Take as Directed

In this episode, the hosts are joined by Scott Dowell, coronavirus response leader at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. They discuss how successful the global response has been in saving so many lives, as well as get Dr. Dowell's thoughts on which response strategy is best when considering herd immunity, lockdowns, intense digital contact tracing, isolation and quarantine. While we wait for a vaccine, how do we exit this phase? Scott tells us how most transmission actually occurs in the household, and that we should focus on protecting the family of patients, and the most vulnerable, to get control of this pandemic. 

Dr. Scott Dowell is Deputy Director for Surveillance and Epidemiology and coronavirus response leader at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. 

This week marks World Immunization Week, an annual celebration of vaccines that raise awareness and increase rates of immunization against vaccine-preventable diseases around the world. To mark World Immunization Week, Take as Directed launches a conversation recorded earlier in the year to place immunization within the debate around Universal Health Coverage (UHC). In a world faced by not only a pandemic threat but also continuing infectious disease challenges, immunization and universal health coverage is more important than ever. 

In this episode, Senior Fellow Katherine Bliss talks to two immunization experts: Angela Shen, retired Captain from the U.S. Public Health Service with over 22 years of service at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; and Lora Shimp, Technical Director for Immunizations at John Snow Inc. They discuss what the difference is between universal health care and coverage, and how including immunizations under a larger package of preventative services means more people benefit for a cheaper cost. In an era of competing priorities, why should we be focusing on immunization? What does the Immunization Agenda provide for, and will it be accepted by the global community? And can this Agenda help us reach complete immunization coverage worldwide?

In this episode, Steve and Andrew are joined by Congressman Ami Bera (D-CA07) to talk about his work on the CSIS Commission on Strengthening America’s Health Security and his impressions of Covid-19, as both a doctor and an elected representative.  They discuss how difficult it’s been to get Congress to spend resources on preparedness, and the work Rep. Bera is doing to build a crisis workforce. His main concerns: when the vaccine is found, how can we ensure the vaccines are distributed equitably to all countries, and who should get it first? Where would the supplies and workforce come from?

Congressman Ami Bera has represented California’s 7th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2013. Before joining Congress, Rep. Bera had a twenty-year medical career as a physician, hospital administrator, professor, and as Sacramento County’s Chief Medical Officer. He is also a Member of the CSIS Commission on Strengthening America’s Health Security. Find his recent letter proposing a Covid-19 crisis corps here.

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.