Take as Directed

In this episode, on the day when the number who have died from Covid-19 in America reached 100,000, we speak with special guests Eustace and Carol Theodore, both longtime friends of Steve. After vacationing in England in the first half of March, as the virus was swiftly and invisibly spreading throughout the UK, they returned to Vermont, just prior to President Trump imposing flight bans on Europe...

In this episode, we are joined by a very special guest: Julien, a wonderfully insightful 13-year-old seventh-grader from Berkeley, California. We talk about his experience of over two months of shelter-in-place: how disruptive has this been to friendships, school, sports? What has he done to get greater control over his life? Are we going to get out from under this pandemic? And what’s a young per...

In this episode, U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland joins us to talk about what Congress can do to respond to Covid-19 right now, including ensuring access and affordability for new treatments and a vaccine, and building stimulus packages for every level of government. Senator Van Hollen shares his thoughts on how expanding national service could help to ramp up testing and contact tracing...

In this crossover episode with CSIS's The Truth of the Matter podcast, Tulane University professor and historian John Barry, author of the New York Times bestseller The Great Influenza, joins the podcast from his home in New Orleans’ French Quarter to discuss the lessons gleaned from the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic that speak to today’s coronavirus pandemic sweeping America and the world.

In this episode, we are joined by Director of the Africa CDC Dr. John Nkengasong and U.S. Ambassador to the African Union Jessica Lapenn. Africa CDC is advancing a continental plan to address the dire, burgeoning threat Covid-19 poses to Africa, where testing has been woeful, where the continent stands at the back of the line in access to test kits, protective gear, oxygen, and financing; and wher...

In this episode, we bring in Alisha Kramer, a star who cut her teeth right after college working with the CSIS Global Health Policy Center. Now a freshly-minted resident doctor, practicing obstetrics and gynecology in Atlanta hospitals, she assists young pregnant women in navigating the new realities of Covid-19. She shares with us reflections on the risks and fears of health providers, the racial...

In this episode, the conversation takes off from a recent piece published by Steve and Anna Carroll, Global Health Policy Center’s Associate Fellow, that examines President Trump’s decision to suspend U.S. assistance to the World Health Organization. What drives that decision? And with what consequences, at this historic moment in the pandemic? Is there any possibility of a diplomatic solution tha...

In this episode, the hosts are joined by Scott Dowell, coronavirus response leader at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. They discuss how successful the global response has been in saving so many lives, as well as get Dr. Dowell's thoughts on which response strategy is best when considering herd immunity, lockdowns, intense digital contact tracing, isolation and quarantine. While we wait for a v...

This week marks World Immunization Week, an annual celebration of vaccines that raise awareness and increase rates of immunization against vaccine-preventable diseases around the world. To mark World Immunization Week, Take as Directed launches a conversation recorded earlier in the year to place immunization within the debate around Universal Health Coverage (UHC). In a world faced by not only a...

In this episode, Steve and Andrew are joined by Congressman Ami Bera (D-CA07) to talk about his work on the CSIS Commission on Strengthening America’s Health Security and his impressions of Covid-19, as both a doctor and an elected representative.  They discuss how difficult it’s been to get Congress to spend resources on preparedness, and the work Rep. Bera is doing to build a crisis workforce. H...

Former Senator Kelly Ayotte, co-chair of the CSIS Commission on Strengthening America’s Health Security, joins Steve and Andrew in explaining how the Commission’s November 2019 core recommendations remain compelling and essential in the midst of the pandemic, if we are to, once and for all, break the cycle of crisis and complacency. She offers her thoughts on the shocks we did not anticipate, such...

In this episode, Peter Sands, executive director of The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, joins Steve and Andrew in exploring the chasm separating the world of finance and economists from that of public health, the extraordinary threats the pandemic poses to historical gains in development and global health, and the rapidly evolving role of the Global Fund in racing to support p...

In this episode, Andrew asks Steve to interpret the guidelines issued by President Trump yesterday in a three-phase process of reopening. Why the pivot away from “total authority” putting responsibility back onto governors? What’s in the guidelines, and what is missing? Amid the intensifying tension between protecting the health and lives of citizens versus the crushing decline of the U.S. economy...

Dr. Christopher Murray joins Steve Morrison and Andrew Schwartz to discuss the “Murray Model,” what a rolling reopening of the economy would look like and what that would do to the Murray Model projections. Dr. Murray also discusses which states may be ready to reopen and what hotspots he’s worried about most.

In this episode, Susan Glasser, staff writer at The New Yorker, joins Steve and Andrew to discuss the full range of rapidly evolving issues surrounding President Trump and the White House’s engagement with the coronavirus pandemic and the companion economic crisis – from testing, to protecting essential item supply chains, to preparing the way of safely lifting social distancing to allow schooling...

In this episode, Steve and Andrew are joined by Congresswoman Susan Brooks (R-IN05) to talk about her work on the CSIS Commission on Strengthening America’s Health Security and her experience working through Covid-19. This week with Rep. Ami Bera (D-CA07), Rep. Brooks released a letter calling for the creation of a crisis response corps to manage the pandemic response. They discuss how this could...

Today’s guest is Ron Klain, former Ebola response coordinator in the Obama Administration and current senior adviser to presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden. At the top of this week, when the pandemic is predicted to reach horrific peak levels in the New York/New Jersey region, Steve and Andrew ask Ron to look out in time – what are the conclusions that future observers might mak...

Steve and Andrew speak with Helen Branswell, a premiere journalist and one of the world’s leading experts on dangerous infectious disease outbreaks, based for the past five years at STAT. The conversation focuses on the acute challenges: as the coronavirus pandemic advances, how do journalists makes sense of this historic moment? As we fail in the United States and elsewhere to protect health work...

Today, Andrew and Steve talk to Dr. Tom Frieden, President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives and former CDC Director. They discuss why Dr. Frieden has ‘tears in my eyes’ about the infections and deaths in New York and the risk to healthcare workers. While different communities need different responses, there is a need for clear federal guidance. They discuss how political priorities have infiltrate...

Today, Andrew and Steve talk to Secretary John Wiesman, Secretary of Health for Washington state. They discuss the testing and hospital capacity in Washington state, the scramble for resources that states are finding themselves in and how Washington is working with the private sector to develop these products, and when social distancing might end.  Dr. John Wiesman was appointed secretary of healt...

In mid-February, Steve Morrison of the CSIS Global Health Policy Center attended the Munich Security Conference. There, he moderated a roundtable on health in disordered settings, a town hall on COVID-19, and a dinner with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg. He also spoke with a variety of policymakers, donors, and agency heads that are leading the response to the coronavirus epidemic. In this...

In mid-February, Steve Morrison of the CSIS Global Health Policy Center attended the Munich Security Conference. There, he moderated a roundtable on health in disordered settings, a town hall on COVID-19, and a dinner with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg. He also spoke with a variety of policymakers, donors, and agency heads that are leading the response to the coronavirus epidemic. In this...

Today, Andrew and Steve are joined by Jude Blanchette, Freeman Chair in China Studies at CSIS. They discuss how the U.S. and China are dealing with the pandemic in their own countries, and how this might affect U.S.-China trade and diplomacy, as well as scientific research partnerships between the U.S. and China.

Today, Andrew and Steve talk to Dr. Margaret "Peggy" Hamburg, foreign secretary of the National Academy of Medicine and member of the CSIS Commission on Strengthening America’s Health Security. They discuss what’s happened with testing in the U.S., the ‘global arms race’ to develop a vaccine, and how the U.S. and the world can develop, produce, and distribute any potential vaccine in an equitable...

In this episode, Steve and Andrew invite CSIS's Kathleen Hicks to discuss how the military can respond to COVID-19, and to what extent that can be done. They also examine how, as President Trump labels himself a 'wartime president,' more and more national guard units are operating at state capacity under the direction of governors, and what the Department of Defense can offer. Kathleen Hicks is se...