Public Health On Call

Iceland, an island nation of about 400,000 people, has seen fewer than 2,500 COVID-19 cases and only 10 deaths. Dr. Thorolfur Gudnason , Iceland's chief epidemiologist, talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about how the country's pandemic strategy meant they never had to close schools or restaurants, and how its research with genomic sequencing helped shed light on COVID-19 transmission and immunity. Gu...

Chicago has seen drastic increases in opioid-related overdoses and deaths compared to 2019—an uptick that started prior to the arrival of COVID. Dr. Wilnise Jasmin , Medical Director for Behavioral Health, talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about how the pandemic has exacerbated the opioid epidemic while, at the same time, opening up new opportunities, and how Chicago's response to COVID-19 includes a...

A cohort of COVID-19 patients—mostly middle-aged women—who experience "mild" disease not only don't seem to be getting better, they're developing new symptoms like debilitating cognitive fog, dizziness, and palpitations that linger for months after diagnosis. Dr. David Putrino , the Director of Rehabilitation Innovation at Mt. Sinai Health System in New York, talks with Stephanie Desmon about the...

Flint's water crisis, which exposed thousands of children to excess levels of lead, is far from over, but the city is making progress. Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha , the Michigan State pediatrician who exposed the crisis, talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about how an "unfair and preventable health crisis" became an opportunity to address disparities and do better. This focus on secondary prevention actual...

Why would a virus that primarily affect the lungs also cause a heart attack? How do you treat injury to the heart and is recovery expected? Is there evidence that people with asymptomatic COVID cases could still experience injury to the heart and lungs? Should athletes who have had severe COVID seek a cardiac assessment before returning to sports? Hopkins cardiologist and myocarditis expert Dr. Ni...

Outdoor interactions are safer when it comes to COVID-19, but what can be done to improve ventilation in buildings? Dr. Ana María Rule , a Hopkins ventilation expert, talks with Stephanie Desmon about how ventilation systems can reduce the risk of exposure, whether heating or air conditioning are different, and whether airplane ventilation systems are better or worse than buildings. Dr. Rule also...

Why are Black people so much more likely to die from COVID than whites in Louisiana and elsewhere? Dr. Tom LaVeist , dean of the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about misconceptions and misunderstandings about race and health. Dr. LaVeist also talks about his work on a COVID-19 task force to make permanent policy changes that will hel...

Thousands of COVID-19-related papers are released every week. But the information is of varying quality and health care workers don't have time to sift through the deluge. Johns Hopkins epidemiologist Dr. Kate Grabowski talks with Stephanie Desmon about the Novel Coronavirus Research Compendium , a literature curation effort by more than 50 people across collaborating institutions. Every week, the...

The FDA last week issued an "emergency use authorization" for convalescent plasma for COVID-19 patients – after a press conference attended by the FDA Commissioner at the White House. "Public Health on Call" co-host Dr. Josh Sharfstein was second-in-command at the FDA early in the Obama Administration. He talks to Stephanie Desmon about the controversy over the announcement on convalescent plasma...

Michigan State University decided not to have in-person learning this fall after a notable outbreak in the nearby community, positive tests among athletes who returned to campus, and a review of outbreaks at similar schools. University president Dr. Sam Stanley talks with Stephanie Desmon about that decision and how his experience as an infectious disease doctor has informed his work around COVID-...

The University of Michigan plans to conduct an in-person semester this fall. Dr. Preeti Malani is back to talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the public health strategies in place to mitigate risk, changes to physical spaces, efforts being made to promote safety in the off hours, and her concerns about COVID-19 preparation not eclipsing other health issues like depression, anxiety, and loneliness.

The pandemic has seen health officers being attacked online, threatened at their private homes, fired or forced into resigning. But although the hyper-polarization of COVID-19 has further contributed to an erosion of trust in institutions, these tactics aren't new. California Senator Dr. Richard Pan talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about a small but vocal group that opposes public health measures li...

In low-resource settings worldwide, poor infrastructure like transportation may impede pandemic response efforts. In these settings, digital technologies—used to deliver test results, manage cases, and support contact tracing—can help amplify public health services. Guest host Sara Bennett talks with Smisha Argawal , research director for the Hopkins Global mHealth Initiative, about the potential...

How can we think about the long-term impacts of disruption caused by COVID-19 on kids and adults? How can we get kids to talk about their feelings? Are we becoming "numb" to COVID and taking more risks? How can we reconcile feelings of blame towards people who might be making decisions we wouldn't make? Clinical psychologist Dr. Laura Murray returns to the podcast with Stephanie Desmon to answer y...

Since Baltimore shut down in mid-March, health commissioner Dr. Letitia Dzirasa and her team have been working to implement response strategies that meet the city's unique needs. Public-private partnerships have bolstered mobile testing in COVID-19 hotspots. A historic hotel was converted to care for unstably housed people in isolation and quarantine. Workforce development efforts shifted to hirin...

How should schools react to positive cases? What should trigger shutdowns and how can leaders know when it's safe to reopen? How can teachers and parents help children manage distress caused by uncertainty, distance learning, and what may be a year of continuous closings and reopenings? In a webcast last week, Johns Hopkins University experts Josh Sharfstein , Jennifer Nuzzo , Annette Anderson , a...

COVID-19 has presented a variety of challenges for employers including leave needed by employees who are sick or taking care of someone who is, employees with children who are out of school or daycare, and employee concerns of risk as they return to the workplace. Maryland employment lawyer Jennifer Curry talks with Stephanie Desmon about how employers are thinking about these challenges, existing...

UNC Chapel Hill brought students back to campus for fall and had to close a week later after COVID-19 cases began surging among students. Dr. Mimi Chapman , chair of faculty, talks with Stephanie Desmon about the decision to bring back students, what the university has since learned, and why UNC's outbreak is not unique in the context of the US's larger problems with controlling the epidemic.

COVID-19 has revealed many weaknesses about the US food system: 14 million children are now regularly missing meals while farmers are dumping millions of pounds of food, and COVID-19 death rates are higher among people with food-related illnesses such as diabetes. Dr. Roy Steiner and Paula Daniels , co-contributors to Reset the Table, a new report from the Rockefeller Foundation, talk with Dr. Jos...

Dr. Monica Gandhi , an infectious disease researcher at the University of California at San Francisco, argues that a key to beating COVID-19 is increasing the proportion of infections that cause no symptoms. But how? Dr. Gandhi explains to Dr. Josh Sharfstein the answer may be as simple as having more people wear masks.

Nursing homes and other long term care facilities have been heavily impacted by COVID-19 in part because of inherent weaknesses in their structure and management that leave residents vulnerable to infectious diseases. Most private companies also have a financial model that is critically challenged by the pandemic. Dr. David Grabowski , a health policy researcher and professor at Harvard, talks wit...

Regardless of whether schools kick off online, in person, or with a hybrid approach this fall, there will be learning disruptions to consider. Dr. Ruth Faden of the Berman Institute of Bioethics and Dr. Annette Anderson of the Johns Hopkins School of Education talk with Stephanie Desmon about now COVID-19 is exacerbating growing inequities around achievement, development, and graduation rates, how...

On April 1, 2020, the first case of COVID-19 was recorded among Arizona's White Mountain Apache tribe. New cases quickly mounted to 70 a day among the close-knit community. Even though the state remained fairly relaxed, Tribal Chairwoman Gwendena Lee Gatewood quickly shut down the reservation and implemented strict stay at home orders. Her fast and effective response to the crisis means that, toda...

Countries are investing huge sums of money in vaccine technology and some, like the US and the UK, are spinning deals with private companies to secure doses. But defeating the pandemic will require vaccinating the entire planet and nationalism is at odds with the global cooperation needed to do so. Tom Bollyky , director of the Global Health Program at the Council of Foreign Relations, talks with...

Russia made headlines this week with a purported COVID-19 vaccine that the country is already planning to administer to frontline healthcare workers, teachers, and the military. But the candidate skipped Phase III clinical trials and no scientific data around its development or efficacy has been published to date. In a bonus episode, Stephen Morrison, director of the Center for Strategic and Inter...