Take as Directed

Former Senator Kelly Ayotte, co-chair of the CSIS Commission on Strengthening America’s Health Security, joins Steve and Andrew in explaining how the Commission’s November 2019 core recommendations remain compelling and essential in the midst of the pandemic, if we are to, once and for all, break the cycle of crisis and complacency. She offers her thoughts on the shocks we did not anticipate, such as our weak supply chains, which will now need to be strengthened for the future. Senator Ayotte also discusses China’s highly problematic role in the pandemic, and how the U.S. can reconfigure its dependence, along with a similar rethinking needed to strengthen and reform the World Health Organization.

In this episode, Peter Sands, executive director of The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, joins Steve and Andrew in exploring the chasm separating the world of finance and economists from that of public health, the extraordinary threats the pandemic poses to historical gains in development and global health, and the rapidly evolving role of the Global Fund in racing to support partner countries in their response to the coronavirus.

In this episode, Andrew asks Steve to interpret the guidelines issued by President Trump yesterday in a three-phase process of reopening. Why the pivot away from “total authority” putting responsibility back onto governors? What’s in the guidelines, and what is missing? Amid the intensifying tension between protecting the health and lives of citizens versus the crushing decline of the U.S. economy, how are the calls to accelerate reopening being met across America? If a great gap persist in terms of testing and the capacity to surveil, isolate, quarantine, and contact trace, what are the options?

Dr. Christopher Murray joins Steve Morrison and Andrew Schwartz to discuss the “Murray Model,” what a rolling reopening of the economy would look like and what that would do to the Murray Model projections. Dr. Murray also discusses which states may be ready to reopen and what hotspots he’s worried about most.

In this episode, Susan Glasser, staff writer at The New Yorker, joins Steve and Andrew to discuss the full range of rapidly evolving issues surrounding President Trump and the White House’s engagement with the coronavirus pandemic and the companion economic crisis – from testing, to protecting essential item supply chains, to preparing the way of safely lifting social distancing to allow schooling and businesses to resume. All with the questions – how do we make sense of what is happening, and what does all of this tell us about the nature of this presidency?  

Susan B. Glasser is a staff writer at The New Yorker, where she writes a weekly column on life in Trump’s Washington. Ms. Glasser has had a long and distinguished career as a journalist, including founding Politico Magazine, serving as editor-in-chief of Foreign Policy, and a decade at the Washington Post. She is co-author of Kremlin Rising: Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the End of Revolution, written with her husband, Peter Baker.

In this episode, Steve and Andrew are joined by Congresswoman Susan Brooks (R-IN05) to talk about her work on the CSIS Commission on Strengthening America’s Health Security and her experience working through Covid-19. This week with Rep. Ami Bera (D-CA07), Rep. Brooks released a letter calling for the creation of a crisis response corps to manage the pandemic response. They discuss how this could include returned Peace Corps Volunteers, what essential duties this corps could cover, and how these workers could be protected from risk. From there, they move to how Rep. Brooks is now relating to her constituents under these new realities, how Hoosiers are experiencing the pandemic, and where she finds strength and hope. 

Congresswoman Susan W. Brooks represents the 5th District of Indiana, and is a Member of the CSIS Commission on Strengthening America’s Health Security. Find her letter on a Covid-19 crisis corps here.

Today’s guest is Ron Klain, former Ebola response coordinator in the Obama Administration and current senior adviser to presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden. At the top of this week, when the pandemic is predicted to reach horrific peak levels in the New York/New Jersey region, Steve and Andrew ask Ron to look out in time – what are the conclusions that future observers might make about how we reached this treacherous moment? And what will be the deep structural changes required, post-pandemic, if we are to break the cycle of crisis and neglect and protect Americans, and resume leadership to shape the rest of the world? We round off the conversation with a discussion of former Vice President Biden’s thinking on the pandemic response, and what gives Ron confidence and hope. 

​Ron Klain served as chief of staff to two U.S. vice presidents – Al Gore and Joe Biden, and served as the United States Ebola response coordinator in the Obama Administration. He is currently a Washington Post columnist and adviser to the Joe Biden 2020 presidential campaign.

Steve and Andrew speak with Helen Branswell, a premiere journalist and one of the world’s leading experts on dangerous infectious disease outbreaks, based for the past five years at STAT. The conversation focuses on the acute challenges: as the coronavirus pandemic advances, how do journalists makes sense of this historic moment? As we fail in the United States and elsewhere to protect health workers, in the face of dangerously escalating demands, how are we to understand the profound human and institutional consequences?

Today, Andrew and Steve talk to Dr. Tom Frieden, President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives and former CDC Director. They discuss why Dr. Frieden has ‘tears in my eyes’ about the infections and deaths in New York and the risk to healthcare workers. While different communities need different responses, there is a need for clear federal guidance. They discuss how political priorities have infiltrated the national approach and sidelined public health experts, and how we can organize to minimize the harm from this pandemic. Dr. Frieden details how every health system should be getting ready to deal with “World War C”, and how we need a global commitment after this pandemic to never let this happen again. 

Dr. Frieden serves as President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives. He was formerly the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Today, Andrew and Steve talk to Secretary John Wiesman, Secretary of Health for Washington state. They discuss the testing and hospital capacity in Washington state, the scramble for resources that states are finding themselves in and how Washington is working with the private sector to develop these products, and when social distancing might end. 

Dr. John Wiesman was appointed secretary of health by Governor Jay Inslee in April 2013.