Public Health On Call

Who is making decisions about how to spend more than $50 billion in proceeds from opioid-related litigation? Christine Minhee , lawyer and founder of opioidsettlementtracker.com , talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about tracking the complex cashflow state by state, and her hopes that the website will challenge more jurisdictions to share just how they're spending dollars intended for tackling the opi...

Renowned journalist Barkha Dutt , dubbed the "Indian Anderson Cooper," has spent her career reporting from conflict zones about gender equity and violence against women. In the last few years, she expanded her beat and traveled around India during COVID talking with people about their pandemic experiences. Dhutt recently sat down in the studio with Lindsay Smith Rogers for an expansive conversatio...

In a special episode, two brand-new graduates of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about their dissertation research involving mental health. Jaimie Shaff , DrPH, talks about her work examining the mental health of people who are multiethnic and multiracial, and who are routinely left out of data sets or lumped in with "other." Bianca Smith , PhD, di...

Dr. Raj Panjabi , one of TIME's 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2016, is a physician, professor, epidemiologist, entrepreneur, and public servant currently serving on the White House National Security Council. Dr. Panjabi speaks with Stephanie Desmon about growing up in Liberia and his experience working in West Africa during the first Ebola crisis, preparing for the next pandemic, and...

From origin to Warp Speed, COVID-19 proved to be a national disaster the likes of which hadn't been seen since 9-11. Lead writer of "Lessons from the COVID War" and former 9-11 Commission leader Philip Zelikow talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about why COVID was a much more complicated issue, competing explanations of what went wrong, where innovation and success actually occurred, and what needs to...

After 9/11, mental health workers in New York City found themselves overwhelmed with requests to provide treatment to kids and their families. In response, clinical psychologist Laura Murray and her colleagues developed the Common Elements Treatment Approach, or CETA, which helps providers address multiple problems and symptoms using a customized plan of evidence-based therapies. Dr. Murray talks...

Psychedelic drugs like psilocybin, or magic mushrooms, have been used throughout human history. But it's only in the last few decades that researchers have been examining them as a potential tool for treating an array of mental health issues. Albert Garcia-Romeu , a Johns Hopkins behavioral pharmacology researcher, talks with Stephanie Desmon about his research with psilocybin, the promising outco...

The pandemic phase of COVID-19 is officially over, but there's still work to be done. Virologist and podcast regular Dr. Andy Pekosz talks with Stephanie Desmon about transitioning to annual COVID vaccines (no longer referred to as boosters!); "Arcturus," or variant XBB.1.16; and the importance of investing in the development of antivirals and other treatments.

Xylazine is an animal tranquilizer that is showing up in illicit opioid supplies. In addition to contributing to the risk of overdose, xylazine causes horrific, necrotizing wounds when injected, smoked, or snorted. Lindsay Smith Rogers talks to two clinicians on the front lines of the overdose epidemic about their experiences with xylazine and their views on what this latest development means for...

Concluding our 3-part series dedicated to addressing the Black maternal health crisis in the United States, co-hosts Dr. Rachel Bervell and Annalies Winny will explore the revolution in maternal health that's happening outside the policy space – but that also informs it. They'll investigate how Black moms, community advocates, and a new generation of medical trainees are taking this issue into the...

Continuing our 3-part series dedicated to addressing the Black maternal health crisis in the United States, co-hosts Dr. Rachel Bervell and Annalies Winny explore how government policy can help shape the solutions, from closing the "Medicaid gap" to passing the most ambitious federal effort yet on this issue: the Momnibus. Access the resources and organizations mentioned in this series, including...

In the last year, more anti-trans legislation has been passed in the U.S. than at any other time in history. Dr. Helene Hedian , director of clinical education at the Johns Hopkins Center for Transgender and Gender Expansive Health, talks with Stephanie Desmon about the dehumanizing aspects of these bills and how much they can impact her patients' daily lives and overall health. They also discuss...

Jennifer Kates , senior vice president and director of global health and HIV policy at KFF, returns to the podcast to talk with  Lindsay Smith Rogers about the looming expiration of the COVID-19 public health emergency and what that means for things like access to tests, treatments, vaccines, and eligibility for Medicaid. They also discuss the differences between this and the national health emerg...

In a recent commentary in the New England Journal of Medicine , Johns Hopkins tobacco policy expert Joanna Cohen and colleagues call for the FDA to take steps to bring more smoking cessation therapies to the market. Cohen, director of the Institute for Global Tobacco Control, talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about why new therapies are needed and where to find evidence to support their use. Read the...

To understand what happens now that SCOTUS has stayed Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk's ruling on mifepristone, we first have to understand how the case got to the highest court in the land in the first place. Public health lawyer Joanne Rosen returns to the podcast to talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the unprecedented series of filings and rulings around mifepristone from Amarillo, Texas to Washington...

World Immunization Week is the last week in April and this year's theme is The Big Catch Up. Vaccine expert Dr. Bill Moss returns to the podcast to talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about how major setbacks in global vaccine coverage over the past few years are seeding the deadly threat of a measles resurgence. They discuss contributing factors and what needs to be done to get out in front of one of t...

Malaria infects hundreds of millions of people around the globe each year and kills more than 600,000. But the disease has been eliminated in many of the countries providing significant support in the fight against malaria, like the U.S. For World Malaria Day, Thomas Locke , host of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute's podcast, Malaria Minute, talks with some advocates in the U.S. who ar...

In the 1980s and 90s, the world came together to successfully address a major environmental problem: a growing hole in the ozone layer. So why hasn't that success translated to global collaboration to make a dent in climate change? For Earth Day, David Victor , professor at UC San Diego, talks with Stephanie Desmon about the unique problem of climate change, and some optimistic and realistic signs...

Antibiotics are marvels of modern medicine but overuse has created deadly strains of bacteria that can't be treated. Where and how could prescriptions be curtailed to have the biggest effects? Dr. David Wallinga , a physician-scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the murky picture of unnecessary antibiotic use in animals in the US and the "dismal"...

Algorithms—formulas that do everything from suggesting Netflix shows to streamlining Google results—are increasingly used in health care settings. But could these tools be introducing bias? Kadija Ferryman , a cultural anthropologist and faculty at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute for Bioethics, talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about what algorithms are and the double-edged sword of their use in m...

Dire statistics about birth outcomes for Black people in the U.S. have become front-page news in recent years. But this problem isn't new—in fact, it has roots in the very fabric of American society and health care with structural and systemic racism at its core. Kicking off a series from Public Health in the Field, Rachel Bervell and Annalies Winny explore how and why the nation has come to recog...

This week is Black Maternal Health Week in the US and to kick off the conversation, Dr. Josh Sharfstein speaks with author and New York Times contributor Linda Villarosa about her new book on racism and health. They discuss how she came to this topic after her years being a health editor at Essence magazine and why the picture is particularly stark for the health of Black women and their infants....

Dr. Raegan McDonald Mosley , an obstetrician-gynecologist and CEO of Power to Decide, returns to the podcast to talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the Texas case that invalidated FDA approval of the abortion medication mifepristone. They discuss what the ruling might mean in the short term and the broader implications for reproductive health, FDA approval of other drugs, and the field of medicine...

A U.S. district court in Texas issued a ruling limiting the scope of the Affordable Care Act's requirements for coverage of preventive services. On today's podcast, Joe Palmore , a former assistant to the Solicitor General at the U.S. Department of Justice and current co-chair of the Appellate and Supreme Court Practice Group at the law firm Morrison Foerster, talks to Dr. Josh Sharfstein about th...

Recently, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit allowed a man subject to an intimate partner violence restraining order to keep his guns. Kelly Roskum , the director of law and policy for the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, joins Dr. Josh Sharfstein to talk about this decision and what's next for guns and the courts.