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434 - Vaccinating Virginia Feb 23, 2022

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In early 2021, Virginia's governor tapped Richmond's public health director Dr. Danny Avula to be the State Vaccine Coordinator. Avula talks with Josh Sharfstein about this massive undertaking, including the biggest challenges and biggest successes along the way.

433 - Recognizing W.E.B. Du Bois and His Seminal Work on Racism and Health Feb 21, 2022

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In 1899 W.E.B. Du Bois published a landmark study on tuberculosis in the Black communities of Philadelphia, titled "The Philadelphia Negro." This was the first scholarly work to demonstrate that social forces, including racism, are fundamental to health outcomes. In recognition of Black History Month, sociologist Dr. Alexandre White and health equity scholar Dr. Rachel Thornton join Dr. Josh Sharfstein to tell the story of this remarkable study. They also explain why understanding this history is empowering to medical and public health practitioners today. Read Dr. White and Dr. Thornton's recent publication, with Dr. Jeremy Greene, in the New England Journal of Medicine here. www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMms2035550

432 - Fighting COVID as A Respiratory Disease Feb 18, 2022

Show notes

When will COVID become just another respiratory illness? Another way to ask that question may be: When will the response to other respiratory illnesses more closely resemble the battle against COVID? Infectious disease physician Dr. Celine Gounder talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the logic of grouping SARS-CoV-2 with flu, RSV, and other respiratory pathogens. They discuss the value of common strategies to address transmission, testing, and treatment and to help prepare for future pandemics.

431 - Mental Health Check-In With Clinical Psychologist Dr. Laura Murray: 2 Years Into the COVID-19 Pandemic Feb 16, 2022

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What do we know at this point about the potential for long term effects on mental health from the pandemic? How can we approach socializing and other activities we may have gotten used to NOT doing? How do we navigate going back to an office? Kids have had so much taken away during the pandemic, will this change them forever?

Clinical psychologist Dr. Laura Murray returns to the podcast to talk with Stephanie Desmon about these and more COVID-19 mental health questions.

430 - How to Talk to Parents About COVID-19 Vaccines For Kids Feb 14, 2022

Show notes

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

429 - Book Club—Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America with Journalist Beth Macy Feb 11, 2022

Show notes

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.

428 - Building Back Public Health in Indiana Feb 09, 2022

Show notes

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.

427 - Candida auris: A Yeast to Fear Feb 07, 2022

Show notes

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.

426 - Why Are Health Disparities Everyone's Problem? Feb 04, 2022

Show notes

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.

BONUS - The 2022 Pandemic Olympics Feb 03, 2022

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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.

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