Public Health On Call

Registered dietitians with huge social media followings are getting paid to promote sugar, supplements, and other products and messages that clash with evidence-based recommendations—at times without proper disclosure. Sasha Chavkin, a reporter with The Examination, talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the food industry's stealthy tactic to exploit the power that influencers can have on social media, and how this raises questions for the ethics of professional dietitians. Read The Examination's report here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/09/13/dietitian-instagram-tiktok-paid-food-industry/

Nipah virus is a lethal zoonotic disease that passes from bats to humans in what are called "spillover events." But it's still not known for sure how outbreaks happen, which makes prevention difficult. Epidemiologist Emily Gurley, who has studied Nipah outbreaks in Bangladesh for nearly 20 years, talks with Lindsay Smith Rogers about her work tracking the virus's transmission and the enormous amount of multi-disciplinary resources and complexity required to investigate spillover events.

Treatment for substance use disorders during pregnancy is effective, and recommended by experts in many cases. But outdated, and often misinformed, policies have led to babies being taken by child welfare agencies because their parents was on anti-addiction medication. Two Johns Hopkins experts in opioid policy, Sachini Bandara and Alex McCourt, talk with Lindsay Smith Rogers about these laws impacting pregnant people and their families, the role of child removal in the opioid epidemic, and what needs to be done to bring a public health lens to the issue. Check out our previous episode on treating substance use disorders during pregnancy here.

When patients don't feel heard by their doctors, there's an erosion of trust that can lead to serious health consequences—even if clinicians have their patients' best interests in mind. Dr. Mary Catherine Beach, who studies patient-provider communications, talks with Stephanie Desmon about what can happen when patients don't feel heard, interventions to teach providers better listening skills, and how bias comes into play.

Emily and Kyle, co-hosts of the Accessible Stall podcast, join Lindsay Smith Rogers to discuss the importance of authentic representation of disability in designing policies and spaces. They explore shifting perspectives on disability, misconceptions of accessibility in media representation, the impact of media representation on public health, and the intersection of disability and COVID-19.

An estimated 97,000 Black women and girls have gone missing or been murdered in the US in the last year—which represents about 40% of all missing persons. These women and girls are often viewed as criminals or runaways and not victims or survivors, which can hamstring efforts to find and support them. Dr. Tiara Willie, gender-based violence researcher, and Dr. Kamila Alexander, a nurse and trauma researcher, talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the first organized effort to focus long overdue attention on this problem, which was recently launched in Minnesota, and its implications for the nation.

Starting in January, 2024, every family with a new baby in Flint, Michigan will be eligible to receive cash payments for the first year of life. Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, the pediatrician who exposed the Flint water crisis in 2014, and Luke Shaefer, Michigan public policy professor, talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about how this effort came together and what it hopes to accomplish. Professor Schaefer's new book is The Injustice of Place. Learn more at flintrxkids.com

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Institute for Global Tobacco Control was founded in 1998, and since then it has become a global leader in the efforts to end the tobacco epidemic. To highlight the Institute's 25th anniversary, Joanna Cohen, director of IGTC, and founding director Jonathan Samet talk to Stephanie Desmon about the past, present, and future fight against tobacco. Check out the video version of the podcast here.

A major bankruptcy case of Purdue Pharma—the makers of Oxycontin—now sits with the Supreme Court. How did it get there, and what's at stake? Andy Dietderich, an expert in bankruptcy law and co-head of finance and restructuring at New York law firm Sullivan and Cromwell, talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the case, the Sackler family's involvement, and what a SCOTUS decision could mean for future settlements.

Emergency managers discuss building resilience and preparing for climate change-induced disasters. Evolution of emergency management in Maryland. Importance of resilience and mitigating disaster risks. Challenges faced by Smith Island. Role of local and state programs in emergency management.