Take as Directed

Steve Morrison sat down with Dr. Beth Cameron, Vice President at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, and former senior White House official responsible for health security and bio defense, to talk through what the accelerating race for vaccines for Covid-19 means. Should we be excited and hopeful? Should we feel cautious, skeptical? Perhaps both. We survey the landscape – the White House ‘Operation Warp Speed,’ China’s program, the ACT-Accelerator initiative launched to ensure the needs of low and lower middle income countries are met. How important is it for the United States to step forward on the world stage?

Beth Cameron is Vice President for Global Biological Policy and Programs at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), based in Washington D.C.

Steve Morrison asks Marc Daalder, an incisive American reporter in New Zealand: how and why did New Zealand succeed in locking down the country, winning public support, and eliminating the virus? So, what now? Can tourists and other visitors ever return, even while the movie industry and other big earning events are exempted? How is New Zealand managing new cases of Covid-19? Marc Daalder is the political reporter at Newsroom in New Zealand.

J. Stephen Morrison, Senior Vice President and director of the CSIS Global Health Policy Center, sat down for a conversation on July 24 with Dr. Anthony Fauci, as America’s runaway crisis continued to unfold. Will a return to basics be enough, or are lockdowns in our future? Do we really have reliable science on how Covid-19 impacts children, as we debate whether to reopen schools? Can we rely exclusively on an ‘America First’ approach to vaccines, when the least wealthy and powerful countries may be left at the side of the road? What happened with that first (wayward) pitch at Nationals stadium? And just how fragile is the return of professional sports?

Dr. Anthony Fauci is director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and a member of the White House Covid-19 Task Force.

Andrew and Steve gathered with David Sanger to discuss the NYT's recent investigative team’s efforts, which chronicled the momentous White House decisions taken in early April to step back and push lead responsibility on to the states. This occurred at the same time that the President balked on any national testing strategy, refused to embrace masks, and persisted in escalating pressure upon states to reopen before they were ready. Overly optimistic scientific models created the false impression that the pandemic had peaked in the United States. A White House slow to recognize its mistakes as summer began permitted the virus to raced out ahead, ushering in today’s crisis, twice the scale of March and April. The NYT team concluded that these decisions are among the most catastrophic undertaken by any White House. 

David Sanger is a premier national security correspondent for the New York Times.

Dr. Peter Hotez joins us from Houston. How did Texas and many other wildfire states run so out of control? What needs to change in the federal response? How can scientists and the biomedical research community best contribute to escaping this spiral?

Dr. Peter Hotez is Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine and Director of the Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development, both in Houston.

"This is a marathon." Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA), a renowned leader in Congress on racial justice and global health, discusses her proposed Commission on Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, the awakening across America, this historic moment for elected Black women leaders, and this week’s virtual ‘AIDS 2020’ International AIDS Conference.

Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) has served in Congress since 1998.

In this episode, Steve and Andrew invite Frances Stead Sellers, senior writer on the American desk at the Washington Post. Frances, through her eyes as an English immigrant to America -- and a renowned, veteran journalist -- has thought hard about what makes America what it is, in these days of a pandemic, economic pain and racial injustice. Her recent experiences in reporting have taught her about the deep divides in American society, the awakening within the business community, including at the Washington Post, people’s fear to come to the hospital, innovations in communications and delivery of medical services, and how journalism has evolved to capture these moments. 

In this episode, Steve and Andrew speak with Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) on the most pressing health issues before America. What is driving the astonishing resurgence of Covid-19 in the south and west, and what is now required? Why are we as a nation still hung up politically over masks and failing to reach the true level of testing we need? What should guide the U.S. in the race for a vaccine? In the current environment, is it possible to avoid a collision between science and politics? 

Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) has served in the Senate since 193. She is ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Commission, a senior member of Senate Committees on Appropriations, Budget, and Veteran Affairs, as well as a member of the CSIS Commission on Strengthening America's Health Security.

In this episode, the hosts are joined by Julie Gerberding, a senior executive at Merck, a longstanding friend, and generous contributor to CSIS’s work. Congress was highly active the week of June 22 examining across several committees the hard lessons of the past months of the coronavirus pandemic in America and what needs to happen right now -- as the outbreak explodes in the west and south -- and looking into the future. Julie testified at two full Senate hearings. What were the key messages she sought to hammer home to policymakers? What is the status of debate in Congress over where we need to move next? 

Executive Vice President & Chief Patient Officer at Merck and Co., and co-Chair of the CSIS Commission on Strengthening America’s Health Security. She was formerly the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2002 – 2009).

In this episode, the hosts engage with Sheryl Gay Stolberg, renowned Washington Correspondent at The New York Times. Since early this year she has been charged with unpacking -- in the midst of the pandemic -- the complex intersection of health, policy, politics and culture. She’s dived into the controversy around hydroxychloroquine, a saga that starkly revealed the collision between science and politics. Have Americans reached a point of exhaustion and resignation, in the face of continued high infections and deaths, and unrelenting economic pain? How to make sense of how these twin crises now mix with protests against racism, social injustice and police brutality? Are Americans at a moment of awakening?