Government Policy for Oversight of Dual Use Research of Concern and Pathogens with Enhanced Pandemic Potential—The White House
White House overhauls rules for risky pathogen studies—Science
Lab practices go under the microscope—Politico
Gain-of-Function Research: Balancing Science and Security—Hopkins Bloomberg Public Health Magazine

Have a question about something you heard? Want to suggest a topic or guest? Contact us via email or visit our website.

777 - Meteorology and Climate Change Jul 15, 2024

Show notes

About this episode:

Meteorologists look at data and history to help make sense of weather patterns and make predictions. This work, in turn, helps inform individuals and policymakers to prepare for and respond to weather events. But with climate records being shattered at every turn, and extreme weather like flooding, violent storms, and heat domes becoming more common, patterns and precedent start to fall away. So how are meteorologists making sense of all these changes and what could we expect to see in the future?

Guests:

Brian McNoldy is a senior research associate at the Rosenstiel School of Marine Atmosphere and Earth Science at the University of Miami.

Host:

Show links and related content:

Have a question about something you heard? Want to suggest a topic or guest? Contact us via email or visit our website.

Special Series: Racial Bias and Pulse Oximeters Part 2—What Went Wrong? Jul 08, 2024

Show notes

About this episode:

Pulse oximeters—devices used to read blood oxygen levels in hospitals and at home—are far less reliable for people with darker skin tones. Falsely normal readings have the potential for clinical staff to miss life-threatening conditions.

In this three-episode special series, we explore a longstanding issue that only caught the nation's attention in recent years. In episode 2: What went wrong, including inaction from manufacturers and regulators, market forces, and racism in medicine that goes beyond this one device.

Listen to Part 1: A Problem Hiding in Plain Sight.

Listen to Part 3: Fixing Pulse Oximeters.

View the transcript for this episode.

Host:

Nicole Jurmo is co-producer of the Public Health in the Field series on pulse oximeters, the associate director for public relations and communications for the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, and a current MPH student. She recently completed a practicum with the Public Health On Call podcast.

Show links and related content:

The Problem with Pulse Oximeters: A Long History of Racial Bias
Racial Bias in Pulse Oximetry Measurement—The New England Journal of Medicine
Pulse Oximeters Are Not Racist—Orange County Business Journal
Inventing conflicts of interest: a history of tobacco industry tactics—American Journal of Public Health
Performance Evaluation of Pulse Oximeters Taking Into Consideration Skin Pigmentation, Race and Ethnicity—FDA Executive Summary (pdf)
Pulse Oximeter Accuracy and Limitations—FDA Safety Communication
Dynamic in vivo response characteristics of three oximeters: Hewlett Packard 47201A, Biox III, and Nellcor N-100—Sleep (1987)
Racial bias is built into the design of pulse oximeters—The Washington Post
November 2023 Attorneys General Letter to the FDA On The Inaccuracies of Pulse Oximetry When Used On People With Darker Toned Skin (pdf)
Defining race/ethnicity and explaining difference in research studies on lung function—European Respiratory Journal (abstract)
Is Facial Recognition Software Racist?—The Daily Show

Have a question about something you heard? Want to suggest a topic or guest? Contact us via email or visit our website.

Special Series: Racial Bias and Pulse Oximeters Part 3—Fixing Pulse Oximeters Jul 08, 2024

Show notes

About this episode:

Pulse oximeters—devices used to read blood oxygen levels in hospitals and at home—are far less reliable for people with darker skin tones. Falsely normal readings create the potential for clinical staff to miss life-threatening conditions.

In this three-episode special series, we explore a longstanding issue that only caught the nation's attention in recent years. In episode 3: How engineers are working to improve the design of pulse oximeters, and how advocates from across the medical industry including patients and students are leading efforts to keep the pressure on to improve equity in pulse oximetry…and beyond.

Listen to Part 1: A Problem Hiding in Plain Sight.

Listen to Part 2: What Went Wrong?

View the transcript for this episode.

Host:

Annalies Winny is a co-producer of the Pulse Ox series for the Public Health On Call podcast, an associate editor for Global Health NOW, and a contributor for the Hopkins Bloomberg Public Health magazine.

Show links and related content: