Navigating the Pandemic

This podcast was nominated for "Best Health Podcast" in the Quill Podcast Awards!! Thank you to everyone who supports the show! 

Listen to Laurell Sims, co-founder of Urban Growers collective, discuss how COVID-19 food insecurity has impacted  Black and Brown communities on the South and West Sides of Chicago, and how the Urban Growers Collective has tackled this issue with emergency food relief programming. We close the show by discussing how local food cultivation is effective for people and planet in improving food access and well-being.

“This study shows there is a direct link between race or racism and food insecurity.” - Dr. Danielle Morales

COVID-19 has exacerbated food injustice and food insecurity as disparities in access and supply have left many Americans hungry. Understanding this problem is key to pandemic preparedness.

In this episode, Dr. Mir Ali, a Health Economist at the US Department of Health & Human Services, discusses his research brief, Mental Health Consequences of COVID-19: The Role of Social Determinants of Health. Dr. Ali shares insights on how we can better measure structural drivers of health inequities and provides examples of current government programs that are actively taking on the challenge.

This podcast is a tool for you to stay informed about COVID-19 in our ever-changing world.

This season’s theme is the social determinants of health, where I plan to delve into societal implications of COVID,  from economic and working conditions, to housing, food access, and more.

Episode Resources + suggested readings:

This episode features two voices from the clinical trial industry: Kenneth Getz, the Executive Director at the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development and Taqiyya Alford, a Clinical Research Coordinator at Emory University. Both guests discussed the ongoing and future impacts of COVID-19 on clinical trials.

Ken Getz is the Director and a professor at the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development, Tufts University School of Medicine, where he conducts grant-funded research on pharmaceutical R&D management and execution; protocol design optimization, contract service provider and investigative site management, e-clinical technology and data usage and patient engagement. He is the chairman of CISCRP – a nonprofit organization that he founded to educate and raise public and patient awareness of the clinical research enterprise. A well-known speaker at conferences, symposia, universities, investor meetings and corporations, Ken has published extensively in peer-review journals, books and in the trade press and writes a bi-monthly column nominated for a Neal Award in Applied Clinical Trials. Ken received an MBA from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree, Phi Beta Kappa, from Brandeis University. He is the founder of CenterWatch, a leading publisher in the clinical trials industry, and one of several businesses that he has created and sold.

Taqiyya Alford is a Clinical Research Coordinator at the Emory University School of Nursing and Operations Manager with the Emory Urban Health Initiative. She currently manages two studies at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing and has a diverse background in rehabilitation, clinical research, and pharmaceutical work. She is a recent Masters in Public Health graduate of South University in Savannah, GA.

For more information about the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development, the future of clinical triels, and the “Last Mile” for COVID vaccination, access the links below:

Today’s show features Jennifer Shin. She is the Founder of 8 Path Solutions, a data science, analytics, and technology company. An experienced data scientist and management consultant, she has led high profile projects in various roles, including Director of Data Science at Comcast, Senior Principal Data Scientist at The Nielsen Company and has served as a Management Consultant at GE Capital, the Carlyle Group, Fortress Investment Group, the City of New York, and Columbia University. She currently holds faculty positions at NYU and Brandeis University.

Explore stages of the COVID-19 data value chain:

Today’s show features Catharine Hamm, a leading voice in travel and media. She is the former Travel editor for the Los Angeles Times and became a special contributor in June 2020. Hamm has twice received individual Lowell Thomas Awards, and the Travel section was recognized seven times during her tenure as editor. She currently mostly writes about travel consumer news.

We discuss what the travel industry will look like in the U.S. and abroad in 2021, from destination entry requirements to airline safety regulations, the recovery of the travel industry, and tips for safely satisfying your travel itch over the coming months.

Hamm’s articles referenced in the episode:

In this episode, we transition back to discussing the pandemic from domestic view in the U.S. Today’s show focuses on Media, Conspiracy theories, and the public health impact of exposure to framed messages about the origins of Covid-19. I have the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Toby Bolsen, an associate professor of American Politics and Political Science at Georgia State University.

Professor Bolsen’s research focuses on the study of political communication, public opinion, political behavior, experimental methods, and U.S. energy and climate policy. He’ll discuss the role that COVID-19 conspiracy theories play in influencing public health messaging and pandemic mitigation, particularly how these theories contribute to the spread of misinformation and steps that can be taken to address damaging conspiracy rhetoric.

Access the research here:

Today’s show focuses on COVID-19’s impact on food insecurity in the developing world from the scope of global economics and trade. I have the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Vasily Erokhin, an Associate Professor in the School of Economics and Management at Harbin Engineering University in China and also an Adjunct Professor at Key West University, Florida. We’ll focus on the interactions between the dynamics of COVID-19 cases, food trade, food inflation, and currency volatilities in regard to people’s food security status from the position of his most recent publication, Impacts of COVID-19 on Trade and Economic Aspects of Food Security: Evidence from 45 Developing Countries.

Listen as voices from public health including psychiatry, law, and epidemiology help us understand COVID-19's present and future impacts.

Guest #1 

Polly J. Price, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law, is also Professor of Global Health in the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. A public health law scholar as well as a legal historian and citizenship and immigration law expert, she has published, lectured, and taught widely about immigration and citizenship, public health law and regulatory policy, federalism, property rights, and the judiciary.