In-patient treatment for severe COVID has come a long way since 2020 thanks, in part, to the rare opportunity of real-time data collection from so many people sick with the same disease at the same time. Dr. Brian Garibaldi, director of the Johns Hopkins Biocontainment Unit, returns to the podcast to talk with Stephanie Desmon about treating severely ill COVID patients, advances in therapeutics like antivirals and anti-inflammatory treatments, and why vaccines remain “the most astounding achievements.”

The Biden administration recently approved nearly $10 billion to broaden access to PrEP, a medication that is 99% effective at preventing HIV and key to ending the nation’s HIV epidemic. Amy Killelea, a policy expert on HIV and public health financing, talks with Stephanie Desmon about why health policies have meant this game-changing drug hasn’t yet delivered on its potential, how experts hope Biden’s budget will build a better nationwide PrEP distribution system, and how much is at stake at this particular turning point in the epidemic.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Black physicians and social scientists connected racism to a host of health consequences. Dr. Ayah Nuriddin, a Princeton scholar of race and science in this era, talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about this emergence of Black public health and its efforts to push back against prevailing messages. Long underappreciated, these insights are now front and center in discussions of health equity.

For 15 years, science journalist Meghan O’Rourke chased a diagnosis for a constellation of symptoms that left her bedridden at times. O’Rourke talks with Stephanie Desmon about capturing the “messy, repetitive, and chaotic” story arc of chronic illness in her New York Times bestselling book, and how long COVID is drawing new attention to the conversation about and treatment of chronic illness.

Russia has claimed that the US and Ukraine were working on bioweapons in labs across Ukraine, dangerous disinformation being used in part to justify the Russian invasion. Biosecurity expert Gigi Gronvall returns to the podcast to talk with Lindsay Smith Rogers about the dangers of this disinformation, the attempted cover-up of a 1979 bioweapons anthrax accident in Russia, why biosecure labs are so critical to public health, and the potential impacts of this disinformation campaign.

Emergency departments not only treat gunshot wounds, they can help prevent them. Trauma surgeon Dr. Chethan Sathya talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about treating gun violence as a public health issue in emergency departments, how to help people at risk of being shot, and the push to make conversations about gun safety standard practice.

Ending the US’s COVID-19 state of emergency has far-reaching effects and may leave Americans vulnerable to the next pandemic. Reducing spending on COVID-19 now could mean fewer tests, reduced access to vaccines and a weakened understanding of how COVID-19 is behaving. Health policy expert Dr. Zeke Emmanuel of the University of Pennsylvania joins the podcast to talk with Stephanie Desmon about why ending the response too soon is so shortsighted and may have impacts on securing much-needed reforms to health care and insurance, protecting people from future variants, studying the effects of long COVID, and preparing for the next pandemic.

A persistent pandemic challenge has been making decisions when the evidence is limited. Should masks be required? Should bars and restaurants be closed? Should kids in school be spaced out by six feet -- or just three? Dr. Sherry Glied, dean of NYU’s Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service, is studying ways to make these decisions better. She joins the podcast to talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the three dimensions of decision making amid uncertainty—and how we can do better.

Even as COVID-19 remains a critical public health issue, there are all sorts of emergencies that can occur due to diseases, disasters, and bioterrorism. Dr. Nadine Gracia, CEO of Trust for America’s Health, joins Dr. Josh Sharfstein on the podcast to talk about the organization’s report, Ready Or Not 2022. The report ranks states on their ability to respond to extreme weather and other crises. Learn more at tfah.org.

Will we see strain-specific vaccines in the future? Where are we on fourth doses/second boosters? What do we know about the effectiveness of international vaccines like Sinopharm and Sputnik? What still needs to be done to vaccinate the world? Dr. Anna Durbin and Dr. Bill Moss return to the podcast to talk with Stephanie Desmon about these and more vaccine updates.