We sat down with Mike Osterholm, a member of President-Elect Biden’s Covid-19 Advisory Task Force, a renowned leader in global health security, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP). What does he make of this “most dangerous period since the Spanish Flu in 1918,” fueled by “pandemic fatigue, fatigue anger and indoor air?" Health systems are on the edge of breakdown, as shortages of ICU staff and beds worsen, providers “hit the wall” in locating protective gear, and drug shortages worsen. In his view, America needs a leader who can communicate calmly and effectively to all Americans. “We need Uncle Joe,” we need “fireside chats” that “help us get through this.” 

Dr. Michael Osterholm is the founder and Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) and Professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota. He is a member of President-Elect Biden’s Covid-19 Advisory Task Force.

In this episode, we are joined by Dorothy Shea, the U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon, along with Jon Alterman, SVP/Director of the CSIS Middle East Program. The Covid-19 outbreak, kicked into high gear following the August 4 Beirut port explosion, is out of control and has triggered a new national lockdown. It is embedded in a web of economic, political and humanitarian crises, which have brought Lebanon to the edge of state failure. Why does Lebanon matter to U.S. national interests? And what impact is the United States having?

Dorothy Shea is the U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon. Jon Alterman is Senior Vice President, Zbigniew Brzezinski Chair in Global Security and Geostrategy, and Director of the CSIS Middle East Program.

In this episode, Jono Quick opens with a sweeping overview of the history of faulty responses to pandemics -- why we “descend into the valley of complacency” so often? What are the essential steps to take now, modeled perhaps after the 9/11 Commission, to remember this profound moment? How do we transcend our divisions, borne of pandemic denial, pandemic fatigue and pandemic anger? He also illuminates the $100m Rockefeller Foundation swift and highly ambitious initiative to press for a national approach on test and trace in the United States. Followed now by the $1 billion three-year Rockefeller Foundation campaign, just unveiled, to catalyze a more inclusive, equitable green recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Dr. Jonathan (Jono) Quick is the Managing Director for Pandemic Response, Preparedness and Prevention at the Rockefeller Foundation. From 2004-2017, he was President and CEO of Management Sciences for Health (MSH).

Helene Gayle sat down with us to reflect on the expert committee that she and Dr. Bill Foege led recently to map out – in record time – a framework and strategy for the phased introduction of a Covid-19 vaccine in America. For this urgent, complex priority, what are the principles that should guide decisions on who comes first, and who comes later? How best to address gross disparities in the vulnerabilities to Covid-19 of Black, Latinx and Native American populations? What are the essential steps to address widespread distrust and vaccine hesitancy? What comes next, how to navigate the uncertainty and turbulence of these times, and what are the roots of optimism and hope?

Helene Gayle is the President and CEO of the Chicago Community Trust. Previously she was the President and CEO of CARE, and a senior leader at CDC and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. From July through October, she co-chaired with Dr. William Foege the Committee on Equitable Allocation of Vaccine for the Novel Coronavirus, organized by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. Its final report, ‘Framework for Equitable Allocation of Covid-19 Vaccine,’ was issued October 2, 2020. Helene has been a CSIS Trustee since 2007.

Jennifer Kates and Josh Michaud, Kaiser Family Foundation, joined us to discuss their new analysis, ‘Distributing a Covid-19 Vaccine Across the United States – A Look at Key Issues.’ Getting vaccines to Americans is an unprecedented, gargantuan, complex enterprise. Just how ready are we? Financing thus far is a meager $200 million, while an estimated $6-10 billion will be required. Local public health infrastructure is rickety, insurance gaps are many, and building trust and engagement, especially with Black, Latinx and Native American populations remain essential challenges. Some states have identified early phase, prioritized recipients with some precision. Others lag behind. How to manage this enterprise amid deep partisan divisions, the winter surge, our national electoral process? How to judge the performance thus far of Operation Warp Speed? Give a listen!

Jennifer Kates and Josh Michaud are with the Kaiser Family Foundation in Washington D.C.. Jennifer is the Senior Vice President and Director of Global Health and HIV Policy, Josh the Associate Director of Global Health Policy.

Mollyann Brodie, America’s premier health survey researcher, explores the widening bifurcation of America along partisan and ideological grounds, with “wildly different conceptions, wildly different sources of information, sealed off from alternatives.” This advancing politicization, aggravated by the current electoral cycle, is now dominating the response to Covid-19. She also walks us through the “perfect storm” experienced by the Black community in America, its compromised health and financial well-being, distrust and alienation from the health system, as revealed in a moving and powerful recent Kaiser Family Foundation/The Undefeated study. 

Mollyann Brodie is the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Kaiser Family Foundation, where she also is Executive Director of the Public Opinion and Survey Research Program

In this episode, we are joined by Tom Bollyky of the Council on Foreign Relations. Co-director of a newly released bipartisan CFR Independent Task Force on pandemic preparedness and the response to Covid-19, Tom walks us through the Task Force’s findings, including how China’s lack of transparency in the early days of the pandemic fueled the spread of the virus, subsequently compounded by failures at the federal and others levels of the US government. Even in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, we need to prepare for the next ‘once in a century’ pandemic. Two Task Force recommendations stand out: its call for the creation of an international surveillance network coupled with a Health Security Coordination Committee, a new international mechanism to navigate geopolitical pressures and coordinate quick action. 

Tom Bollyky is Senior Fellow for Global Health, Economics, and Development and Director of the Global Health Program at the Council on Foreign Relations. The report is the ‘Independent Task Force Report No. 78: Improving Pandemic Preparedness: Lessons From COVID-19’.

As UW-Madison opened in early September, it faced a sudden explosion of Covid-19 cases. Hear from Chancellor Rebecca Blank why this happened, the steps taken to re-stabilize the university amid multiple, deep political divisions across Wisconsin, a very public showdown between the university and county authorities, and a runaway Covid-19 outbreak in the state. Hear also about the impending return of football (“Every game is an away game!”), preparations for the winter and spring, the future of education at UW and beyond. “We have to respond” to achieve greater racial diversity among faculty and students as the movement for racial justice has swept the nation. 

Rebecca Blank has served as Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison since 2013. Prior to that, she served as Acting and Deputy Secretary of Commerce in the Obama administration, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, Dean of the Ford School of Policy at the University of Michigan, and as a member of the Council of Economic Advisors to President Clinton.

We crossed much sensitive and difficult ground in our extended conversation with Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK). President Trump’s bout with Covid-19, the proliferation of White House cases, the claim that the virus is not dangerous: how to make sense of all of this this, and the implications? Why have negotiations over the next Covid-19 emergency spending bill broken down? And how bad are the consequences? How to protect CDC and FDA? Do we need a national conversation on the value and merits of vaccines, and the need to rebuild popular trust and confidence? Should Congress support Gavi to bring vaccines to low and middle income countries? Give a listen. 

Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) is leading force in Congress advocating for strong bipartisan US leadership in health security, at home and abroad. He is the former Chair and now Ranking Member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, HHS, Education and Related Agencies. He is Ranking member of the Rules Committee and Deputy Whip of the Republican Conference. He is also a member of the CSIS Commission on Strengthening America’s Health Security.

Our longstanding friend and ally Judyth Twigg joins us to survey the rather bumpy ride that America’s colleges and universities are experiencing as they navigate the pandemic. Are these institutions the new super-spreaders? What form of leadership is showing the best results? Are colleges and universities now the center for innovation in testing? How well exactly do we learn when separated into remote settings? What about mental health? 

Professor Judyth Twigg is Professor of Political Science at Virginia Commonwealth University and CSIS non-resident Senior Fellow with the Global Health Policy Center and Europe Program.