Activation Energy

Guest bio: Dr. Katrina Korfmacher is a Professor of Environmental Medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center and Director of the Community Engagement Core at the Environmental Health Sciences Center.

[00:51] - What is wastewater-based epidemiology?

[02:26] - Wastewater surveillance for COVID-19 and overcoming disparities in testing

[04:09] - Monroe County Wastewater Coronavirus Surveillance Group - interdisciplinary collaboration

[08:40] - Wastewater monitoring on college campuses

[10:47] - Scaling operations up

[12:16] - Separations between environmental and public health

This episode was recorded in late September 2021.

We talk with Dr. Molly McNulty about how being an attorney informs her teaching, Medicaid reforms for children in New York state, and tools for effective public health advocacy.

Guest bio: Dr. Molly McNulty is an attorney and an assistant professor of public health law and policy at the University of Rochester. Her interests lie primarily in maternal/child health and adolescent health policy, and she worked in local governments, in nonprofit advocacy groups, and in the corporate sector before returning to academia.

In part 2 of our Conversations About COVID series, we talk with Dr. Michael Mendoza about the impact of individuals’ actions on public health, striving for herd immunity, and the Delta variant as evidence of this pandemic’s tenacity.

Guest bio: Dr. Mendoza is the Commissioner of Public Health for Monroe County and a professor of Family Medicine, Public Health Sciences, and Nursing at the University of Rochester School of Medicine. He previously served as Medical Director at Highland Family Medicine for seven years, and he helped establish the Finger Lakes COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force in the wake of the pandemic.

[00:45] - Vaccine Task Force goals and current directions

[03:11] - Vaccine hesitancy, community ambassadors, meeting people where they’re at

[09:20] - Reconciling differences, centralization in public health, preventable hospitalizations

[13:14] - Herd immunity and looking forward

Additional information and resources:

Vaccinated vs. immunized: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/imz-basics.htm (https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/imz-basics.htm)

More on the Delta variant: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/variants/delta-variant.html (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/variants/delta-variant.html)

How COVID-19 mRNA vaccines work: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/mrna.html (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/mrna.html)

Infographic in https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/vaccines/COVID-19-mRNA-infographic_G_508.pdf (English) and https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/vaccines/COVID-19-mRNA-infographic_G_SPANISH_508.pdf (Spanish)

Find a COVID-19 vaccination site near you: https://www.vaccines.gov/search/ (https://www.vaccines.gov/search/)

Dr. Bennett is a Professor of Medicine and Public Health Sciences at the University of Rochester School of Medicine. She founded the Center for Community Health and Prevention and previously served as Deputy Director of the Monroe County Department of Public Health for over a decade. She currently co-chairs the Finger Lakes COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force.

On this episode, we talk with Rebecca Block, a Health Educator at the U of R Health Promotion Office, about mindfulness, exciting initiatives planned for this fall, and navigating this sort-of-post-pandemic limbo.

Hello! Welcome to Activation Energy, a podcast focused on the intersections between health, medicine, and social justice. We will be talking with students, researchers, health professionals, and other human beings with interesting things to say. We hope to highlight diverse perspectives around us and to provide a platform for open conversations.

Activation Energy is available for free anywhere you can find podcasts, with new episodes released every week. Head over to http://activation-energy.captivate.fm/listen (activation-energy.captivate.fm/listen) for more.

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