Transcript “Just like cholera exposed the weaknesses in European society, COVID is doing the same for us. ...The bubonic plague and cholera for example were devastating pandemics, but they also lead to the creation of modern public health and sanitation. There’s still a chance for COVID to have its own silver linings, even if we can’t see them right now.” -Dr. Celine Gounder Pandemics have played a huge role in human history. The Black Death had huge implications for economics, politics, medicin...
Jun 30, 2020•26 min•Ep 32•Transcript available on Metacast Transcript “We all believe that we need a national plan in the face of a national emergency, a United response for the United States… We're all in these parts of the same country. You can't control the pandemic without some degree of coordination.” - Ed Yong What kind of coordinated national response is required for a national health crisis like COVID-19? Today on "Epidemic," Dr. Celine Gounder speaks with Dr. Howard Koh, Professor of Public Health Leadership at the Harvard School of Public Heal...
Jun 26, 2020•26 min•Ep 31•Transcript available on Metacast Transcript “So when will it come back? You know, I'm a historian, so I'm uncomfortable with predicting the future, but as a doctor, if I were making a prognosis, I would say it's going to come back.” — Dr. Howard Markel “It does get weary when you see the same mistakes being made over and over and over again. And many of the mistakes of past pandemics are being made today, particularly in how we're administering and reacting to it.“ — Dr. Howard Markel With states gradually starting to re-open, ...
Jun 19, 2020•26 min•Ep 30•Transcript available on Metacast Transcript "In our case, we're trying to transfer an antibody from one person to another. And it's actually a simpler idea because the recipient of an antibody RNA does not have to really respond to it. They just make it, and they have instant immunity." -Dr. James Crowe In today’s episode, our host Dr. Celine Gounder speaks with Dr. James Crowe, Director of the Vaccine Center at Vanderbilt Medical Center, about the next phase in antibody-based therapies, which is being spearheaded by Dr. Crowe’...
Jun 16, 2020•29 min•Ep 29•Transcript available on Metacast Transcript "In the United States, we have a relatively low threat history. We're separated by two oceans from other continents. We haven't been afraid of Canada, Mexico, chronically invading us. We haven't been afraid of constant fury from mother nature. And so, as a result, we have a harder time tightening up than other countries under these conditions because it's hard for people to sacrifice the kind of liberty and freedom that we've had for constraints and rules.” - Michele Gelfand In today’...
Jun 12, 2020•34 min•Ep 28•Transcript available on Metacast Transcript “With penicillin, for example, you needed a few days to begin to get better. With antibodies, these people got better within hours, almost as if the antibody was mediating an antitoxin effect.” - Arturo Casadevall In today’s episode, our host Dr. Celine Gounder speaks with Arturo Casadevall, Chair of the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, about convalescent plasma, the transfer of antibodies from a disease surviv...
Jun 09, 2020•28 min•Ep 27•Transcript available on Metacast Transcript “I think there's always sort of like Indian humor with everything and so there were a lot of people making jokes about Trump putting a travel ban in place to stop the spread of disease from Europe. A lot of native people on Twitter and Facebook were commenting that it was, you know, a few centuries too late." -Rebecca Nagle In this episode, our host Dr. Celine Gounder speaks to Rebecca Nagle, Dr. Melissa Begay, and Jamescita Peshlakai about why the Navajo Nation has been so hard hit b...
Jun 05, 2020•30 min•Ep 26•Transcript available on Metacast Transcript “Terrible diseases like smallpox, polio, yellow fever where, you know, the capital in the United States in those days, Philadelphia, in the 1700s, 10% of the population died. When you vaccinate against them, you prevent them, and they no longer are problems.” - Seth Berkley In today’s episode, co-hosts Dr. Celine Gounder and Ron Klain speak with Seth Berkley and Dr. Peter Hotez about a topic that has received a lot of attention lately-- vaccines. They discuss the processes involved in...
Jun 03, 2020•33 min•Ep 25•Transcript available on Metacast Transcript "I think there are some people who are afraid that the truth will hurt the economy. That if we let CDC speak the truth, that will hurt stock prices, that will hurt people's jobs and the manufacturing sector. But even when the truth may hurt, even when it's painful, we've got to know the truth. And right now, people are taking steps to keep CDC from speaking the truth.” -Dr. Mark Rosenberg In this episode, our co-hosts Dr. Celine Gounder and Ron Klain speak to former CDC scientists Dr....
May 29, 2020•31 min•Ep 24•Transcript available on Metacast Transcript “Antibodies are the easiest part of the immune system to measure. It's not the only part that's required for protection against this virus.” - Stanley Perlman In today’s episode, co-hosts Dr. Celine Gounder and Ron Klain continue their discussion of the immune system. They speak with Stanley Perlman and Dr. Jon Yewdell about what happens when a virus enters the body and the different types of cells involved in each stage of the immune response against the virus. They talk about what i...
May 26, 2020•21 min•Ep 23•Transcript available on Metacast Transcript “Every night... we are literally cheering and clapping and beeping our horns for people that in many ways we're unwilling to fight for so that they could have $15 an hour. We call people essential workers now who we treated for so long, like anything but essential.” -Rashad Robinson In this episode, our co-host, Dr. Celine Gounder speaks to Rashad Robinson, Alicia Garza, and Marshall Ganz about essential workers such as caregivers, domestic workers, and agricultural workers. They disc...
May 22, 2020•23 min•Ep 22•Transcript available on Metacast Transcript “A lot of people don't realize this, but there are other cold-inducing coronaviruses that give us the common cold that we've all had in our lives, and some of those coronaviruses can give you antibodies that would give a positive test on some SARS-CoV-2, COVID tests.” – Dr. Matt Memoli In this episode, co-hosts Dr. Celine Gounder and Ron Klain discuss the science of the immune response and the role antibodies can play in how the immune system responds to an infection. They talk with K...
May 19, 2020•25 min•Ep 21•Transcript available on Metacast Transcript "Still, like 90% of our patients are COVID patients. This is still not normal.” -Dr. Celine Gounder In this episode, our co-host, Dr. Celine Gounder, shares how her experience treating patients at Bellevue Hospital in New York City is different in early May 2020 than it was March and April. In addition, Dr. Gounder and co-host Ron Klain speak with Dr. Geoffrey Baird at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle on why his hospital was way head of the rest of the countr...
May 15, 2020•32 min•Ep 20•Transcript available on Metacast Transcript "I can't stress this enough. Rudy Gobert testing positive was the best thing that happened for the NBA. It arguably, in many ways, is the best thing that happened for this country. I don't think people were taking this seriously, Celine, until they found out an entity like the NBA could suspend its season because of the coronavirus.” -Rohan Nadkarni In this episode, our co-hosts Dr. Celine Gounder and Ron Klain speak to Rohan Nadkarni, Grant Wahl, and Peter King and look at the pandem...
May 12, 2020•25 min•Ep 19•Transcript available on Metacast Transcript “It's scary for everybody, but imagine yourself being someone that can't socially isolate, that has no home, that doesn't have a TV and doesn't know what's going on. And all of a sudden, everyone has disappeared.” -Cindy Funkhouser, CEO Sulzbacher Center In today’s episode, co-hosts Dr. Celine Gounder and Ron Klain speak with three advocates working to end homelessness. Rosanne Haggerty is the founder of Community Solutions in New York, and Jack Maguire the co-director of the Built fo...
May 12, 2020•16 min•Ep 18•Transcript available on Metacast Transcript “We want to make sure everybody's prepared because we know COVID 19 is just one epidemic that we're currently facing. There's going to be another one in the pipeline, and we need to make sure that we're investing today for tomorrow.” - Syra Madad In today’s episode, co-hosts Dr. Celine Gounder and Ron Klain speak with Syra Madad, Senior Director of the Special Pathogens Program, New York City Health and Hospitals. Syra shares her experience preparing for a potential disease outbreak l...
May 05, 2020•21 min•Ep 17•Transcript available on Metacast Transcript “We’re not working from home because we want to. Many of us are working from home because we have to. We are all thrust into this social distancing as a result of the pandemic, and in a very short time, we’ve had to adapt to some very unusual circumstances.” - Dr. William Kassler, Chief Medical Officer, IBM In this episode, Dr. Celine Gounder talks to Adam Grant, a professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. They discuss work during a pandemic and which companie...
May 01, 2020•28 min•Ep 16•Transcript available on Metacast Transcript “COVID-19 is the great revealer. It’s showing every crack and fault in the healthcare coverage system.” - Dr. Donald Berwick In today’s episode, co-hosts Dr. Celine Gounder and Ron Klain speak with Dr. Donald Berwick, former administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and senior fellow for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, about how COVID-19 has exposed the vulnerabilities of the U.S. healthcare system to a public health crisis. They also discuss how the A...
Apr 28, 2020•39 min•Ep 15•Transcript available on Metacast Transcript “We are not ready to put at risk the lives of those who are going to be on the front lines. And let’s be clear, we’re talking about populations that are likely to be people of color... and likely to be women. These are low-wage workers who do not have the luxury of refusing to return to work. If they refuse the call of their employers, because we live in a right-to-work state, they are subject to termination. This means that people are literally being told to either come back to work,...
Apr 25, 2020•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Transcript "Resources that we've been using as reasonable accommodations are now being taken up by the rest of society due to shelter in place policies, and obviously this is something that's really important to do.” -Rebecca Cokley In today’s episode, co-hosts Ron Klain and Dr. Celine Gounder speak with Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire. Senator Hassan discusses her work in the Senate as the senior Democrat on the Senate Subcommittee on Oversight and Emergency Management of the Homeland Se...
Apr 24, 2020•27 min•Ep 14•Transcript available on Metacast Transcript “As a nation, we've got to put in place a public health system that includes disease preparedness, so that we're ready for whatever is the next shock. And that all of us, no matter who we are, what social-economic status, what race, ethnicity, what job we have, that we don't have to go through this again. It's in our hands. We can do it. And it is within our reach to be able to end these sorts of unacceptable wealth and health disparities.” - Dr. Helene Gayle In today’s episode, co-ho...
Apr 21, 2020•22 min•Ep 13•Transcript available on Metacast Transcript “There’s no social distancing in the prisons, almost no protective gear for anybody, and if you also have a serious mental illness… you can’t expect them to take any of the precautions that include keeping away from other people. And you can’t expect them to take care of themselves when they can’t do it for their larger illnesses. If we look at those who are most vulnerable to getting the virus, or spreading the virus, it’s more likely to be those who are most vulnerable in our popula...
Apr 17, 2020•24 min•Ep 12•Transcript available on Metacast Transcript "The other point I made about ventilators is, they're not a panacea. Many patients don't survive them, but I don't think that reduces their importance. I think, if anything, the fact that many patients don't survive means we need to make sure that as many patients as could benefit from them actually get them. I hope that one thing we get out of this crisis is enough of a supply so that, if and when we have a future pandemic like this, we are ready." –David Lat, COVID-19 survivor In to...
Apr 14, 2020•29 min•Ep 11•Transcript available on Metacast Transcript “I mean, many of us spent the whole ‘80’s in a state of terror, knowing that we'd been exposed, not knowing our status, not knowing whether we were going to live or die. And I think the vast majority of the population now has exactly the same feeling, where they don't know if they've been exposed. They don't know if they're going to get sick. Every single person is a risk.” - Mark Harrington, Executive Director and co-founder of the Treatment Action Group In today’s episode, co-host D...
Apr 10, 2020•24 min•Ep 10•Transcript available on Metacast Transcript "It’s not an on/off switch. We are living with coronavirus until we get a vaccine, and that could be 18 months, if we’re lucky.” - Juliette Kayyem In today’s episode, co-hosts Dr. Celine Gounder and Ron Klain discuss what we could have seen coming with this pandemic and speak with Juliette Kayyem, faculty chair of the Homeland Security Program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a security analyst at CNN, about the differences in approaches to the COVID-19 pandemic between p...
Apr 06, 2020•25 min•Ep 9•Transcript available on Metacast Transcript "People who don’t have access to medical care, people who don’t have access to the healthcare system in general, are going to be much more vulnerable. They are not going to be treated, they are going to get sick, they are more likely to die, and they are also more likely to spread the virus to other people.” -Jeneen Interlandi Co-hosts Dr. Celine Gounder and Ron Klain speak with New York Times journalist and editorial board member, Jeneen Interlandi, a key member of the Times 1619 pro...
Apr 03, 2020•32 min•Ep 8•Transcript available on Metacast Transcript “I think today we are going to be doing roughly 125,000 meals across America in very strategic places. Restaurants transforming to Community Kitchens are going to be playing a vital role in every neighborhood of America to provide basic food relief for people in need. And obviously, if you can, you pay, but if you cannot pay, that's fine. No questions asked.” – Chef Jose Andres How do you feed people during a crisis? Dr. Celine Gounder and Ron Klain talk to Chef Jose Andres, who has f...
Mar 31, 2020•27 min•Ep 7•Transcript available on Metacast Transcript “The nation is confronting this kind of social distancing and quarantine for the first time in the modern era, and it isn't clear to me that the laws in place are going to be sufficient. We haven't had enough protections. We don't have paid sick leave, a lot of companies are not giving time off to low wage workers in a way that makes them feel secure...And so this is a problem because not all communities are equally protected right now.” – Vanita Gupta In today’s episode, co-hosts Dr....
Mar 27, 2020•30 min•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast Transcript "I have to say it's really weird to be at Bellevue right now. On the one hand, it feels like a ghost town. Basically, the hospital has cleared out, largely devoting itself to coronavirus patients. It's eerily quiet except for pages overheard every hour or so for patients who are getting worse and need to be transferred to the ICU and put on a ventilator." -Co-host, Dr. Celine Gounder In this episode, Dr Celine Gounder opens by sharing observations from her day in service at Bellevue H...
Mar 24, 2020•32 min•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast Transcript On March 14, 2020, Roxanne Khamsi published an article in Wired magazine: " They Say Coronavirus Isn't Airborne—but It's Definitely Borne By Air ." In today's episode, Dr. Celine Gounder speaks with Roxanne and Dr. Lydia Bourouiba, an Associate Professor at MIT who directs the Fluid Dynamics of Disease Transmission Laboratory. They speak about the difference between airborne and droplet, and what that means for the safety of healthcare workers and the precautions that individuals shou...
Mar 20, 2020•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
