Public Health On Call

Over 300 homeless youths ages 14-25 come to the Youth Empowered Society (YES) Drop-in Center every year. They come for food, clothing, mental health counseling, job training, housing and rental assistance, and many more basic services. But COVID-19 is presenting even greater challenges for clients and has forced the staff to rethink service delivery models. YES executive director Blair Franklin talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about these challenges, innovations in care provision, dealing with staff exhaustion and burnout, and the added impacts of racial violence and protests on clients and staff. More about YES available at: http://yesdropincenter.org

Experts are concerned about outbreaks of seasonal influenza alongside further spikes of COVID-19 infections this fall and winter as some people return to work and school. Jen Gerber, a recent PhD graduate from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, talks with Stephanie Desmon about the importance of the flu vaccine to keep people from getting sick and filling hospital beds needed for COVID-19 patients. She also busts some common myths about why people don't get vaccinated.

In May, the mayor of Dallas appointed Dr. Kelvin Baggett as the "COVID Czar." Now, amidst rising cases across the state, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health alum Baggett is tasked with reducing harm and suffering from COVID-19. He talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about his work as COVID Czar, how the city is addressing disproportionate impact on minority communities, and how the pandemic may be helping to elevate critical conversations around health disparities.

This week, we're checking in with guests we interviewed earlier in the pandemic. Today, Dr. Josh Sharfstein gets an update from Dr. Monica Schoch-Spana, an expert on the mental health effects of the novel coronavirus. Schoch-Spana talks about the challenges for psychological well-being caused by the resurgence of cases in the US. She also talks about a new report she co-authored about what will be needed for a safe and effective vaccine to be widely accepted and equitably distributed.

This week, we're checking in with guests we interviewed earlier in the pandemic. Today, Dr. Josh Sharfstein gets an update from infectious disease epidemiologist Dr. Justin Lessler who was one of our very first podcast guests. Back in March, there were a lot of unanswered questions. Lessler talks about what we now know about transmission and fatality rates and what questions remain, what needs to happen in the short term to get cases under control, and what might be a truly transformative innovation in the fight against COVID-19.

This week, we're checking in with guests we interviewed earlier in the pandemic. Today, Stephanie Desmon gets an update from epidemiologist Dr. Chris Beyrer about the status of the pandemic in jails, prisons, and immigration detention centers. Beyrer also talks about the victories they've had with decarceration and releases of individuals who are high-risk for serious COVID-19 illness, the role of community transmission, and what still needs to be done to get hotspots under control.

This week, we're checking in with guests we interviewed earlier in the pandemic. Today, Stephanie Desmon gets an update from Dr. Emily Gurley about contact tracing as a strategy for slowing the spread of COVID-19 and what is still needed for contact tracing to be successful in the US. Gurley also talks about a new course that will help tracers and organizers build programs and evaluate their impact.

Dr. Josh Sharfstein gets an update from Dr. Arturo Casadevall about the innovative idea of using convalescent serum from patients who have recovered from COVID-19 to help others. Since we last heard from him, Dr. Casadevall has launched a plasma project that, along with others across the US, has helped over 35,000 COVID-19 patients. Casadevall also talks about how data from the project can help with vaccine and other therapy developments

Are people who test positive for weeks, or even months still infectious? Are face shields more effective than masks? If COVID-19 is airborne, does this mean we don't have to be as concerned about surfaces? If a person tests positive multiple times, is each new test considered a new "case?" If you're sick with COVID and you wear a mask, will you get sicker because you're breathing in more virus? Would the virus disappear if everyone quarantined? Dr. Caitlin Rivers from the Center for Health Security and Dr. Josh Sharfstein address your questions submitted to publichealthquestion@jhu.edu

Recently, the White House and HHS have undermined credibility of the top US experts on pandemic response. Dr. Josh Sharfstein reminds us that the battle we're fighting is not about Democrats vs. Republicans, nor about public health vs. the economy. The battle is humanity vs. the virus, and we need evidence and experience to prevail.