Public Health On Call

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. Josh Sharfstein about these failures and propose solutions to fix the supply chain, close gaps in healthy food access, and keep food workers safe.

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 with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about how COVID-19 has exposed an existential crisis facing U.S. nursing homes.

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 under-resourced schools could rethink instruction, and the data still needed to show policymakers definitive gaps in learning loss.

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, today, the number of daily new infections is less than 10. Guest host Allison Barlow, director of the Center for American Indian Health, speaks with Gatewood about the response and how the community is faring.

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 Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the global nature of supply chains, why it's not in the economic interest of nations to be concerned only with their citizens, and the developing solutions and opportunities for collaboration to bring a working vaccine to the world.

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 International Studies's Global Health Policy Center, talks with Stephanie Desmon about Russia's vaccine, the political motivations behind it, why declaring an early victory is so problematic, and what the world might have to consider if the vaccine turns out to be successful.

Why isn't the potential of contact tracing being realized right now in the US? Can an MMR booster protect me from COVID-19? Is it better to go to the grocery store several times a week or make one longer trip? Will social distancing and masks make for a lighter flu season? Can a COVID test become negative if it sits too long before processing? Should I shave my beard? Dr. Crystal Watson from the Center for Health Security and Dr. Josh Sharfstein address your questions submitted to publichealthquestion@jhu.edu

Economic upheaval, school closures, social distancing, and job losses have all contributed to worsening mental health for parents and behavioral health for children. Pediatrician Dr. Stephen Patrick is the lead author of a new study that shows how COVID-19 has caused major disruptions to the lives of children and parents. Patrick talks with guest host Colleen Barry about how these issues are having particularly devastating impacts on parents facing job loss and food insecurity. One possible upside: the pandemic has elevated policy issues around child care and food security to consideration by Congress.