Did You Wash Your Hands?

Since March of 2020, we've been bringing you different perspectives on living through and understanding the coronavirus pandemic. Today, host Sam Whitehead sits in the interview chair to share some of the things he's learned.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dave O'Connor, a virologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, says there's lots of disagreement among scientists about the value of COVID-19 booster shots even as federal regulators make recommendations for them.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dr. Kimberly Manning, an internist at Grady Memorial Hospital, says giving people a space to share their concerns about COVID-19 vaccines can make them more confident in getting them.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dr. Joe Bresee, with the Task Force for Global Health, shares how the nonprofit's work on standing up influenza vaccination programs equip it to help countries establish COVID-19 vaccination programs.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week, we held a special live taping of the podcast with Dr. Lilly Cheng Immergluck, Immergluck, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the Morehouse School of Medicine, and Dr. Audrey Arona, who leads the Gwinnett, Newton, and Rockdale health district. The conversation focused on some of the challenges ahead and even some reasons for optimism.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Cecile Viboud, an epidemiologist with the National Institutes of Health who helps run the COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub, joins me to talk about the latest projections from the group, which show the pandemic slowing down in the next few months.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sarah Jane Tribble, with Kaiser Health News, says top U.S. scientists started talking seriously about COVID-19 booster shots in January, at a time when many Americans hadn't received their first vaccine doses.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Lawrence Gostin, who directs the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown Law. says there's a long history of vaccine mandates in the U.S. that have paved the way for those President Biden recently announced.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Becky Sayler has three kids in elementary school in the Cobb County School District. Within the first week of school one of them contracted COVID-19. She shares how her family has been navigating the situation.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dr. Carlos del Rio, infectious diseases specialist at Emory University, says low vaccination rates and the highly transmissible delta variant of the coronavirus are to blame for the current wave of COVID-19 pandemic.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

N.R. is an emergency room physician at a large hospital in metro Atlanta. He shares his experiences dealing with the current wave of the pandemic.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dr. Robert Jansen, chief medical officer of the Grady Health System, which runs Georgia's largest hospital, says the current wave of the pandemic could soon be as large at the one that swamped health care facilities this winter.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Over the course of the pandemic, many communities have turned to the non-profit group CORE for help with COVID-19 testing and vaccination. Ann Lee, CEO of CORE discusses that work.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now says even fully vaccinated people can spread the coronavirus. That's based on new research on the high-transmissible delta variant. Dr. Colleen Kraft, and infectious diseases physician and researcher at Emory University, helps unpack what that means for the pandemic.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

U.S. Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock are pushing a plan to create a federal Medicaid look-alike program to extend health coverage to low income Georgians. Both say the plan was inspired, in part, by the pandemic.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Christopher Wimer, co-director of the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University, says the expanded child tax credit payments going out to families in July could dramatically reduce child poverty in the country.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dr. David Brett-Major, an infectious diseases physician at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, says we're still learning a lot about how and why the delta variant of the coronavirus is so troublesome.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management, says the pandemic has brought some big changes to the workplace, though it's unclear which will persist.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Since March of 2020, we've brought you scores of conversations about different aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, we're doing something a little different. Health reporter Sam Whitehead plays the guest and answer questions about the origins of the show and what's coming next.Privacy Policy and California Privacy Notice.

Joshua Weitz, a quantitative biologist at Georgia Tech, says some two-thirds of Georgians could have some immune protection against the coronavirus, either through vaccination or natural infection.Privacy Policy and California Privacy Notice.

Paul Bieniasz, a virologist at the Rockefeller University, says it's not uncommon for people to get infected by a virus even once they've been vaccinated against it, but that doesn't mean a vaccine isn't working.Privacy Policy and California Privacy Notice.

Liz Hamel, director of public opinion at the Kaiser Family Foundation, says attitudes on COVID-19 vaccines have changed a good bit over the course of the vaccine rollout.Privacy Policy and California Privacy Notice.

Dr. Wendy Armstrong, medical director of Grady Health System's HIV clinic, says a plan to end the HIV epidemic by 2030 was already ambitious, but COVID-19 has made the effort even harder.

Dr. Melanie Thompson, an HIV researcher and physician in Atlanta, says COVID-19 and HIV has exposed similar inequities in the U.S.. She says the fight against one pandemic can teach us things about addressing the other.

Carl Zimmer, a columnist for the New York Times, says some scientists think the theory that the coronavirus accidentally leaked from a Chinese lab is unlikely but still deserving of investigation.

Julie Rosenberg, with the Global Health Delivery Project at Harvard University, says the spread of the coronavirus around the world could have major implications for the future of the pandemic in the U.S..

Roxane Silver, a psychologist at UC-Irvine, says living though the many traumatic events of the last 18 months could better prepare some for the stresses of the future.

Roxanne Scott, who covers immigration for WABE, says detention centers run by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement haven't been spared by COVID-19 and shares the story of a former detainee.

Dr. Evan Anderson, a physician and researcher at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, says finding a COVID-19 vaccine that's safe and effective in young children is crucial for ending the pandemic. He's working on clinical trials of Moderna's vaccine in kids 6 months through 11 years old.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, shares her thoughts on the vaccine rollout in the South and across the U.S. and on where the pandemic goes from here. We also check in with Dr. Kathleen Toomey, head of the Georgia Department of Public Health.

Adriane Casalotti, with the National Association of County and City Health Officials, says the Biden administrations promise to pump more than $7 billion into the nation's public health system could help fight COVID-19 and future pandemics.

Glen Nowak, former director of media relations for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, discusses the behind-the-scenes work that goes into the agency's public health guidance.

Amit Prasad, a sociologist at Georgia Tech, says there are cultural and historical reasons why people believe misinformation about the pandemic and knowing that can help address its spread.

Jennie Lavine, who studies infectious disease dynamics at Emory University, says it's likely the coronavirus will be with us for a long time, but that doesn't necessarily mean a bleak future.

Justin Lessler, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, says we'll reach herd immunity eventually. What's less certain is how many people will get sick and die along the way.

Dr. Cecil Bennett, a family medicine doctor in Newnan, Georgia, says primary care physicians can play a key role in the vaccine rollout, especially when it comes to addressing vaccine reluctance.

Thomas Gillespie, a disease ecologist at Emory, says changing how humans interact with animals and the natural world could change the course of future pandemics.

Selena Simmons-Duffin, health policy reporter for NPR, says still still not clear how federal officials' decision to briefly pause administration of Johnson & Johnson's vaccine will impact the national vaccination effort.

Cheryl Klaiman, a psychologist with the Marcus Autism Center, says the disruptions of the pandemic have been especially challenging for kids with autism spectrum disorder, but many have found ways to cope.

Curtis Chang, a consultant and theologian, says convincing evangelical Christians to get vaccinated against COVID-19 means getting them to trust secular institutions they often view with skepticism.

Rachel Kidman, an epidemiologist at Stony Brook University, says more than 40,000 children have likely lost parents to COVID-19 and other causes of death related to the pandemic, and the number continues to grow.

Bishop Frederick Williams, head of Gethsemane Worship Center in Albany, says his church had dozens of members hospitalized in the early days of the pandemic, as the coronavirus ravaged southwest Georgia.

Adrienne Levesque has been dealing with COVID-19 and its after-effects for a year. She's one of many so-called Long-haulers who've faced months of health challenges in the wake of a coronavirus infection.

Andy Miller, editor of Georgia Health News, says healthcare wasn't the biggest issue for state lawmakers during the recently-wrapped 2021 legislative session, despite the pandemic.

Mark Thompson, an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, led a recent study that showed the COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna worked well outside of the controlled conditions of clinical trials.

During the pandemic, the Tuskegee syphilis study has been invoked as a reason for vaccine hesitancy in the Black community. But Doctor Rueben, director of the Tuskegee University National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care, says it's not that simple.

Brian Castrucci, with the de Beaumont Foundation, says many self-identified Republicans are reluctant to get vaccinated against COVID-19, but his nonprofit has found some ways to convince them.

George Painter, president of the Emory Institute for Drug Development, says antiviral drugs play an important role in fighting this pandemic and the next one. A drug he developed is currently going through clinical trials.

Dr. Sonja Rasmussen, with the University of Florida College of Medicine, says what little we do know about the safety and efficacy of COVId-19 vaccines in pregnant individuals is promising.

Julie Rovner, chief Washington correspondent for Kaiser Health News, says the Biden administration's COVID-19 aid plan does a lot to strengthen the Affordable Care Act and make it's coverage more attainable.

Two experts who have been fighting COVID-19 for the last year — Dr. Carlos del Rio from Emory University and Fulton Board of Health director Dr. Lynn Paxton — share what they think comes next in the pandemic. The conversation was recorded during a recent live taping of the podcast.