Public Health On Call

Ukraine's strangled food exports of commodities like wheat and sunflower oil are disrupting food supplies and causing food insecurity around the world. William Masters , professor of food economics and policy at Tufts University, talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about these and other consequences of the war for food, in the United States and internationally. They also discuss short- and long-term so...

Emerging research shows that COVID-19 infection can accelerate the aging process, especially for older people with chronic conditions. But the pandemic may also be aging those who haven't been sick, from social isolation and depression to burnout and worsening of chronic conditions. Hopkins geriatrician Dr. Alicia Arbaje talks with Stephanie Desmon about how chronic stress and uncertainty may be a...

How did omicron numbers affect hospitalization rates? Why are positivity rates so high in some areas, and should we even pay attention to those? How accurate are rapid tests, and how forgiving are they of user error? Are our immune systems more "naive" after two years of physical distancing and masks? Dr. Amesh Adalja from the Center for Health Security returns to the podcast to talk with Lindsay...

Wastewater surveillance has become an indispensable leading indicator of community COVID levels, providing real time data a week or so ahead of health department testing reports. Johns Hopkins environmental health scientist Dr. Natalie Exum talks with Stephanie Desmon about wastewater surveillance for COVID and tracking new variants, why it's not a replacement for nasal testing, and how the techno...

The federal "test-to-treat" program was designed to reduce hospitalizations and deaths by getting antivirals to people who test positive for COVID-19 as quickly as possible. Hannah Recht , a reporter at Kaiser Health News who has written about the topic, talks to Stephanie Desmon about how confusing websites, lack of up-to-date information and costs have kept many of the neediest from receiving pr...

Malaria, a serious disease caused by the plasmodium pathogen which is transmitted to humans by mosquitoes, affects some 228 million people worldwide each year and kills more than 600,000—90% of whom live in Africa. On World Malaria Day, Dr. George Dimopolous of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute talks with Stephanie Desmon about his lab's research into genetically modifying mosquitoes so...

In-patient treatment for severe COVID has come a long way since 2020 thanks, in part, to the rare opportunity of real-time data collection from so many people sick with the same disease at the same time. Dr. Brian Garibaldi , director of the Johns Hopkins Biocontainment Unit, returns to the podcast to talk with Stephanie Desmon about treating severely ill COVID patients, advances in therapeutics l...

The Biden administration recently approved nearly $10 billion to broaden access to PrEP, a medication that is 99% effective at preventing HIV and key to ending the nation's HIV epidemic. Amy Killelea , a policy expert on HIV and public health financing, talks with Stephanie Desmon about why health policies have meant this game-changing drug hasn't yet delivered on its potential, how experts hope B...

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Black physicians and social scientists connected racism to a host of health consequences. Dr. Ayah Nuriddin , a Princeton scholar of race and science in this era, talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about this emergence of Black public health and its efforts to push back against prevailing messages. Long underappreciated, these insights are now front and cente...

For 15 years, science journalist Meghan O'Rourke chased a diagnosis for a constellation of symptoms that left her bedridden at times. O'Rourke talks with Stephanie Desmon about capturing the "messy, repetitive, and chaotic" story arc of chronic illness in her New York Times bestselling book, and how long COVID is drawing new attention to the conversation about and treatment of chronic illness.

Russia has claimed that the US and Ukraine were working on bioweapons in labs across Ukraine, dangerous disinformation being used in part to justify the Russian invasion. Biosecurity expert  Gigi Gronvall  returns to the podcast to talk with  Lindsay Smith Rogers  about the dangers of this disinformation, the attempted cover-up of a 1979 bioweapons anthrax accident in Russia, why biosecure labs ar...

Emergency departments not only treat gunshot wounds, they can help prevent them. Trauma surgeon Dr. Chethan Sathya talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about treating gun violence as a public health issue in emergency departments, how to help people at risk of being shot, and the push to make conversations about gun safety standard practice.

Ending the US's COVID-19 state of emergency has far-reaching effects and may leave Americans vulnerable to the next pandemic. Reducing spending on COVID-19 now could mean fewer tests, reduced access to vaccines and a weakened understanding of how COVID-19 is behaving. Health policy expert Dr. Zeke Emmanuel of the University of Pennsylvania joins the podcast to talk with Stephanie Desmon about why...

A persistent pandemic challenge has been making decisions when the evidence is limited. Should masks be required? Should bars and restaurants be closed? Should kids in school be spaced out by six feet -- or just three? Dr. Sherry Glied , dean of NYU's Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service, is studying ways to make these decisions better. She joins the podcast to talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein a...

Even as COVID-19 remains a critical public health issue, there are all sorts of emergencies that can occur due to diseases, disasters, and bioterrorism. Dr. Nadine Gracia , CEO of Trust for America's Health, joins Dr. Josh Sharfstein on the podcast to talk about the organization's report, Ready Or Not 2022. The report ranks states on their ability to respond to extreme weather and other crises. Le...

Will we see strain-specific vaccines in the future? Where are we on fourth doses/second boosters? What do we know about the effectiveness of international vaccines like Sinopharm and Sputnik? What still needs to be done to vaccinate the world? Dr. Anna Durbin and Dr. Bill Moss return to the podcast to talk with S tephanie Desmon about these and more vaccine updates.

On a special episode, Tradeoffs host Dan Gorenstein talks about 988, a nationwide mental health crisis line launching in July that connects people with emergency help without having to call 911. A content warning that this episode mentions suicide and other mental health emergencies. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1...

The newly launched Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions brings together two powerhouses in gun policy: The Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Prevention and Policy and the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence. Guest host Keshia Pollack Porter , chair of the Bloomberg School's Department of Health Policy and Management, returns to the podcast to talk with Daniel Webster , director of...

Dr. Judy Melinek , a forensic pathologist, was a guest on the podcast in the early days of the pandemic to talk about her work with autopsies and COVID-19 in San Francisco. Since then, Dr. Melinek and her family moved to ... New Zealand, a nation that kept COVID from entering for many months. Dr. Melinek talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the latest COVID news from New Zealand, which includes hi...

In just a few weeks, Poland has welcomed more than 2 million Ukrainian refugees and 200,000 of them have come to the city of Kraków. Dr. Wojtek Szczelik , an anesthesiologist and intensive care physician, talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about how his hospital and the city are triaging care for refugees, how the pandemic has prepared the health care system to expand its capacity, and how the city is...

California has had a reputation as one of the more vigorous in terms of COVID-19 mitigation tactics and now, two years later, the state is changing tack. Dr. Mark Ghaly , California's Secretary of Health and Human Services, talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the state's new and more nimble S.M.A.R.T.E.R. approach which focuses on key metrics and broad surveillance to know what responses are need...

Virologist Dr. Andrew Pekosz returns to the podcast to talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about BA.2, a "not unexpected but tiring" new sibling of the omicron variant. They discuss who should be most concerned about getting sick and what might happen in the coming weeks. They also discuss reports of "deltacron," a viral recombination of delta and omicron, and what we can learn from Hong Kong and China'...

China and Hong Kong are facing the worst COVID outbreaks since the start of the pandemic and a draconian zero-COVID policy is making things worse. Dr. Yanzhong Huang , a senior fellow for global health at the Council of Foreign Relations, talks with Stephanie Desmon about how the zero-COVID policy has left China and Hong Kong vulnerable to outbreaks, why vaccination of vulnerable groups is so low,...

What is Disease X? Dr. Amesh Adalja and Dr. Anita Cicero of the Center for Health Security return to the podcast to talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the unknown cause of the next pandemic, which is likely to come from a viral family already known but poorly studied. They talk about how investing now to develop medical countermeasures like diagnostic tests and treatments could buy valuable time...

Dr. Caitlin Rivers returns to the podcast to talk about her work with the CDC's new Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics. Funded through the American Rescue Plan, the Center works with academic and government partners to model potential health threats and monitor outbreaks. Rivers talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about standing up the new center, how omicron gave them an initial test run of...