May 22, 2023

From origin to Warp Speed, COVID-19 proved to be a national disaster the likes of which hadn’t been seen since 9-11. Lead writer of “Lessons from the COVID War” and former 9-11 Commission leader Philip Zelikow talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about why COVID was a much more complicated issue, competing explanations...

May 15, 2023

The pandemic phase of COVID-19 is officially over, but there’s still work to be done. Virologist and podcast regular Dr. Andy Pekosz talks with Stephanie Desmon about transitioning to annual COVID vaccines (no longer referred to as boosters!); “Arcturus,” or variant XBB.1.16; and the importance of investing in...

May 3, 2023

Jennifer Kates, senior vice president and director of global health and HIV policy at KFF, returns to the podcast to talk with Lindsay Smith Rogers about the looming expiration of the COVID-19 public health emergency and what that means for things like access to tests, treatments, vaccines, and eligibility for Medicaid....

Mar 29, 2023

Three years on, we are still actively debating whether the pandemic was caused when the virus spilled over naturally from animals in a market or whether it was somehow caused by a Chinese lab leak. In this episode, Stephanie Desmon talks to Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, about...

Mar 15, 2023

Johns Hopkins Professor and infectious disease epidemiologist Dr. David Dowdy returns to the podcast to talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about some of the latest studies on the effectiveness of masks in protecting people from COVID