Abdul looks at recent studies on people infected with coronavirus, and then talks about people who are among those most at risk for the disease. He'll talk with Dr. Ashwin Vasan, President of Fountain House, a non-profit supporting people suffering severe mental illness, and Professor John Pfaff who studies mass incarceration to understand how this pandemic affects society’s most vulnerable--and what needs to be done to protect them.
Abdul talks with Senator Bernie Sanders about Congress’s most recent COVID19 relief package and how the country might have responded if we were covered by Medicare for All.
Recently the CDC released a study that revealed that while African Americans make up only 13% of the population of the United States, they were 30% of the patients that were dealing with COVID-19. Abdul talks to LaMar Hasbrouck, a public health physician and former director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, about racial disparities in health. Later he connects with Corey McPherson, an old friend who shares his family's experience with the virus.
Abdul dissects the scenarios we have for getting out of social distancing and why we still need COVID19 testing. Later he interviews Dr. Rishi Desai, a former CDC disease detective who recently went viral (the good kind!) for his recent appearance on Fox News.
The drug hydroxycholoroquine has been all over the news because President Trump and other claim, without scientific evidence, that its a cure for COVID-19. But hydroxycholoroquine does have a lot of practical uses, and many people depend on it. Abdul speaks with a woman that relies on the drug to live, and is worried about its depletion. Then Abdul looks at the way that medications and vaccines are researched and developed with Zain Rizvi, a Law & Policy Researcher at Public Citizen and an e...
Abdul dissects the unequal burden of COVID-19 by race, chats with Dr. Sarah Jukaku, a psychiatrist, who also happens to be his wife, about what she’s hearing from her patients. Later he talks with Professor Sandro Galea, a psychiatric epidemiologist, about what COVID-19’s long-term consequences might be for our mental health. Activity
Abdul talks to a local bookstore owner about going online after COVID and dissects how this will influence the economy. And Prof. Tara Sinclair, a macroeconomist joins us to talk about the economic forecast and what COVID-19 may mean for our economic outlook.
Abdul dissects how hospitals are struggling under the surge of COVID patients, while writer Naomi Klein joins us to talk about the “shock doctrine” of disaster capitalism. We'll find out what disaster capitalism means, how it's affected past disasters and how human behavior perceives everything from toilet paper to corporate bailouts.
As doctors, nurses, and hospital staff do battle on the front lines, how is the growing pandemic affecting these people and how are they coping? Abdul will talk with Dr. Aakash Shah, an emergency room doctor in New Jersey.
This week the Senate passed a historic, $2 trillion stimulus bill aimed at easing the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The legislation, which is expected to pass the House of Representatives on Friday, will grant financial assistance to individuals and businesses - especially industries affected by the crisis, airlines and manufacturers, among others. But will it be enough? We’ll talk with Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, who represents Washington’s 7th district, one of the hardest hit communit...
Host Abdul El-Sayed dissects the claim of a possible cure for COVID-19, and then we talk to Dr. Alison Galvani, an epidemiologist and infectious diseases modeler at Yale, about how long the current outbreak could last.
Abdul dissects the news of a vaccine, the concept of “flattening the curve,” and the notion of herd immunity. Ben Rhodes, former Deputy National Security Advisor, joins to dissect the Global Pandemic response and what went wrong.
Abdul dissects President Trump’s State of Emergency Declaration and the true number of cases in America. And we explore how the American public health system’s organized (and what went wrong) with Jon Auerbach, a former state and local health commissioner and CDC official.
The Coronavirus is now a global pandemic. How did we get here? What went wrong? What do we do about it now? Twice a week, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a physician and former city health commissioner, will keep you updated on what you need to know about COVID-19, what led us to this crisis in the first place, and what policies can lead us out. New episodes out every Tuesday & Friday, starting Tuesday 3/17. Subscribe now.
Do you ever go to a bakery and become utterly paralyzed by all the possibilities in the display case? A chocolate chip muffin sounds good, but so does a croissant. Are they gluten free? Made fresh daily? Unraveling the 2020 candidates’ healthcare plans can sort of feel the same way, just a whole lot more daunting. In this final episode of America Dissected (we’re crying too), Dr. Abdul El-Sayed walks us through each of the major healthcare plans, including Medicare-For-All, the public option, an...
Throughout this series, we’ve considered how the straining relationship between science and government has led to a variety of public health issues, from the rise of superbugs to the epidemic of loneliness. Here, we take our scalpel to the most obvious problem of them all: the American healthcare system itself. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed talks with Lisa Cardillo whose scary brush with the healthcare system helps us deconstruct the business of American healthcare, where all of us are both the product and...
Today, many of us can take it for granted that our grandparents will live through our childhood— and that our children might get to meet them. Not that long ago, though, that wasn't so common. Not just because our grandparents didn't used to live that long, but because so many babies died before their first birthday. In most American communities, infant mortality is a thing of the past. But not in all of them. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed takes us to Detroit to dissect American life expectancy— to underst...
The Flint Water Crisis dominated national headlines when it emerged in 2016—focusing national attention on the hazards of lead poisoning. Newark, New Jersey is facing a similar crisis today. But Flint and Newark are only the tip of the iceberg of an epidemic of lead poisoning facing urban communities across the country. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed visits Flint to speak with Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, the pediatrician and researcher who uncovered the Water Crisis to understand how Flint’s history shaped the ...
We all spend time, money, and energy to "take care of ourselves." We exercise, eat right, and meditate. But what if we can't actually do it alone—what if being healthy is more about taking care of each other? Our world feels more connected than ever before. And yet, we feel more alone. Depression, suicide, and overdose have skyrocketed. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed addresses how disinvestment in the spaces that bring us together, like public parks, swimming pools, and libraries, has helped shape a slow-mo...
The Opioid Crisis has wreaked havoc across America, taking lives and devastating families, neighborhoods, and communities. But this isn't the first time we've suffered a deadly drug crisis. In today's episode, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed tells the tale of two crises: the opioid epidemic of today and the crack epidemic of the 1980s, contrasting the government's and media's responses to these crises - and what they tell us about the nature of drug use and structural racism in America. For a transcript of t...
Winter means snow, cuddly rom-coms...and brutal head colds. Nothing a little Z-Pak won’t fix...WRONG. That’s exactly what the superbugs want you to do. Our antibiotic misuse is contributing to the global rise of an unseen, deadly force: antibiotic-resistant superbugs. We hear from a mother and daughter with direct experience with these terrifying new strains of bacteria. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed then explains how the pharmaceutical industry’s broken incentives and the government’s failure to change th...
American scientists are on the leading edge of drug research and development—often funded by taxpayer dollars. So why are we overpaying for life-saving drugs? How did we get to this point? Dr. Abdul El-Sayed walks us through the story of the Hep-C drug Sovaldi to lay bear the inner workings of the pharmaceutical industry—and its glaring flaws. For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
Traditional science-based medicine has some gaps—but what happens when grifters and scammers take advantage? Dr. Abdul El-Sayed leads us inside the underbelly of the cult of wellness. Dr. Jen Gunter, Twitter’s “Resident Gynecologist,” helps us understand modern quackery—and how we can apply scientific principles to make our best health decisions. For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
We almost eradicated measles in the U.S., but anti-vaxxers had to go and ruin it for everyone. WTF? Dr. Abdul El-Sayed walks us through the history and science of vaccines and the growing anti-vax movement. We meet the people affected, like Ethan Lindenberger, an 18-year-old who defied his anti-vax mom to get vaccinated. For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/americadissected.
From celebrities who hate vaccines to politicians who hate Obamacare - the mistrust, fake news, sensationalism, and social media firestorms that we see every day in politics and the media are distracting us from what really matters for our health. In America Dissected, doctors Abdul El-Sayed and Katelyn Jetelina go beyond the headlines to dissect America’s major health problems, what connects them, and what we all can do to solve them.
