Take as Directed
264 episodes - English - Latest episode: 16 days ago - ★★★★ - 41 ratingsTake as Directed is the podcast series of the CSIS Global Health Policy Center. It highlights important news, events, issues, and perspectives in global health policy, particularly in infectious disease, health security, and maternal, newborn, and child health. The podcast brings you commentary and perspectives from some of the leading voices in global health and CSIS Global Health Policy Center in-house experts
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Episodes
Prof. Larry Gostin: “It’s No Secret. America is a Mess.”
October 25, 2021 13:32 - 55 minutesOn October 7, Andrew and Steve sat down with a close friend, Georgetown’s Prof. Larry Gostin, for a lively live-cast conversation about his new book, ‘Global Health Security: A Blueprint for the Future.” The podcast captures that rich, vivid exchange. The big messages: We underestimate the power of the SAR-CoV-2 virus: it is wily and pernicious and will continue to surge. We cannot forget anti-microbial resistance. A fundamental shift is needed in the US international approach – away from cha...
Dr. Leana Wen: “The End of the Pandemic is in Sight”
October 14, 2021 13:02 - 26 minutesDr. Leana Wen joined us this week to explore her personal history and its revelations, laid out in remarkably candid detail in her newly released memoir, Lifelines: A Doctor’s Journey in the Fight for Public Health. And to speak to the most pressing current challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Her childhood struggles, as a young immigrant Chinese girl living amid insecurity, taught powerful lessons about poverty, race, and health. Her tenure as Health Commissioner in Baltimore, operati...
Carmen Paun, Year One of POLITICO Global Pulse a Success
October 06, 2021 17:57 - 37 minutesCarmen Paun, a dynamic, fresh media voice on global health in Washington, shares her personal and career journey from Romania to Brussels, and on to her arrival in Washington D.C. one year ago, amid the pandemic, to launch POLITICO Global Pulse. This past summer, while visiting family in a small village in the Romanian countryside, she was “shocked” to discover only 10% vaccinated at that time, the pandemic seen as “all just a conspiracy.” The pandemic was the trigger in creating POLITICO Glo...
Susan Glasser, The New Yorker: “It’s Never Too Late to Do the Right Thing”
September 28, 2021 13:55 - 31 minutesIn a recent New Yorker ‘Letter from Biden’s Washington,’ Susan Glasser delivers a stark indictment: Trumpists and Republican leadership are consciously keeping enough people resisting the Biden administration’s efforts to control the virus “to keep the disease wreaking havoc.” Why that conclusion now? “It is no accident” that 1 in 500 Americans have died, now totaling over 687,000. It’s becoming obvious that President Biden cannot inoculate Americans against Fox News. In the meantime, the Bid...
Dr. Monica Gandhi: Californians Cast a "Referendum on Illiberal Liberals"
September 21, 2021 13:47 - 36 minutesDr. Monica Gandhi toured the landscape with us. The recent recall of California Governor Gavin Newsom has bipartisan roots, in dissatisfaction with the “lockdown mentality” that closed playgrounds and parks, and kept San Francisco’s schools shuttered for 18 months. It was to a significant degree a “referendum on the illiberal liberals.” Once “the power of vaccines” came into force, however, California pioneered mandates, passports, and expanded testing; achieved over 80% vaccine coverage; and...
Dr. LaQuandra S. Nesbitt: “Vaccine Requirements Will Get Us Over The Finish Line”
September 17, 2021 13:32 - 34 minutesDr. LaQuandra S. Nesbitt, Director of the DC Department of Health, returned as our guest to share her reflections. Her view of President Biden’s six-point plan? Tying vaccination to sustained employment is the next phase: mandates will bring about an uptake in vaccines. The rising emphasis on monoclonal antibodies is a “huge initiative” that brings about a reduction in hospitalizations. The President negotiating access at-cost to over-the-counter test kits is a similarly big step. DC has avoi...
Tom Bollyky: “We Don’t Know How This Started”
September 14, 2021 20:37 - 40 minutesTom Bollyky joined us on the occasion of our 100th episode to reflect on President Biden’s six-point re-set of US pandemic policy, unveiled September 9, and to discuss what can be done to break the deadlock over determining the origin of SARS-CoV-2. President Biden’s patience has clearly run out, and the new approach, heavily reliant on mandates, will stir political blowback, litigation, and defiant disobedience which may slow progress versus accelerate momentum. It’s “not a happy day” when p...
Larry Gostin – “Mandates May Be The Only Way Out of This”
September 02, 2021 13:24 - 38 minutesProfessor Larry Gostin joined us for a spirited conversation of where America as a country stands today, almost two years into Covid-19. Human ingenuity and scientific gains have been “astounding,” while our preparedness, in the face of such a “wily enemy,” has too often been “abysmal.” We experienced shock when the first wave that began in Wuhan landed at our shores, CDC bungled tests, the Trump administration stoked anti-Asian hatred and politicized essential tools – masks, vaccines, and te...
Dr. Anthony Fauci: Tour d’Horizon Aug 3, 2021
August 23, 2021 17:07 - 53 minutesIn conversation with Steve Morrison on August 3, Dr. Fauci began by laying out the $3.2b Antiviral Program for Pandemics. Its dual aims are quick and long-term wins. The optimal antiviral: a single pill, oral, that early in infection stops replication. Any solution has to be grounded in equity of access, at home and abroad; requires a massive increase in testing; and will rest on combination therapy to combat variants. The initial $3.2b, it is hoped, achieves success that fuels higher future ...
Dr. Anthony Fauci: Tour d’Horizon Aug 2, 2021
August 23, 2021 17:07In conversation with Steve Morrison on August 2, Dr. Fauci began by laying out the $3.2b Antiviral Program for Pandemics. Its dual aims are quick and long-term wins. The optimal antiviral: a single pill, oral, that early in infection stops replication. Any solution has to be grounded in equity of access, at home and abroad; requires a massive increase in testing; and will rest on combination therapy to combat variants. The initial $3.2b, it is hoped, achieves success that fuels higher future ...
Chris Murray, IHME: “A Very Awkward Situation”
August 06, 2021 14:10 - 30 minutesChris Murray, director of IHME, joined our podcast once again, at this major moment of reset of expectations – of our ability to control the pandemic, of policy decisions, data gaps, political attitudes and behavior, hitting the wall of hesitancy and refusal to vaccinate, and public confusion. We cover the full gamut: the forecast for the fall surge, missteps on masking, the need for greater transparency in data, and how much room exists to overcome resistance to vaccines. Chris Murray is th...
Dr. Deborah Birx: “We Need to Be Testing Strategically”
July 29, 2021 16:57 - 35 minutesDr. Birx, former Response Coordinator during the Trump administration of the White House Covid-19 Task Force, served also as the Global AIDS Coordinator and Special Representative for Global Health Diplomacy between April 2014 and January 2021. She joined us for an extended conversation on the accelerating changes surrounding us – the Delta variant surge, new discoveries regarding breakthrough infections among the vaccinated, continued vaccine hesitancy, and refusal that has prompted the decl...
Gary Edson: “Nothing of Significance Happens Without US Leadership”
July 21, 2021 19:47 - 46 minutesGary Edson, President and founder of The Covid Collaborative, has for decades been a highly visible and impactful leader across government, business, and the non-profit worlds. While serving in senior White House positions in President George W. Bush’s administration, he played a key role in the design and launch of the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and in the management of G-7 and other summits. He joins us to explore why the international response to Covid-19 has been ...
Dr. Charity Dean Wrote “It Started” in December 2019
July 12, 2021 14:58 - 32 minutesWe’re blessed to sit down with Dr. Charity Dean, the central figure of Michael Lewis’ pandemic book, The Premonition, former Assistant Director of the California Department of Public Health in 2020, and co-founder of The Public Health Company. Her premonition on her birthday in December 2019 — a “giant blue tsunami wave” engulfing the US - prompted her to track what was happening in China “obsessively.” She became part of the executive team that devised Governor Newson’s operational pandemic ...
Yasmeen Abutaleb & Damian Paletta: "Nightmare Scenario"
July 08, 2021 19:43 - 43 minutesWashington Post ace reporters Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta take us inside their newly released blockbuster, "Nightmare Scenario: Inside the Trump Administration's Response to the Pandemic That Changed History." A gripping, provocative tour d’horizon. Give a listen.
Three Angles on January 6
July 01, 2021 20:10 - 45 minutesSteve Morrison, who lives in the shadow of the Capitol, brought together Liz Lynch, a freelance professional photographer who attended the January 6 rally at the ellipse and both sides of the Capitol during the insurrection, and Alex Lazar, an academic pathologist, the University of Texas/MD Anderson, who on January 6 was working inside the Capitol. Listen in to hear their three respective angles on what transpired: the most poignant, vivid, revealing moments and how to digest the gravity and...
Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) -- Health Security in America and Beyond
June 22, 2021 13:21 - 1 hourRep. Tom Cole (R-OK), the senior House appropriator and a respected national leader on health security at home and abroad, has served on the CSIS Commission on Strengthening America’s Health Security since 2018. In this wide-ranging conversation, he reflects on the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa massacre of the Black Greenwood community; the “successful but mixed bag” of the rollout of vaccines in America; the impressive management by the Native American community of the vaccine challenges; a...
Krishna Udayakumar – Deep Inequities “Baked Into” Early Vaccine Deals
June 17, 2021 20:48 - 46 minutesKrishna Udayakumar explains how he systematically assembled data to make sense of the fast-moving global marketplace in vaccines, amid the pandemic, building on prior trust with private and public entities, and positioning the Duke Global Health Innovation Center as the go-to source. Starting in late 2020, that meant painting the picture of worsening inequities that reflected the overwhelming power advantages of wealthy states and powerhouse vaccine developers, rhetorical commitments to solid...
Philip Zelikow: Why Do We Need a National Commission on the Pandemic?
June 11, 2021 12:55 - 44 minutesPhilip Zelikow, former executive director of the 9/11 Commission, has launched an ambitious fast-moving planning effort to scope what a commission on the pandemic in America would examine, how it would be organized, what value it would deliver, how it would navigate our treacherous political terrain, why it needs to move fast to nail down what happened. Listen in to learn more. Philip Zelikow is an American attorney, diplomat, academic, and author. He is a professor of history at the Unive...
The Next Phase of Covid-19
May 25, 2021 13:45 - 1 hourThis week the CSIS Schieffer Series hosted a high-energy exchange on “The Next Phase Of Covid-19.” Steve and Andrew were joined by Jeremy Konyndyk, executive director of USAID’s Covid-19 Task Force, who delivered a stirring keynote address outlining USAID’s vision for addressing the burgeoning pandemic crisis while simultaneously investing in long-term health security preparedness in acutely vulnerable low-income countries. A roundtable followed on the historic legacy of US presidential leade...
Dan Diamond “Heady Times”
May 12, 2021 13:19 - 36 minutesDan Diamond has covered health, politics, and the White House for the Washington Post since January 19. What is going on in the international side of the US response to the pandemic? It is “piecemeal,” unclear who is making decisions, lacks a strategy, the approach is “much vaguer” than the domestic response. The US has announced a number of important steps which are “staccato moments.” President Biden came into office with the country “on fire.” His team is still settling, and there is no si...
Dr. Monica Gandhi: Success Comes From “Vaccines, Vaccines, Vaccines”
May 10, 2021 14:44 - 27 minutesDr. Monica Gandhi has thought deeply about the complex transition we have entered, with many vaccinated, and many not. We need to behave differently in private versus public settings. Being polite and compassionate remain essential. Resistance to vaccines comes from different populations, each requiring a different approach: racial and ethnic minorities; youth; those who ask what will be the rewards for getting vaccinated; and the recalcitrant. There has to be far more “positive motivation,” ...
Dr. Brian Castrucci: “We Needed to Change the Conversation.”
April 26, 2021 18:25 - 28 minutesDr. Castrucci joined us to discuss his evolving collaborations with noted Republican pollster Frank Luntz, an expert who is a “master class in communications.” Through a series of surveys and focus groups, they have teamed up to understand how best to engage conservative Republican voters who refuse or are otherwise deeply resistant to getting vaccinated against Sars-CoV-2. “Covid has been politicized since day one” and the question now is how to “change the conversation.” “If this is a polit...
Mollyann Brodie, KFF: “Accept People Where They Are.”
April 21, 2021 13:21 - 38 minutesWe sat down this week with the acclaimed survey expert, Mollyann Brodie who been exceptionally busy in recent months, engaging over 11,000 American adults. She finds it remarkable “how fast and dynamic vaccine confidence has moved” across all population groups, reaching acceptance among two-thirds of Americans. The “moveable middle,” of persons waiting to decide, has been cut by half to 17%. Black and Hispanic populations have moved towards higher acceptance but still account for a large shar...
Dr. Deborah Birx: “Moms Out There, Call Your Sons!”
April 13, 2021 13:51 - 48 minutesDr. Deborah Birx, former Trump White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator and renowned global HIV/AIDS leader, spoke to us about a rich assortment of issues: the recent drama surrounding her statements about the Trump administration; her almost 7 months on the road across America, far from Washington, visiting with 44 governors; the corrosive divisions in our society; what might cure vaccine hesitancy; President Biden’s early achievements; DOD’s profound contributions; the secret power of m...
Frances Stead Sellers: Vaccines “Are Not Bulletproof Vests”
April 08, 2021 12:58 - 30 minutesJournalist, writer, editor Frances Stead Sellers returned to share new insights. Leaders like Henrietta Fore, UNICEF, struggle with “incredible added burdens” dealing with crises in childhood education and disrupted immunizations while “vaccinating the world” against Covid-19 with Gavi. “Imagine being Henrietta Fore. .. The strains on the organization are enormous.” Francis Collins, head of NIH, faces similar expansive responsibilities, and uses his own voice “as a person of faith” to address...
Coronavirus Crisis Update: Dr. Jennifer Kates & Josh Michaud “A Race Against Time.”
March 30, 2021 16:19 - 45 minutesDr. Jennifer Kates and Josh Michaud, Kaiser Family Foundation, take us on a tour d’horizon. Rapidly accelerating vaccine coverage has resulted in “a huge, huge change.” By the end of June, we will have twice the volume of vaccines needed to inoculate America’s 260 million adults. Improvements in testing and surveillance lag – “We can’t just focus on one intervention.” At the same time, state leaders relax controls, and variants increase transmissibility, concentrated among youth. “We are defi...
Coronavirus Crisis Update: Dr. LaQuandra Nesbitt “We Have Made Health Equity Everybody’s Business Here.”
March 25, 2021 13:09 - 43 minutesDr. LaQuandra Nesbitt, director of the Washington DC Department of Health, shares her insights into battling the pandemic. Washington is the opposite of self-contained. Protesters of many stripes transport their grievances to Washington, often stoking “strife and agitation” with little regard for the health of the community. Emergency preparations intensified beginning in 2015: “We were ready” in 2020 but had “still so much to learn” as the pandemic unfolded. Messaging in the fog of a pandemi...
Coronavirus Crisis Update: Helen Branswell “Are Vaccines Having a Moment?”
March 16, 2021 13:11 - 26 minutesHelen last joined us on April 2, 2020, a dark moment. She returned to explore with us whether the joy, relief, and gratitude that millions are experiencing through Covid vaccines generate gains in other disease areas, where adult vaccination “is a hard field.” “These vaccines have been extraordinary” with “very few side effects.” Among Republicans, especially in rural areas, “a good chunk of people are not intending to be vaccinated.” It was a lost opportunity when President Trump did not go ...
Coronavirus Crisis Update: Peter Hotez- The Unending Fight in Texas
March 11, 2021 14:26 - 41 minutesPeter Hotez joins us for a Texas-centered conversation. After 11 years in Washington DC, Peter migrated to Texas where over the past several years he has established himself as a leading research scientist, public voice on infectious disease, including SARS-CoV-2, vocal advocate of vaccines, and opponent of anti-science, anti-vaccine voices. How did this happen? How has this changed his life? In recent days, Governor Abbott made his sudden, unforeseen decision to lift the mask mandate and res...
Coronavirus Crisis Update: Ashish Jha “Equity is All About the Ground Game.”
March 02, 2021 14:33 - 47 minutesAshish Jha, a determined optimist, gives the Biden administration an A- for its first six weeks. The picture today is “dramatically better.” “A light switch went on after January 20,” when states could suddenly ask for – and receive – help. An “extraordinary bump-up” in vaccinations is underway: “We have more vaccines coming than we will know what to do with.” More needs to happen in building out testing, developing strategies for variants, and planning for when variants may escape vaccines. ...
Coronavirus Crisis Update: Sheryl Gay Stolberg “Spring is Just Around the Corner.”
March 01, 2021 14:43 - 37 minutesSheryl Gay Stolberg, the NYT’s health policy correspondent, returned to our podcast to reflect on the first month of the Biden administration. Its approach “could not be more different” than that of the Trump administration. The transition has “brought order,” the pieces are “ a lot more buttoned-down.” Caution is a watchword: the President does not want to overpromise, aware of the race against variants, and the unpredictability of the virus. Much of the change in tone stems from President B...
Coronavirus Crisis Update: Chris Murray, IHME “This Is a Very Tricky Time”
February 17, 2021 14:30 - 30 minutesChris Murray kindly returned to the podcast for another round. We know now that variants increase transmissibility “by quite a bit,” and have the potential to increase the fatality rate and escape vaccines, lowering efficacy rates. The Novavax trial, ominously, showed that one variant can reinfect individuals previously infected. It’s a new, uncertain world in which SAR-COV-2 is not overcome and eliminated, but rather becomes endemic, a “seasonal flu only ten times worse.” We know that accele...
Coronavirus Crisis Update: Bill Frist – “You Are Not Going to See the Snake Over In the Bush…”
February 10, 2021 14:25 - 46 minutes…if you are fed misinformation from the top of the US government. Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist joined us to reflect on his life and where our country is. “I have radically changed my life … for the better. Refocused my life on nature.” In his 12 years in the Senate, he was the only doctor who had taken care of a patient… the only scientist. It was tough selling his 2005 Manhattan Project plan for pandemic preparedness. Today with Covid-19: “We have failed as a country.” Trump fail...
Coronavirus Crisis Update: Scott Kirby, United Airlines “Perhaps This Is the End of the Beginning”
February 03, 2021 17:46 - 30 minutesWe were delighted to join this week with Scott Kirby, the CEO of United Airlines. The impact of the pandemic upon the airline industry has been “devastating,” the worst in its history. Luckily, bipartisan broad-based support for the industry – contained in the CARES Act and the December $900 B emergency measure – has preserved this critical infrastructure. Variants are a stark threat: “We’re giving the virus a large playing field upon which to mutate, for variants to become more deadly, more ...
Coronavirus Crisis Update: Dr. Alisha Kramer, the “New Normal” is “Not So Normal”
February 02, 2021 18:13 - 27 minutesDr. Alisha Kramer, a CSIS alum and young doctor serving poor, black, pregnant women in Atlanta hospitals, rejoins us for a second podcast. One year into the pandemic, a “new normal” has arisen that is still jarring, a “disconnect” in the changes in medical practice. Vaccine hesitancy is a “shocking” matter among nursing staff. Black persons “have every right to be distrustful” of the health system. If we give the “microphone back to the experts… based on the science,” if we rely on neighbor t...
Coronavirus Crisis Update: Céline Gounder “Fatalism is the Greatest Threat to Public Health.”
January 26, 2021 13:54 - 31 minutesDr. Céline Gounder, a member of the Biden-Harris Transition Covid-19 Advisory Board, takes a look at where we are, less than one week after President Biden assumed power. Deborah Birx and Tony Fauci have each come forward, unshackled, to discuss the moral and professional quandaries they faced, including threats and coercion, as Trump erected false narratives, intensifying in the fall electoral season and beyond, steering Americans into a human catastrophe. “Proximity to power is intoxicating...
Coronavirus Crisis Update: Chef Jose Andres “The Fuel That Moves Humanity is Food.”
January 14, 2021 15:26 - 38 minutesChef Jose Andres sat down with us to reflect on his life, the organizations he has founded, and his unique, powerful vision for using food to transform communities, battle inequities, advance unity and strengthen economies. When he landed in America as a young man, “I became an American way before I became an American by a passport.” Two years later, at age 23, he chose Washington to be his home: it is the “place where things can happen.” He created relief organization World Central Kitchen t...
Coronavirus Crisis Update: Luciana Borio – “It’s Gonna Be Hard.”
January 11, 2021 14:33 - 24 minutesDr. Luciana Borio, a member of President-elect Biden’s Covid-19 Advisory Group and the transition team, scanned the horizon. On the development of Covid-19 vaccines: “All in all, this has been a spectacular success.” Special tribute goes to the FDA career staff, the “heroes” who charted the path forward. Now most worrying: ensuring large scale manufacturing of the MRNA vaccines, and fixing logistics - “the gaping hole” created by a wholesale lack of planning. Vaccine hesitancy, equity, and th...
Coronavirus Crisis Update: Chris Murray, America’s Reopening
December 16, 2020 18:33 - 33 minutesChris Murray, the renowned modeler, joined us to share his year-end reflections. In this year unlike any other, Covid-19 pushed modeling onto new ground, as forecasting of individual and governmental behavior became essential to inform decisions in the near to medium term. It’s been “a steep learning curve.” Looking ahead to 2021, in Q1 and 2 we will see a profound pivot, as vaccinations are scaled, winter ends, government policies evolve, and immunity within the population rises. We should a...
Coronavirus Crisis Update: Artist Suzanne Firstenberg – a Sea of 267,080 White Flags
December 10, 2020 20:23 - 26 minutesSteve and Andrew had the good fortune to catch Suzanne Firstenberg shortly after the recent conclusion of her stunning public art installation, ‘In America…. How could this happen?,’ a dramatic tribute to those lost to Covid-19. This “awakening,” comprised of 267, 080 white flags, stood on the parade grounds of the Washington DC National Guard Armory between October 23 and November 30. What motivated her to act so boldly, and how was it possible to succeed so rapidly, moving in just a few wee...
Coronavirus Crisis Update: Dr. Carissa Etienne – the Americas at the Epicenter of Covid-19
December 09, 2020 15:19 - 47 minutesDr. Carissa Etienne, Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), joined Steve Morrison and CSIS Senior Fellow Katherine Bliss for an extended conversation. Why have the Americas become the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic? What does it signal in terms of deep inequities, weak health systems, and quality of leadership? The region faces cascading crises – debt, extreme poverty, malnutrition, interrupted health services. How are these threats to be blunted? And what role can st...
Coronavirus Crisis Update: Dr. Leana Wen – We are at a Breaking Point
November 30, 2020 20:59 - 27 minutesA renowned medical and public health voice of compassion, personal advice, pragmatism and vision, Dr. Leana Wen joined us for a tour d’horizon of the pandemic, at this moment of “explosive exponential growth.” Why is it so crucial today to have credible, trusted public health voices? Why have so many Americans disregarded the recent Thanksgiving warnings, and why do so many Americans continue to minimize the threat of Covid-19? The Phase 3 vaccine results are “great news” and we now have to a...
Coronavirus Crisis Update: Sir Andrew Witty- The Power of the ACT Accelerator
November 23, 2020 22:32 - 37 minutesSteve and CSIS Senior Fellow Katherine Bliss enjoined Sir Andrew Witty to help us answer a few fundamental question: what exactly is this new, umbrella coalition, the ACT Accelerator; what is its value, six months after its creation; and what are its true prospects of success in battling hyper-nationalism and enhancing access by low and middle income countries to Covid-19 vaccines, therapies and diagnostics? Along the way, we delved into the significance of the November 21-22 G-20 summit, dis...
Coronavirus Crisis Update: Mike Osterholm – America’s Health Systems on Edge of Breakdown
November 20, 2020 14:24 - 31 minutesWe sat down with Mike Osterholm, a member of President-Elect Biden’s Covid-19 Advisory Task Force, a renowned leader in global health security, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP). What does he make of this “most dangerous period since the Spanish Flu in 1918,” fueled by “pandemic fatigue, fatigue anger and indoor air?" Health systems are on the edge of breakdown, as shortages of ICU staff and beds worsen, providers “hit the wal...
Coronavirus Crisis Update: US Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea- “The Writing Was on the Wall.”
November 17, 2020 14:25 - 27 minutesIn this episode, we are joined by Dorothy Shea, the U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon, along with Jon Alterman, SVP/Director of the CSIS Middle East Program. The Covid-19 outbreak, kicked into high gear following the August 4 Beirut port explosion, is out of control and has triggered a new national lockdown. It is embedded in a web of economic, political and humanitarian crises, which have brought Lebanon to the edge of state failure. Why does Lebanon matter to U.S. national interests? And what impa...
Coronavirus Crisis Update: Dr. Jonathan (Jono) Quick – Transcending Pandemic Denial, Fatigue and Anger
November 09, 2020 16:41 - 39 minutesIn this episode, Jono Quick opens with a sweeping overview of the history of faulty responses to pandemics -- why we “descend into the valley of complacency” so often? What are the essential steps to take now, modeled perhaps after the 9/11 Commission, to remember this profound moment? How do we transcend our divisions, borne of pandemic denial, pandemic fatigue and pandemic anger? He also illuminates the $100m Rockefeller Foundation swift and highly ambitious initiative to press for a nation...
Coronavirus Crisis Update: Helene Gayle – How to Allocate a Covid-19 Vaccine Equitably?
November 03, 2020 14:32 - 28 minutesHelene Gayle sat down with us to reflect on the expert committee that she and Dr. Bill Foege led recently to map out – in record time – a framework and strategy for the phased introduction of a Covid-19 vaccine in America. For this urgent, complex priority, what are the principles that should guide decisions on who comes first, and who comes later? How best to address gross disparities in the vulnerabilities to Covid-19 of Black, Latinx and Native American populations? What are the essential ...
Delivering Vaccines to Americans: Cause for Alarm?
October 28, 2020 13:41 - 42 minutesJennifer Kates and Josh Michaud, Kaiser Family Foundation, joined us to discuss their new analysis, ‘Distributing a Covid-19 Vaccine Across the United States – A Look at Key Issues.’ Getting vaccines to Americans is an unprecedented, gargantuan, complex enterprise. Just how ready are we? Financing thus far is a meager $200 million, while an estimated $6-10 billion will be required. Local public health infrastructure is rickety, insurance gaps are many, and building trust and engagement, espec...
Coronavirus Crisis Update: America- Two Different Countries Responding to a Single Pandemic
October 19, 2020 18:18 - 40 minutesMollyann Brodie, America’s premier health survey researcher, explores the widening bifurcation of America along partisan and ideological grounds, with “wildly different conceptions, wildly different sources of information, sealed off from alternatives.” This advancing politicization, aggravated by the current electoral cycle, is now dominating the response to Covid-19. She also walks us through the “perfect storm” experienced by the Black community in America, its compromised health and finan...