COVIDCalls

EP #204 - 01.18.2021 - Vaccines Past and Present

Today we continue the discussion of COVID 19 care, vaccines, and vaccination with Alisha Rankin and Carla Keirns.

Dr. Carla Keirns is assistant professor of Medical Ethics and Internal Medicine at the University of Kansas in Kansas City, Kansas. She has published in the history, sociology and ethics of medicine, and has been treating patients the past year through the COVID-19 pandemic, both those with COVID and whose care looks very different because of it. Her father-in-law died of COVID-19 in April, so this issue is personal for her. 

Alisha Rankin is Associate Professor of History at Tufts University. She has published widely on the early history of pharmaceuticals and medical experiments, and she co-led the working group “Testing Drugs and Trying Cures in the Pre-Modern World," at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. She has a Ph.D. in the History of Science from Harvard University, and she was a postdoctoral fellow at Trinity College, University of Cambridge. Her latest book, The Poison Trials: Wonder Drugs, Experiment, and the Battle for Authority in Renaissance Science, just came out with the University of Chicago Press. 

EP #203 - 01.15.2021 - Congressional Calls: Jake Auchincloss (MA-4th District)

Today we continue the Congressional COVIDCalls with my guest, US Representative from THE MA-4, Jake Auchincloss.

Jake Auchincloss represents the 4^th district of MA in the US House of Representatives.  He was born and raised in Newton, Massachusetts, the son of a surgeon and scientist. From the moment he could read, Jake loved American history.

After graduating from Harvard College, Rep. Auchincloss joined the Marines. He commanded infantry in Afghanistan and special operations in Panama. He's now a major in the reserves.

He won election to the Newton City Council in 2015 and topped the ticket in 2019. His favorite part of being a city councilor was constituent services and communication.  He chaired the transportation & public safety committee and was a member of the land use committee. While serving as a city councilor on nights and weekends, he managed teams at both a Fortune 100 and a startup. He led product development in cybersecurity and insurance. He has degrees in economics and finance from Harvard College and MIT Sloan.

Rep. Auchincloss lives in Newtonville with his wife, Michelle; their son, Teddy; and their Labrador Retriever, Donut.

EP #202 - 01.14.2021 -Congressional Calls: Senator Bob Casey (D-PA)

Today we continue the Congressional COVIDCalls with my guest, Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey.

U.S. Senator Bob Casey fights every day for Pennsylvania families. He is a strong advocate for policies that improve the health care and early learning of children and policies that will raise wages for the middle class. Senator Casey serves on four committees including the Senate Finance Committee and Senate HELP Committee. He is also the highest ranking Democrat on the Special Committee on Aging, where his agenda is focused on policies that support seniors and individuals with disabilities. Senator Casey and his wife Terese live in Scranton and have four adult daughters.

EP #201 - 01.13.2021 - COVID-19 & Vaccination Issues

Today we continue the discussion of COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination with Tara Haelle and Maya Goldenberg.

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. She co-authored an evidence-based parenting book, "The Informed Parent," and authored "Vaccination Investigation: The History and Science of Vaccines," along with a dozen children's science books.

EP #200 - 01.12.2021 - Congressional Call: Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA 6th District)

Today we start the CONGRESSIONAL COVIDCalls discussions with my guest United States House Representative Chrissy Houlahan.

Chrissy Houlahan is an Air Force veteran, an engineer, a serial entrepreneur, an educator, and a nonprofit leader. She’s in her second term representing Pennsylvania’s 6th Congressional District, which encompasses Chester County and southern Berks County. She serves on the House Armed Services Committee, the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and the House Small Business Committee.

EP #199 - 01.11.2021 - Political Crisis in a Pandemic w/ Julian Zelizer

Today we have a discussion of political crisis in the pandemic with historian Julian Zelizer.

Julian Zelizer is the Malcolm Stevenson Forbes, Class of 1941 Professor of History and Public Affairs, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University.  He is the author and editor of 19 books on American political history, including Governing America: The Revival of Political History and The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society. Most recently, he co-authored with Kevin Kruse, Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974.  He has published over nine hundred op-eds, including his weekly column on CNN.Com.  

EP #198 - 01.08.2021 - The Law, Policy and Ethics of the COVID-19 vaccine

Today we have a discussion of the law, policy, and ethics of the COVID-19 vaccine in the United States with Dorit Reiss and Ross Silverman.

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 published law review and peer reviewed articles and many blog posts on legal issues related to vaccines. 

She received an undergraduate degree in Law and Political Science (1999, Magna cum Laude) from the Faculty of Law in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She received her Ph.D. from the Jurisprudence and Social Policy program in UC Berkeley. 

She is a member of the Parents Advisory Board of Voices for Vaccines and the the Vaccine Working Group on Ethics and Policy, and active in vaccine advocacy in other ways.

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 is a member of the IU Centers on Health Policy and Bioethics. His recent vaccine- and pandemic-related work has appeared in such peer-reviewed publications as the New England Journal of Medicine, BMJ, JAMA, JAMA-Pediatrics, the Hastings Center Report, and the Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics. 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.

EP #197 - 01.08.2021 - The COVID-19 Vaccine with Peter Hotez

Today we have a discussion of COVID-19 vaccines, and vaccination with Dr. Peter Hotez.

Peter Hotez MD Ph.D. is professor of pediatrics and molecular virology at Baylor College of Medicine, where he is also co-director of the Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development and Endowed Chair in Tropical Pediatrics. He is a vaccine scientist who led the development of vaccines to prevent and treat neglected tropical diseases and coronavirus infections. A new Texas Children’s COVID19 vaccine is being accelerated in India now undergoing clinical testing.

Prof. Hotez obtained his undergraduate degree from Yale University and his MD and Ph.D. from Weil Cornell Medical College and Rockefeller University. He is the author of more than 550 scientific articles indexed on PubMed, and 4 single-author books. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and has been honored by PAHO/WHO, Research America, B’nai Brith, American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene, and other organizations. He appears frequently on major news outlets promoting global health, and vaccines and immunizations, countering antivaccine and Antiscience movements.

EP #196 - 1.05.2021 - The COVID-19 Vaccine

Today we have a discussion of the challenges in delivering the COVID-19 in the United States with Jaime Anne Earnest Senior Researcher for Assessment, Monitoring, and Evaluation at the US Department of Defense's Center for Global Health Engagement.

Dr. Jaime Anne Earnest is the Senior Researcher for Assessment, Monitoring, and Evaluation at the US Department of Defense's Center for Global Health Engagement, and is an Assistant Professor in Preventative Medicine and Biostatistics at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. She has served as a Branch Chief in the Office of the Director of the National Institutes of Mental Health, a program evaluation translational scientist and strategist at Headquarters, Department of the Army at the Pentagon, an evaluation methodologist at Army Public Health Center, and a senior health administration fellow at the National Vaccine Program Office, Office of the Secretary of Health of the Department of Health and Human Services. There, she supported multiple National Vaccine Advisory Committees and coordinated the National Vaccine Advisory Committee's Vaccine Confidence Working Group. She received her PhD in Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Public Health Policy from the University of Glasgow as a Lord Kelvin/Adam Smith Scholar, and her Master of Public Health in Health Management and Policy from Drexel University. She is a Medical Reserve Corps field epidemiologist volunteer who conducts contact tracing, testing, and vaccination clinics in her spare time.

EP #195 - 1.04.2021 - Father and Son Discuss the Pandemic

Happy new year and welcome to the first COVIDCalls of 2021!

Today I have on my father Steve Knowles, a fourth generation Texan, who was born and raised in Odessa, Texas, which is the hub of the oil industry in the Permian Basin of West Texas and Eastern New Mexico. Steve received his BBA degree in marketing from the University of Texas at Austin and his MBA from the University of Texas at Permian Basin. He earned his Professional in Human Resources Management certification and was an active member of the Society for Human Resource Management and the American Society for Training and Development. His career was essentially as a Human Resources professional that included stints with retail, manufacturing, health care, oil field services and banking over 40 plus years. Steve is a past president of the Austin Human Resource Management Association and a past vice chair of the Austin Human Rights Commission.

He retired from the Farm Credit Bank of Texas as the Vice President of Human Resource Management for this multi-billion dollar cooperative banking operation based in Austin, Texas with offices in Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi.

Prior to retirement, Steve and his wife, Harriet, relocated to the Sun City community inside the city limits of Georgetown, Texas. He has five children, five grandchildren (and another one on the way). He plays golf, reads, walks, and focuses on staying linked with family and friends throughout the pandemic. He is an avid Texas Longhorns’ fan.