The coronavirus pandemic has us all asking a lot of questions: How long will I have to practice “social distancing”? Will there be a cure for COVID-19? Can I ever touch my face again?
WABE health reporter Sam Whitehead and guests will try to answer those questions. He’ll talk with experts, public officials, journalists, and everyday people about how the coronavirus is affecting their lives.
Martha Dalton, who covers education for WABE, says school districts all over metro Atlanta have faced challenges as they've tried to start the year. Some have seen COVID-19 outbreaks that have led to school closures; others have had problems rolling out remote learning. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Dr. Amesh Adalja, who studies infectious diseases at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, calls the failure of the U.S. to provide adequate testing for the coronavirus "the original sin of the pandemic." He says Georgia and many other states have faced similar challenges when it comes to establishing needed testing infrastructure. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Eric Jackson, who covers sports for the Atlanta Business Chronicle, says some of the ways that leagues and teams are adapting to competition during the pandemic may be with us for some time. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Christina Jewett, with Kaiser Health News, and Danielle Renwick, with The Guardian, discuss their efforts to chronicle the health care workers who have died from COVID-19 in the U.S. The project, a joint effort of both news outlets, is called 'Lost on the Frontline' ( khn.org/lost-on-the-frontline ). See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Steve Whatley, chairman of the Randolph County Hospital Authority, says Southwest Georgia Regional Medical Center couldn't weather COVID-19 after years of financial turmoil. That's why the small hospital in Cuthbert, Georgia plans to close its doors this fall. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Tom Smith, an economist at Emory University's Goizueta Business School, says it could take months or years before the U.S economy recovers from the damage caused by the coronavirus. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Road races – from local 5Ks to some of the largest marathons in the world – have been either postponed or canceled this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Rich Kenah from the Atlanta Track Club joins us to discuss how runners stay motivated and what races may look like in the future. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The root of many of the issues with Georgia’s June 9th primary election was the pandemic. Many trained and experienced poll workers backed out and there was a shortage of polling places. That led to long lines. So what steps are being taken to fix these issues for the fall? A conversation with AJC reporter Mark Niesse. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Don Avery, CEO of Fairview Park Hospital in Dublin, Georgia, says his facility has treated more COVID-19 patients in the month of July than it did in the first three months of the pandemic. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Dr. Sara Goza, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, says schools should prioritize students returning to classrooms for in-person instruction, but only if that can be done with the safety of students, teachers, and staff in mind. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Paul Root Wolpe, a medical ethicist at Emory University, says it's not easy for health care workers or everyday people to navigate the ethical challenges presented by the coronavirus--but it can be done. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Dr. Jonathan Wortham, an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says a study of more than 10,000 COVID-19 deaths showed members of minority groups were more likely to die from the disease at younger ages. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Martha Dalton, who covers education for WABE, says metro Atlanta's public schools are trying to navigate how to safely start the fast-approaching school year, and it's not easy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The HIV epidemic can teach us a lot about how to handle the coronavirus, especially how to carry on our lives while minimizing risk, says Dr. Eric Kutscher from NYU Langonne Health. He recently co-authored an essay on the topic ( https://jamanetwork.com/channels/health-forum/fullarticle/2766837 ) in the Journal of the American Medical Association's Health Forum. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Stephannie Stokes, who covers housing for WABE, says evictions haven't been happening since courts closed to stop the spread of the coronavirus. But they could reopen soon, and many are worried about a looming eviction crisis. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Dr. Audrey Arona, who leads the Gwinnett County health department, says an increased demand for coronavirus testing means it takes longer for people to receive results. That makes it trickier for public health officials to track people who are sick and who they've been in contact with. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Van Johnson, mayor of Savannah, Georgia, says a rise in coronavirus infections led him to issue a first-in-the-state requirement that people wear face masks in his city. It seems to violate a state order that prevents local governments from making their own public health rules. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Dr. Lynn Paxton, director of the Fulton County Board of Health says the rise in COVID-19 cases should prompt officials to look at "dialing back" continuing to lift restrictions intended to stop the spread of the coronavirus. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
There is so much data out there about the coronavirus pandemic. Sam Whitehead talks with three different doctors from the world of public health about the best numbers to watch. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Dr. Anne Spaulding, who studies healthcare in jails and prisons at Emory University, says these settings can be perfect incubators for a highly contagious virus and can have major impacts in the communities where they're located. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Andy Miller, editor of Georgia Health News, says pressure from federal officials has led two medical device sterilization facilities in metro Atlanta to ramp up operations in the midst of the pandemic. The two facilities had previously reduced operations because of elevated emissions of the toxic gas, ethylene oxide. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Wenjie Sun, a social worker who lives in Decatur, Georgia and is currently expecting her second child, says COVID-19 has added an additional element of uncertainty to her pregnancy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Dr. Carl Reddy, from the Task Force for Global Health, shares some of the challenges developing countries face when it comes to responding to the pandemic and discusses the COVID-19 outlook for the rest of the world. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, says we've learned a lot about the coronavirus, but there are some important questions that don't have answers. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Emma Hurt, who covers the state legislature for WABE, says Georgia lawmakers have a lot to accomplish when then re-convene next week, and they'll have to do it all in the midst of a pandemic. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Ryan Breshears, chief of behavioral health for the Wellstar Health System, says the coronavirus pandemic is a stressful situation that could have both short-term and long-term impacts on peoples' mental health. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Johnny Edwards, an investigative reporter with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, has been speaking with people inside and outside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who worry the agency's response to the COVID-19 pandemic has harmed its public reputation. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jenesta Hadley, who works at a healthcare laundry facility in south Georgia, is one of the many people who's job keeps the healthcare industry running in the midst of the pandemic. She says her job has become even more dangerous in the time of the coronavirus. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Kathleen Hartnett, an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says visits to hospital emergency departments dropped sharply in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, and patients delaying emergency care could face serious health complications. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Dr. Howard Markel, physician and historian of medicine at the University of Michigan, says recent protests and the tactics used to stop them could spread the coronavirus. He says similar situations occurred during the 1918 flu pandemic. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
