As a 2004 Olympic silver medalist in swimming and public health expert at the Center for Health Security, Dr. Tara Kirk Sell is uniquely positioned to talk about what to expect at next month's Olympics. Dr. Sell talks with Stephanie Desmon about how the Olympic committees are working to keep athletes safe, what could go wrong, and why we need the Olympics now more than ever.

With millions of Americans still unvaccinated and dangerous variants continuing to spread, the footrace against the virus continues into the summer months. Want to help? The Made to Save Coalition is a national grassroots effort to ensure communities hardest hit by COVID-19 have access to vaccines and accurate, timely information. Chris Wyant, executive director, and Alice Chen, senior advisor, talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about what's behind this effort—and how you can join. Learn more here: madetosave.org/act

The Bloomberg American Health Initiative offers full scholarship for MPH and DrPH degrees to people working on the front lines of key challenges to health in the United States. This special episode of the Initiative's American Health Podcast features an interview with host Shane Bryan and scholarship recipient and "Bloomberg fellow" Julianah Marie, the Waste Reduction Programs Coordinator with the City of Frisco, Texas. They discuss Marie's work with the Frisco school district, the history of America's growing pollution issues, and ways to reduce the amount of waste coming from our households. To learn more about the Bloomberg American Health Initiative and the Bloomberg Fellows Program, visit https://americanhealth.jhu.edu/.

Maryland's new Health Equity Resource Act will provide more than $50 million to support community-led plans that advance health equity. What might these plans include? Where did this idea come from? Dr. Josh Sharfstein interviews Michelle Spencer, a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who previously led the development of a similar program to establish "Health Enterprise Zones" across the state. They discuss the concept of place-based programs, share examples of community investments in health, and talk through what to look for as this new law is implemented.

The Baltimore Convention Field Hospital was established in the spring of 2020 by the state of Maryland, Johns Hopkins, and the University of Maryland to fight COVID. A few weeks ago, Dr. Josh Sharfstein was invited inside the 100,000 square foot field hospital's command center to meet with Director Dr. Jim Ficke and Deputy Director Dr. Chuck Callahan. He also speaks with Dr. Mindy Kantsiper, Dr. Sophia Purekal, Dr. Zishan Siddiqui, John Fickel, and Laura Wortman. They talk about what the last year has been like, how lessons from the military-inspired design and logistics, and how this field hospital now responds to COVID on four fronts: testing, patient care, monoclonal antibody treatment center, and vaccinations.

After being fully vaccinated, only 50% of people who are immunocompromised show an antibody response against COVID-19, compared with 100% of those with a typical immune system. Hopkins transplant surgeon Dr. Dorry Segev talks with Stephanie Desmon about how the immune response is blunted in individuals taking medications for organ transplants or who have overactive immune systems, what antibody tests can and can't tell us, and whether a third dose of vaccines could help the millions of Americans who remain unprotected from COVID despite being fully vaccinated.

While gun violence has increased in most cities, Richmond, California, has seen a marked decrease in the last decade thanks to an organization that works with the people most likely to be the victims of gun violence: the shooters themselves. Guest host Dr. Daniel Webster, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Prevention and Policy, talks with DeVone Boggan, founder, and CEO of Advance Peace. They discuss how the organization's fellowship system engages young people involved in lethal firearm offenses, approaches to violence that center wellbeing, and how investment in programs like these translates not only to saving millions of public dollars, but truly disrupting cycles of violence. Learn more here: https://www.advancepeace.org/

The Bloomberg American Health Initiative offers full scholarships for MPH and DrPH degrees to people working on the front lines of key challenges to health in the United States. This special episode of the Initiative's American Health Podcast features an interview with host Shane Bryan and "Bloomberg fellow" Ashley Hickson, a senior policy associate at the Center for Science in Public Interest, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group that advocates for safer and healthier foods. They discuss Hickson's work examining the difference in food retail quality between high and low-income communities in the South. To learn more about the Bloomberg American Health Initiative and the Bloomberg Fellows Program, visit https://americanhealth.jhu.edu/.

In this episode, Dr. Josh Sharfstein talks with Hopkins researchers who break down three papers looking at the effectiveness of different COVID-19 vaccines against variants of concern. Carli Jones, a graduate student at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, talks about some good news from a study looking at the effectiveness of Pfizer's vaccine against the variants found in the UK and South Africa. Greg Rosen, a PhD candidate, discusses a preprint study that assesses the effectiveness of the Chinese CoronaVac vaccine against the variant identified in Brazil. Dr. Nikolas Wada talks about a lab-based study assessing the potential effectiveness of mRNA vaccines against the B.1.617 variant discovered in India. These researchers are part of the Hopkins novel coronavirus research consortium, with many summaries of new studies available at http://ncrc.jhsph.edu.

At the beginning of the pandemic, it seemed like COVID-19 didn't really affect young people. But a recent uptick in cases and hospitalizations among younger adults could point to the transmissibility of newer variants. Dr. Emily Martin, an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan's School of Public Health, talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about how the variants may be changing the risks for young people and why a virus that moves faster underscores the importance of vaccinations.