COVIDCalls

EP #285 - 05.31.2021 - The Life of a Pulmonary Doctor in the Pandemic

Today I welcome Indiana University medical school professor Gabriel Bosslet for a discussion of a pulmonary specialist’s life in the pandemic.

Gabriel Bosslet is associate professor of clinical medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine and is the Program Director for the Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship.  Since the pandemic began, he has cared for COVID patients in the ICU and helped to deploy and educate critical care trainees through the two COVID surges in the state of Indiana.  He also runs a COVID Facebook information page for the state of Indiana known as the Hoosier COVID Update that has become a community of over 40,000 followers.

EP #284 - 05.27.2021 - COVID Data in Authoritarian Regimes

Today I welcome Ruth Carlitz for a discussion of COVID in authoritarian regimes.

Ruth Carlitz, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Tulane University, where she teaches courses on international development and African Politics. Her research focuses primarily on the politics of public goods provision in low-income countries, from the perspectives of both governments and citizens. Her work has been published in World Development, Perspectives on Politics, Public Administration, and other outlets. In addition to her academic research, she has worked on evaluations commissioned by USAID, the International Budget Partnership, DFID, and the World Bank.

EP #283 - 05.26.2021 - Family Relationships in the Pandemic w/ Bob Huber

Today I welcome journalist Bob Huber to talk about family life in the pandemic.

Bob Huber is a longtime magazine editor and writer; his home base for the past 3 decades has been Philadelphia magazine, where he was features editor for a decade. Huber has written features for Esquire, GQ, Details and other national magazines, and has won many awards for his journalism; his work has been anthologized in Best American Legal Writing and Best American Sports Writing numerous times. Over the past two decades, his 80-plus features for Philadelphia magazine have provided a comprehensive window into the city’s movers and shakers; in 2006, he broke the Bill Cosby sexual-assault scandal.  

Currently Huber is writing a book with his 32-year-old son, Sam, who has Asperger’s, about life on the spectrum from the point of view of both father and son.

EP #282 - 05.25.2021 -Vaccination Expert Roundtable

Today I welcome Maya Goldenberg, Tara Haelle, Ross Silverman, and Dorit Reiss for a roundtable discussion on COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination.

Dorit Rubinstein Reiss is a professor of law at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. Increasingly, her research and activities are focused on legal issues related to vaccines, including exemption laws and tort liability related to non-vaccination. She has published law review and peer reviewed articles and many blog posts on legal issues related to vaccines. 

Ross D. Silverman, JD, MPH, is Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health and Professor of Public Health and Law at the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law in Indianapolis. He serves as a member of the Covid-19 Vaccine Allocation advisory committee for the Indiana State Health Department, and is an Associate Editor for the journal Public Health Reports, the official journal of the U.S. Surgeon General and the U.S. Public Health Service.

Maya Goldenberg is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Guelph (pronounced Gwelf) in Canada. She works in philosophy of medicine and has a new book on vaccine hesitancy coming out in March 2021. _Vaccine Hesitancy: Public Trust, Expertise, and the War on Science’_ is published by University of Pittsburgh Press.

Tara Haelle is a freelance science journalist and photojournalist who serves as the AHCJ Core Topic Leader for Medical Studies. She particularly specializes in reporting on vaccines, pediatrics, maternal health, obesity, nutrition, mental health and medical research in general, and she regularly speaks on vaccine hesitancy. Her work has appeared in Elemental, Scientific American, New York Times, Forbes, Politico, Slate, NOVA, Wired and Science, and she writes and covers medical conferences regularly for Medscape and MDEdge.

EP #281 - 05.24.2021 - New Research: Children Losing Parents in the Pandemic

Today is a discussion of THE COVID CRISIS IN ELDER CARE with Lori Smetanka and Jasmine Travers.

Lori Smetanka is the Executive Director of the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care, the leading national nonprofit advocacy organization representing consumers receiving long-term care and services in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and home and community based settings. Lori has testified before Congress and served on federal task forces, technical expert panels, and working groups on long-term care issues.

From 2004 – 2016 she served as the Director of the National Long-Term Care Ombudsman Resource Center, providing technical assistance, training, and support to the 53 State and more than 570 local long-term care ombudsman programs across the country. She received a B.A. from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and a J.D. from the University of Dayton School of Law.

Dr. Jasmine Travers is an Assistant Professor at New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing. Her career is dedicated to designing and conducting research to improve health outcomes and reduce health disparities in vulnerable older adult groups using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. As a health services researcher, she has leveraged many datasets to investigate these issues and has published widely on the topics of aging, long-term care, health disparities, workforce issues, and infections. Prior to joining the faculty at NYU, Dr. Travers completed a postdoctoral fellowship with the National Clinician Scholars Program at Yale University and a T32 funded postdoctoral fellowship at the New Courtland Center for Transitions and Health at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. She completed her doctoral training in health services research with a specialization in gerontology at Columbia University School of Nursing.

EP #280 - 05.19.2021 - The Coronavirus Lost & Found Archive

Today I welcome Rebecca Adelman, creator of the Coronavirus Lost and Found Archive.

Rebecca A. Adelman is professor and chair of Media and Communication Studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.  She is the author of Beyond the Checkpoint: Visual Practices in America's Global War on Terror (2014) and Figuring Violence: Affective Investments in Perpetual War (2019), as well as co-editor of Remote Warfare: New Cultures of Violence (2020).  In April 2020, she launched Coronavirus Lost and Found (pandemicarchive.com), a public archive where anyone can log anything they've lost or found as a result of the pandemic.  

EP #279 - 05.18.2021 - Long Haul COVID

Today is a discussion of Long COVID.  I welcome Ondine Sherwood a health advocate with the organization Long COVID SOS and Vicky van der Togt of the Zero COVID Alliance.

Ondine Sherwood is an IT professional with an interest in health.  She caught what she assumes was Covid-19 at the end of March 2020 (never tested at the time) and although the symptoms were relatively mild she developed Long Covid.  She thought on many occasions that I had recovered but the symptoms kept returning, especially after exertion, work or stress.  She is a co-founder of LONG COVID SOS.

Vicky van der Togt is the founder of the Zero Covid Alliance, co-founder of the Dutch human rights organisation Containment Nu Netherlands and member of Long Covid Nederland (PASC). She has been advocating for recognition, research and treatment for Long Covid in the Netherlands since July last year, and has run multiple (international) campaigns focused on this and many other topics regarding the coronavirus pandemic.

EP #278 - 05.18.2021 - New COVID Testing Insights

Today I welcome public health researcher Steph Tan, and epidemiologist Anne Wyllie to COVIDCalls to discuss COVID-19 saliva tests.

Orchid Allicock is a postdoctoral research associate at Yale School of Public Health with Drs. Nathan Grubaugh and Daniel Weinberger. Previously she received postdoctoral training at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, where she gained an interest in translational science and diagnostic development. Currently she works on development and optimization of saliva-based diagnostics with SalivaDirect.

Steph Tan is a Research Assistant and an incoming Master of Public Health student at the Yale School of Public Health, concentrating in Social and Behavioral Sciences. She is also a Cornell University alum. Last year, Steph pushed for COVID-19 saliva testing in her home country of New Zealand where she is currently based. Alongside head researcher Dr. Anne Wyllie, she is now facilitating the implementation of it by collaborating with New Zealand government leaders. 

Dr. Anne Wyllie is an associate research scientist in epidemiology at Yale University.  She is credited with pushing forward on the use of saliva as a superior sample for creating high-quality low-cost SARS-CoV-2 testing. Her paper on the subject attracted support by the NBA that led to the development of technology that has enabled others to make possible frequent testing keeping kids in school and enabling professional sports to continue competition safely. The use of saliva as an alternative sample type can alleviate many of the bottlenecks encountered in the mass testing strategies required to control continuing outbreaks.

EP #277 - 05.17.2021 - Vaccination Culture

Today I welcome journalists Michele Weldon and Marion Renault to discuss vaccination culture in the United States.

Marion Renault is a health and science journalist born in France, bred in the Midwest, and now based in Brooklyn. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The New Republic, Popular Science and more.

Michele Weldon is emerita faculty in journalism at Northwestern University, a senior leader with The OpEd Project, author of six nonfiction books and journalist for more than 40 years whose work has appeared in Washington Post, New York Times USA Today, CNN, Time, Slate, the Guardian and many more.

EP #276 - 05.12.2021 - Soulful Computing in the Pandemic w/David Nuñez

Today I welcome David Nunez, director of technology at the MIT Museum.

David Nuñez is the Director of Technology and Digital Strategy at the MIT Museum. He leads the Museum's digital transformation as it prepares to reboot in a new location in the Spring of 2022. David sits on the Board of Directors of the Museum Computer Network, an organization that seeks to digitally empower museums and museum professionals. Before the MIT Museum, David was the Managing Partner for Midnight Commercial, a design, strategy, and innovation consultancy that invented new products, experiences, and artwork for global brands. His current research seeks to illuminate the humanity existing in computation as he builds projects to explore source code marginalia, speculative human-computer interfaces, and augmented personal productivity systems.