EPIDEMIC with Dr. Celine Gounder

Transcript “If we want to bring students back to college, we have to redefine what college is for the short term… and so we need to think about it with more innovation and depth of thought if we would if we were just applying crisis management models.” —Eleanor Daugherty, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students at the University of Connecticut The college experience will...

Transcript “The goal is not to reopen schools; it’s to keep schools open. And if we reopen too fast, just as we reopened States too fast, you saw what happened. States had to shut down and schools would have to shut down. And that for me would be just a travesty. You re-traumatize children and further endanger… their parents and teachers and bus drivers and custodians.” - Arne Duncan, former US Se...

Transcript “Now that we see them, my hope is that our field of vision about who is working, and just how valuable they are, continues to widen. And that is it's not only about awareness and clapping for them at seven o'clock at night, but we're actively taking action and demanding that they be protected. Demanding that they be compensated. Demanding that they are able to keep their themselves and...

Transcript “I literally love my job… and being able to wake up and the end of the day and also say … I possibly helped save a life.” — Kimberly Jocelyn Contact tracers like Kimberly are an integral part of New York City’s plan to reopen safely. If someone tests positive for COVID, contact tracers make it possible to determine which network of people may have been exposed to the virus. But, contact...

Transcript “I don't have any plans on returning in the immediate future. I don't want history to record that COVID grew in America because of irresponsible religious groups… I want to make sure that we are good stewards of health and responsibility.” - Dr. Jamal Bryant COVID has closed down many religious spaces, profoundly impacting faith communities. Many rituals have been disrupted, and social...

Transcript “Loneliness is something we hear a lot from individuals in our community. It's a time of physical distancing. And at first, this was really articulated as social distancing. And I think that's a problem. Yes, we are physically disconnected, but that doesn't mean that we're socially disconnected.” — Lucy Flamm Since COVID swept through the world, shelter in place and social distancing me...

Transcript "...the pandemic has simply highlighted for some people that hypocrisy, where politicians use so-called medical reasons, protecting women's health, as an excuse for what are really political goals, which is to end access to safe and legal abortion writ large." -Cecile Richards The COVID-19 pandemic has had profound effects on women's’ access to abortion services and reproductive health....

Transcript “They say, you need to keep a minimum of six feet distance between people, but we're usually within 10 inches of our clients for the entire time that they are in the salon. The biggest risk is when you're in extended or prolonged, rather contact with somebody and the CDC defines that as more than 15 minutes. I don't know if you've ever had a haircut that took less than 15 minutes, but g...

Transcript “An immunity passport system would create a two-tier system because it would divide all of us into those who are immune to COVID-19 and those who are not. And the people who are immune will get all of the benefits and privileges that come with that while everybody else who's not immune will be in a second class status.” - Esha Bhandari How do we balance the reopening of the economy with...

Transcript “Just like cholera exposed the weaknesses in European society, COVID is doing the same for us. ...The bubonic plague and cholera for example were devastating pandemics, but they also lead to the creation of modern public health and sanitation. There’s still a chance for COVID to have its own silver linings, even if we can’t see them right now.” -Dr. Celine Gounder Pandemics have played...

Transcript “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 sp...

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'r...

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 Medica...

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 th...

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...

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...

Transcript “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...

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 Rosenbe...

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 ty...

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 Ga...

Transcript “A lot of people don't realize this, but there are other cold-inducing coronaviruses that give us the common cold that we've all had in our lives, and some of those coronaviruses can give you antibodies that would give a positive test on some SARS-CoV-2, COVID tests.” – Dr. Matt Memoli In this episode, co-hosts Dr. Celine Gounder and Ron Klain discuss the science of the immune response...

Transcript "Still, like 90% of our patients are COVID patients. This is still not normal.” -Dr. Celine Gounder In this episode, our co-host, Dr. Celine Gounder, shares how her experience treating patients at Bellevue Hospital in New York City is different in early May 2020 than it was March and April. In addition, Dr. Gounder and co-host Ron Klain speak with Dr. Geoffrey Baird at the University of...

Transcript "I can't stress this enough. Rudy Gobert testing positive was the best thing that happened for the NBA. It arguably, in many ways, is the best thing that happened for this country. I don't think people were taking this seriously, Celine, until they found out an entity like the NBA could suspend its season because of the coronavirus.” -Rohan Nadkarni In this episode, our co-hosts Dr. Cel...

Transcript “It's scary for everybody, but imagine yourself being someone that can't socially isolate, that has no home, that doesn't have a TV and doesn't know what's going on. And all of a sudden, everyone has disappeared.” -Cindy Funkhouser, CEO Sulzbacher Center In today’s episode, co-hosts Dr. Celine Gounder and Ron Klain speak with three advocates working to end homelessness. Rosanne Haggerty...

Transcript “We want to make sure everybody's prepared because we know COVID 19 is just one epidemic that we're currently facing. There's going to be another one in the pipeline, and we need to make sure that we're investing today for tomorrow.” - Syra Madad In today’s episode, co-hosts Dr. Celine Gounder and Ron Klain speak with Syra Madad, Senior Director of the Special Pathogens Program, New Yor...