EP #406 - 2.2.2022 - The Pandemic-Endemic Debate and COVID

Today I welcome Monica Green, Eleanor Murray, Cecilia Tomori to discuss pandemic and endemic disease—and where COVID is headed in that discussion. And Jacob Steere-Williams is joins me as guest host today! 

Monica H. Green is a historian of medicine, currently serving as Suppes Visiting Professor of the History of Science at Stanford University. She specializes in the premodern period and global infectious diseases. She is writing a book on the Black Death that draws on evidence from genetics, archaeology, and historical sources to document the early origin and broad geographic extent of the 2nd Plague Pandemic.

Cecília Tomori is Associate Professor and Director of Global Public Health and Community Health at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. She is an anthropologist and public health scholar who studies breastfeeding and reproduction, health inequities, and how corporate interests shape health and policy.

Eleanor Murray is an assistant professor at Boston University School of Public Health who focuses on improving methods for evidence-based decision-making and human-data interaction. Her work primarily focuses on applications to public health and clinical epidemiology, including applications to HIV, HPV, cancer, cardiovascular disease, psychiatric disorders, musculoskeletal disorders, social and environmental epidemiology, and maternal and adolescent health. Dr. Murray also conducts meta-research evaluating bias in existing research. During the COVID pandemic, Dr. Murray has been working on improving science communication about epidemiology and public health concepts, and identifying and addressing barriers to equitable vaccination distribution and acceptance.