Public Health On Call

Latest Episodes:

425 - The Supreme Court, COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates, and OSHA's Charge to Keep Worker's Safe Feb 02, 2022

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The Supreme Court recently dealt a blow to vaccine mandates for larger employers, saying OSHA had overstepped in requiring employees to be vaccinated or tested weekly in order to work. So how can the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, uphold its core responsibility to keep workers safe? David Michaels, former OSHA Assistant Secretary under Obama, talks with Stephanie Desmon about where OSHA can continue to step up safety in light of COVID-19 and how a lack of vaccine mandates underscores the importance of implementing other measures to help keep workers safe from all airborne infectious diseases.

424 - So You Want to Lead a Public Health Agency? Jan 31, 2022

Show notes

Public health leaders are tasked with enormous jobs which have been made even more difficult during the pandemic. Dr. Jay Varma, physician and advisor for former New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio on the pandemic response, returns to the podcast to talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about why public health officials have to be subject matter experts, politicians, lawyers, visionaries, and humble public servants, and how aspiring leaders can get the cadre of skills required for success.

423 - Assessing the World's Knowledge of COVID-19: A Global Survey of Attitudes and Behaviors Towards the Virus, Vaccines and More (Season 5) Jan 28, 2022

Show notes

To understand what is driving beliefs and behaviors around the world, the Johns Hopkins Center for Communications Programs created a global dashboard with data from an ongoing survey of more than 22 million people from 100 countries. Marla Shaivitz and Dominick Shattuck talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about what they've learned about global opinions on COVID-19, vaccines, trusted sources of information, and more. Check out the COVIDbehaviors.org dashboard online.

422 - Rehabilitation and Care for People With Long-COVID, or PASC (Post-Acute Sequela of COVID) Jan 26, 2022

Show notes

Some COVID patients continue to suffer from symptoms long after the initial infection clears. The formal name for "long COVID" is Post-Acute Sequela of COVID, or PASC. It's a condition that benefits from a comprehensive approach. Dr. Jonathan Whiteson of NYU's Post-COVID Care Program talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about how the field of physiatry is well positioned to work with PASC patients, what they've learned about treating symptoms like fatigue and brain fog, and the future agenda for research.

421 - Why Omicron Is Such "A Different Animal" When It Comes to COVID and Kids Jan 24, 2022

Show notes

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.

420 - "Dangerously Unprepared": Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo on the Global Health Security Index's Newest Findings Jan 21, 2022

Show notes

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.

419 - COVID-19 in Lincoln, Nebraska: The Mayor's View Jan 19, 2022

Show notes

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.

Bonus - The COVID-19 Pandemic's Transition Phase with Dr. Monica Gandhi: What Questions Do We Need to Ask and What Answers Do We Need to Find in 2022? Jan 18, 2022

Show notes

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.

418 - Update: COVID-19 Vaccines and Immunocompromised Patients Jan 14, 2022

Show notes

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.

417 - An Update on Convalescent Plasma for COVID-19 Jan 12, 2022

Show notes

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.

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