Public Health On Call

The 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act marked a major change in health insurance coverage and care for millions of Americans. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra talks with Stephanie Desmon about the remarkable changes "Obamacare" has brought about, why it's important for all Americans not to take these for granted, and the next set of challenges in mending a heal...

More than 2 billion people lack access to safe drinking water, and more than 3 billion are living without safe sanitation systems. For World Water Day, Ken Conca , a professor of international relations at the School of International Service at American University, joins the podcast to talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the state of the world's water. They discuss how some of the biggest challeng...

Menopause: inevitable, stigmatized, mysterious, and bringing a broad range of symptoms and experiences. Dr. Martha Hickey, a menopause researcher at the University of Melbourne, talks with Stephanie Desmon about a new Lancet series on menopause. They discuss how ageism and sexism come into play, the vast array of experiences women may have, and how individual circumstances can impact symptoms. The...

Four years after the early days of the pandemic, how are hospitals thinking about infection control, how much has changed, and to what degree have things returned to "normal"? Dr. Lisa Maragakis , the head of infection control at Johns Hopkins Hospital, returns to the podcast to talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about this "post-pandemic phase" and why health care has not fully recovered from pandemic...

A new report models projections of the human costs of conflict in Gaza over the next six months across several scenarios. Paul Spiegel , director of the Center for Humanitarian Health, and Tak Igusa , professor of Civil and Systems Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the project they developed with the London School of Hygiene and Trop...

In his new book  Within Reason: A Liberal Public Health for an Illiberal Time , Dean Sandro Galea of the Boston University School of Public Health challenges closed-mindedness and invective in public health.  In this special, extended bonus episode, Dr. Galea and his friend and colleague Dr. Josh Sharfstein discuss—and debate—the fairness of his critique.

Condoms were once an essential part of the public health toolkit to fight HIV and STIs. But over the last decade, and coinciding with the rise of medication that prevents HIV infection, condom use among men who have sex with men has declined. Steve Goodreau , an expert in mathematical modeling and HIV and STIs at the University of Washington, talks with Stephanie Desmon about his research on decli...

Health misinformation is rampant—online and through rumors—but there are steps people can take to help stamp them out. Aishwarya Nagar and Tara Kirk Sell from the Center for Health Security are co-authors of a new playbook aimed at helping public health practitioners, medical professionals, and health communicators recognize and respond to health-related rumors and misinformation. They talk throug...

When Sue Baker started her research career in the 1960s, there was no field devoted to injury prevention despite accidents being a leading cause of death in the US. In honor of Women's History Month, Stephanie Desmon talks with injury prevention pioneer Baker about her half century of research looking at everything from aviation safety to hot dog choking deaths, and her hands-on approach to resear...

The CDC announced new isolation guidelines last week that bring COVID-19 in line with recommendations for other viral respiratory diseases. Virologist Dr. Andy Pekosz returns to the podcast to talk with Stephanie Desmon about what this means in the contexts of vaccines, variants, and protecting the most vulnerable.

Food insecurity uniquely impacts youth ages 14-18 but it's largely a hidden problem. Kristen Mmari , an adolescent health researcher at Johns Hopkins, talks with Lindsay Smith Rogers about the long-term impacts being hungry can have on young people and why most programs aimed at relieving food insecurity don't help this age group. They also discuss false claims that nutrition assistance programs c...

Opioid use disorder is a major contributor to maternal mortality in the US. The gold standard of care is medication like methadone, but for incarcerated pregnant people, treatment can be difficult to access and highly stigmatized. Johns Hopkins obgyn and reproductive health researcher Dr. Carolyn Sufrin and Bloomberg Fellow Camille Kramer talk with Lindsay Smith Rogers about their new study that s...

The manslaughter conviction of Jennifer Crumbley, whose son shot and killed four students at his school, is unprecedented. But will it be a watershed moment for gun violence in schools? Tim Carey , law and policy advisor at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, talks with Stephanie Desmon about the unique facts of this case, larger implications, and why Child Access Prevention laws...

Imagine going to the pharmacy to buy a needed medicine and then finding out you purchased a falsified product that was, at best, ineffective, but at worst contained something toxic or deadly? This is the unfortunate reality in many places worldwide. Dr. Murray Lumpkin , who leads global regulatory systems for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, talks with Lindsay Smith Rogers about the substantia...

The Alabama Supreme Court issued an extraordinary ruling on February 16 that embryos that are the result of in vitro fertilization are "children." Public health law expert Joanne Rosen returns to the podcast to talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the case and its implications for IVF, how it connects to the larger context of post-Roe litigation, and what's at stake as anti-abortion sentiment crash...

Measles outbreaks can quickly spread like wildfire. Vaccination expert Dr. Saad Omer returns to the podcast to talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the threat posed by this highly contagious and potentially lethal virus – especially when communities let their guard down. They discuss the situation in Florida, misinformation spreading on social media, and what's needed to minimize the threat.

What's the state of the evidence on the impact of social media on the mental health of adolescents? Dr. Ceren Budak , a computational social scientist at the University of Michigan, talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about a new report from the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. The report finds a gaping need for more evidence – and for participation by social media companies in...

Deadly hepatitis C is curable, but 2.5 million Americans remain infected without treatment. Dr. Francis Collins , longtime director of the National Institutes of Health, is now serving as a special advisor to Present Biden for an effort to eliminate hepatitis C in the US. He speaks with Stephanie Desmon about why hepatitis C has been so tricky to diagnose and treat and what it will take to launch...

From a 2019 school shooting in West Baltimore, Healing City Baltimore was born. The program aims to help city agencies train their employees, reform stigmatizing policies, and build new response programs—all with a goal of helping to improve mental health and well-being. Councilman Zeke Cohen and executive director Reverend Kim Lagree talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about this initiative, which rece...

Alcohol use is the fourth leading cause of death in the US, but there are evidence-based approaches to preventing alcohol misuse and deaths and treating use disorders. Dr. Cara Poland , an addiction medicine specialist at Michigan State University, talks with Stephanie Desmon about excise taxes, evidence of the harms of alcohol, and her personal connection to the topic. They also discuss the diffe...

Missed diagnoses account for 800,000 deaths or permanent disabilities among Americans every year. Johns Hopkins neurologist Dr. David Newman-Toker talks with Stephanie Desmon about the consequences of missed opportunities and diagnoses, especially for vascular events, infections, and cancers. They also discuss why solutions are complex and will require major efforts in terms of research and resour...

In the Dobbs decision, the SCOTUS majority hoped to return legal issues around abortion back to the states. But since overturning Roe v. Wade, a flurry of litigation has now put two consequential cases before the Supreme Court. Public health law expert Joanne Rosen talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about these two cases and the wide-ranging impacts they could have. They also discuss why abortion heal...

When the FDA approved an RSV vaccine for infants in July of 2023, parents and pediatricians rejoiced. But product shortages and a patchwork of insurance coverage throttled the rollout, leaving many babies still unprotected this winter. Pediatrician and Internist Dr. Wendie Grader-Beck talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about her frustrations around implementation, and what needs to be done before the...

Thanks to policies like tobacco taxes, clean indoor air acts, and legislation to ban flavor additives, tobacco use is declining around the globe. But there's still an enormous burden of death and disease from smoking, and rates of use are still particularly concerning among key groups like youths and Black Americans. Joanna Cohen , director of the Institute for Global Tobacco Control, talks with S...

Tuesday, February 6 is the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting. Dr. Michele Decker , founding director of Johns Hopkins Center for Global Women's Health and Gender Equity, and Dr. Nicole Warren , a nurse and an expert on the harmful practice of female genital cutting talk with Stephanie Desmon about the practice and its cultural roots, challenging long-standin...