Public Health On Call

Social media has long been criticized for its role in perpetuating dangerous misinformation. Dr. Garth Graham , the director and global head of healthcare and public health at Google and YouTube, talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about how this came to a head during the pandemic and how he sees the opportunity for social media channels to be leaders in the evolution of science and public health commu...

Who should get a bivalent booster? How effective are they? How should people space out shots after infection, original strain boosters, and a host of other combinations of immunity and exposure? Can you get a bivalent booster and a flu shot at the same time and are there any benefits to spacing them out? How long did it take for us to get these boosters, and what's the hope for longer-term immunit...

Pandemic disruptions led to serious learning loss in K-12 education, and new research shows just how serious. Peggy Carr , the commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, talks with Stephanie Desmon about what the data shows in terms of student performance, why these historic declines will have impacts for years to come, and what can be done to start closing the gaps.

A 2019 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine lays out irrefutable evidence that medications like methadone can save lives when used for opioid use disorder, but decades of policy rooted in racism and stigma keeps methadone largely out of reach for those who need it. Alan Leshner , CEO emeritus of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and chair...

Malaria, a mosquito-borne infection, affects some 228 million people globally each year, killing over 400,000 of them—primarily children under the age of 5. In part two of a miniseries, Thomas Locke , host of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute podcast "Malaria Minute" looks back at 1955 when the WHO launched its "Global Malaria Eradication Programme" that was expected to end malaria worl...

How effective have federal vaccine mandates for COVID-19 been? Will litigation impact other vaccine requirements, such as those for school attendance? What might happen during future pandemics? Michelle Mello , a professor of law and public policy at Stanford, talks with Stephanie Desmon about the mixed success of COVID vaccine mandates. 

Tom Inglesby , director of the Center for Health Security returns to the podcast to talk with Josh Sharfstein about the current state of COVID. They discuss the pandemic situation in the US and around the world, and how they are managing their own lives at a moment when it seems like most people are ready to move on. 

Malaria, a mosquito-borne infection, affects some 228 million people globally each year, killing over 400,000 of them—primarily children under the age of 5. In part one of a miniseries, Thomas Locke , host of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute podcast "Malaria Minute," breaks down the parasite's unique lifecycle which allows it to adapt rapidly to drugs and to our immune system's efforts...

Hearing loss affects two-thirds of people over age 70 and is the single largest modifiable risk factor for dementia and other health problems later in life. Frank Lin , director of the Cochlear Center for Hearing & Public Health at Johns Hopkins, talks with Stephanie Desmon about the links between hearing loss and dementia, why the new approval means hearing aids will be better, cheaper, and far m...

Undocumented individuals often can't or are afraid to seek health care due to a lack of insurance or fears that services could interfere with their immigration status. Luvia Quiñones , senior director of health policy at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, and Mervin Dino , who runs a safety net health care program at Advocate Aurora Health in Chicago, talk with Dr. Josh Sharf...

Dr. Mauda Monger is a lifelong resident of Jackson, Mississippi. She is also a community advocate and public health professional. She talks with Dr. Sharfstein about how the water crisis is the most visible sign of a profound decline in her hometown and perhaps could help bring about a brighter future. Dr. Monger runs an initiative for young women of color in Jackson called the S-H-E Project. Lear...

Unhealthy, fast, and cheap foods are often marketed to Black Americans who suffer from higher rates of obesity and other non-communicable health problems. Dr. Shiriki Kumanyika , a research professor at Drexel University and the founder of the Council of Black Health, talks with Lindsay Smith Rogers about Operation Good Food and Beverages, a project supported by the Bloomberg American Health Initi...

Former CMS Director Andy Slavitt has achieved major wins for health in the private and public sectors. Slavitt talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about lessons learned from the ACA and COVID-19 responses, whether or not our government is up to the major health challenges of today, and why public health "gets recognized in years and decades, not days and weeks." Also - we want to hear from you!  

Historic rainfall in Jackson, Mississippi overwhelmed the already fragile water system leaving thousands of residents without water weeks later. Dr. Richard Mizelle , an environmental historian at the University of Houston, talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the crisis that was decades in the making, who is most at risk without clean water, and how environmental racism poses deadly threats to co...

Since the Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade, many states have passed restrictive, confusing, and sometimes contradictory laws impacting health care. Dr. Jack Resneck, Jr , the new president of the American Medical Association talks with Stephanie Desmon about the challenges physicians are facing when making critical decisions with patients about often lifesaving health care, the threat of a...

The Inflation Reduction Act contains some major changes for both Medicare and drug pricing with the potential to save Americans billions of dollars in drug costs. Hopkins health policy expert Jerry Anderson , who has spent decades working on Medicare issues, talks with Stephanie Desmon about the changes, why they took so long, and what still needs to be worked out. Also - we want to hear from you!...

Throughout COVID-19, the FDA has been among many government agencies charged with communicating lifesaving information. Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about how the politicization of the pandemic raised the stakes for the FDA and how the agency is learning to adapt in an age of rampant misinformation. They also discuss the FDA's consideration of bivalent vaccines for...

Dr. Mark Gendreau , an emergency department physician in Boston, talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the marvels of airplane ventilation, the transmission of diseases like flu, measles, and SARS in airplanes, the overall risk for COVID-19, and how travelers can more safely navigate the riskiest "choke points" during air travel.

Dr. Carolyn Sufrin joins the podcast to talk with Dr. Sharfstein about the implication of overturning Roe vs Wade for a special population—people who are incarcerated. Dr. Sufrin is an obstetrician/gynecologist and a researcher on reproductive health at Johns Hopkins. 

The first case of paralytic polio in New York in decades has focused attention on a devastating virus with a long and terrible history. Olakunle Alonge , an associate professor of international health at Johns Hopkins, who's worked on polio eradication efforts around the world, speaks to Josh Sharfstein about what's behind the rise in cases and how the world can defeat polio—forever.

How should parents be thinking about their kids returning to school in the context of updated CDC guidelines on COVID, the potential for monkeypox outbreaks, and an uptick in other viruses? Experts Keri Althoff and Liz Stuart return to the podcast to talk with Stephanie Desmon about what's new this school year, making sense of COVID risks and guidelines, vaccine mandates for kids age 12 and up, an...

What's the difference between COVID reinfection, rebounding, and a new infection? Are people contagious and can they have recurring symptoms with a COVID rebound? Can antivirals like paxlovid cause COVID rebounds? Can paxlovid prevent long COVID? Amesh Adalja returns to the podcast to talk with  Josh Sharfstein and answer your questions sent to publichealthquestion@jhu.edu .

President Biden is poised to sign the historic Inflation Reduction Act that will, among other things, enact sweeping changes to the US energy sector and efforts to fight climate change. Tiernan Sittenfeld, the senior vice president of the League of Conservation Voters, talks with guest host Shelley Hearne about the bill and its game-changing potential for the environment and public health. They al...

Throughout the COVID pandemic, number crunching has been a way to understand and respond to the scope, spread, and spikes of outbreaks. The same goes for monkeypox. Epidemiologist Dr. Caitlin Rivers talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about what numbers should be considered to understand the full picture of the monkeypox outbreak and the effectiveness of the response. They also talk about the current l...

A new report confirms the origins of SARS-CoV-2 as a spillover event from a seafood market in Wuhan, China. Biosecurity expert Gigi Gronvall returns to the podcast to talk with Lindsay Smith Rogers about what we now know happened, why it took so long to pinpoint and confirm COVID's origins, and why this information is crucial for research and preventing future pandemics. Read the report here .