COVID-19 Episodes

Jan. 6, 2023

331: Vaccine Hesitancy Study, Diabetes in Palau

Dr. Kimberly Martin, a President’s Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of California San Francisco, says black people likely avoid COVID-19 vaccines because of their distrust of the healthcare system; Antonnette Merur, Chief of Nursing for the...
Dec. 20, 2022

327: COVID Impacts Top Issues in 2023

Mike Fraser, ASTHO CEO, discusses the purpose of the organization’s annual legislative series which identifies the top 10 public health issues to watch in the new year; Dr. Dan Edney, State Health Officer for the Mississippi State Department of...
Dec. 15, 2022

324: Vaccine Anniversary

Brent Ewig, Chief Policy and Government Relations Officer for the Association of Immunization Managers, marks the second anniversary of COVID-19 vaccines this week; Jamie Pina, ASTHO Vice President of Public Health Data Modernization, says states and territories are taking action to...
Oct. 25, 2022

290: Healthy Aging Policy Trends

Claire Pendergrast, ASTHO Senior Analyst for Health Improvement and Healthy Aging, discusses a survey of healthy aging policy actions enacted across the states and territories; Dr. LeQuandra Nesbitt, former Director of the District of Columbia...
Oct. 21, 2022

288: ACIP Immunization Decisions Explained

In a special episode of the newscast, Dr. Marcus Plescia, ASTHO’s Chief Medical Officer, explains the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices decision earlier this week. The committee voted Thursday to add pediatric COVID-19 vaccines to...
Oct. 18, 2022

285: COVID-19 Spending Oversight

Jeffrey Ekoma, ASTHO’s Senior Director of Government Affairs, says oversight of COVID-19 spending might increase if midterm elections lead to change in U.S. House leadership ; Heidi Westermann, ASTHO’s Director of Public Health Systems and...
Oct. 14, 2022

283: New National Children’s Health Survey

Chrissie Juliano, Executive Director of the Big Cities Health Coalition, is joined by local public health directors to discuss public interest in the new COVID-19 booster; ASTHO is working with the National Community Action Partnership and five...
Oct. 11, 2022

280: Promoting the New COVID-19 Booster

Dr. Sameer Vohra, Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, explains how he is working to convince more people to get the new COVID-19 booster shot; ASTHO CEO Mike Fraser attends a White House Summit on Indoor Air Quality; Priya Shah, an...
Oct. 6, 2022

278: How to Push Back on STDs

Dr. Leandro Mena, Director of the Division of STD Prevention at the CDC, discusses the latest preliminary data that counts 2.5 million reported cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis last year; Reyna Olaguez, Executive Director of South Kern Sol,...
Sept. 23, 2022

269: Urging COVID-19 Booster Uptake

Dr. Steven Stack, ASTHO President-Elect, discusses the new COVID-19 booster designed to protect against the latest variants; Dr. Anne Zink, ASTHO President, explains the need to bring health care and public health closer together in an ASTHO blog...
Sept. 20, 2022

266: ASTHO’s New President-Elect

Dr. Steven Stack, Commissioner of the Kentucky Department for Public Health, and new ASTHO President-Elect, discusses the role and the pandemic’s impact on public health; Chris Taylor, ASTHO’s Director of Infectious Disease Outbreak Response and...
Aug. 31, 2022

253: Breastfeeding Policies

Deborah Backman, ASTHO’s Senior Analyst for Maternal and Infant Health, calls attention to policies in place to protect breastfeeding during National Breastfeeding Month; Dr. Gary Anthone, Chief Medical Officer and Director of Public Health for the...
Aug. 30, 2022

252: Offering Flu and COVID-19 Vaccines Together

Dr. Gillian SteelFisher, Director of Global Polling for the Harvard Opinion Research Program, reveals what polling tells us about public interest in COVID-19 booster shots; Kim Martin, ASTHO’s Director of Immunization, says National Immunization...
Aug. 24, 2022

248: New COVID-19 Guidelines

Ian Williams, Incident Manager for the CDC's COVID-19 Response, discusses the latest changes to public pandemic guidance; Lillian Colasurdo, ASTHO’s Director of Public Health Law and Data, reflects on the first-ever convening of those public health...
Aug. 22, 2022

246: Back to School Concerns

Dylan George, Director of Operations for the Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics with the CDC, discusses trying to evaluate the factors that could drive more COVID-19 infections in the fall as kids return to school; Dr. Marcus Plescia, ASTHO...