Podcasts about health care journalists

How is Trump's executive order redefining the language permissible in scientific research, and what does it mean for academic freedom? Today, we examine the complexities surrounding scientific research under shifting political landscapes with Ivan Oransky, a seasoned medical journalist and co-founder of Retraction Watch. Oransky discusses the implications of President Trump's executive orders and how it has sent ripples throughout the scientific community, causing researchers to reconsider their work amidst existential uncertainties. Oransky explores the nuanced relationship between government funding and scientific inquiry. This episode unpacks the historical precedents of government involvement in research, tracing back to the 1940s, and examines the mounting challenges faced by scientists under the recent policy changes. Oransky provides a critical analysis of how such directives potentially stifle open inquiry and drive talented researchers away, ultimately impacting the future landscape of scientific discovery. In This Episode:Implications of Trump's executive orders on scientific researchHistorical context of government funding in scientific researchThe impact of political climates on scientific inquiry and transparencyChallenges of anticipatory obedience within research communitiesIvan Oransky's insights on sustaining open and rigorous scientific dialogue About Ivan:Ivan Oransky, MD, is the co-founder of Retraction Watch, the Editor in Chief of The Transmitter, and a Distinguished Journalist in Residence at New York University's Carter Journalism Institute, where he teaches medical journalism. He has held leadership positions at Medscape, MedPage Today, Reuters Health, Scientific American, and The Scientist. A former president of the Association of Health Care Journalists from 2017 to 2021, Oransky earned his bachelor's degree from Harvard and an MD from NYU School of Medicine. His contributions to biomedical communication have earned him accolades, including the John P. McGovern Award and commendation from the John Maddox Prize judges for his work at Retraction Watch. Read HXA's newsletter Free the Inquiry: https://heterodoxacademy.substack.com/Follow Ivan on X: https://x.com/ivanoransky  Follow Heterodox Academy on:Twitter: https://bit.ly/3Fax5DyFacebook: https://bit.ly/3PMYxfwLinkedIn: https://bit.ly/48IYeuJInstagram: https://bit.ly/46HKfUgSubstack: https://bit.ly/48IhjNF

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 496, an interview with the author of Hospital, Heal Thyself, Mark Taylor. In this episode, we explore the challenges and potential solutions in the healthcare industry, focusing on Dr. Litvak's methods. The discussion highlights the inefficiencies in hospital operations, such as overcrowding and unnecessary expenditures, and the reluctance of hospital CEOs and surgeons to adopt more efficient practices. Dr. Litvak's methods, which involve optimizing surgical schedules, have been successfully implemented at many top 12-ranked hospitals to save hundreds of millions of dollars and countless thousands of patient lives.   Mark Taylor is a veteran healthcare journalist who has covered health and medicine for newspapers and business publications for decades. He is the recipient of Kaiser and Knight fellowships and is a co-founder of the Association of Health Care Journalists. Taylor is a former steelworker, taxicab driver, waiter, and lifeguard who lives in a Northwest Indiana suburb of Chicago.   Get Mark's book here: https://shorturl.at/6kevO Hospital, Heal Thyself: One Brilliant Mathematician's Proven Plan for Saving Hospitals, Many Lives, and Billions of Dollars   Here are some free gifts for you: Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach   McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf   Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo  

In this special episode, we are joined by journalist Aneri Pattani. Ms. Pattani shares how her interest in the field of mental health journalism grew from a personal experience during her college years. She discusses how reporting on mental health and addiction has traditionally fallen under the crime beat and has therefore generally failed to cover the public health aspect of the larger story. She talks about mental health and addiction as systematic issues that should be reported in their larger context, rather than covered as individual events. Ms. Pattani offers her thoughts on how journalists can prepare to report on these health and science topics and shares helpful resources, including the Association of Health Care Journalists and The Open Notebook. She also touches on how reporting on mental health and addiction differs from other types of reporting. Ms. Pattani discusses her writing process, experiences working in this field, and the evolution of mental health and addiction reporting. Finally, she shares advice for both seasoned and new reporters who cover and would like to cover mental health and addiction. Aneri Pattani is a senior correspondent at KFF Health News, a national nonprofit outlet covering US health care and health policy. Ms. Pattani reports on a range of public health topics, with a focus on mental health, suicide, and substance use. Over the past year, she's produced a series of text and audio stories – published with NPR and CNN among other national outlets – about how state and local governments are spending their opioid settlement funds. She was a 2019 recipient of the Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism. She is pursuing her master's in public health as a Bloomberg fellow at Johns Hopkins University.   LINKS: Association of Health Care Journalists The Open Notebook How ERs Fail Patients With Addiction: One Patient's Tragic Death From Uber Rides to Patient Advocates: What It Takes to Increase ER Addiction Treatment Aneri Pattani (squarespace.com) KFF Health News ASAM Media Relations & Resources Treat Addiction Save Lives Podcast   If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, you are not alone. Treatment is available and recovery is possible. Visit ASAM's Patient Resources page for more information.   The information shared in this podcast episode is for educational purposes only and should not be taken as medical advice. The views expressed in this podcast may not be those of the host or ASAM management.

This podcast episode features a conversation about breast cancer, advocacy, and medical PTSD. Host Laura Carfing introduces two guest authors, Brenda Denzler and Elaine  Schattner, who share their experiences with breast cancer and discuss their books and writing. The episode also highlights the importance of finding purpose and meaning after a breast cancer diagnosis.Topics In this Episode:00:03:28 Finding purpose after breast cancer.00:08:35 Mental health and breast cancer.00:14:24 Importance of cancer awareness and perception.00:25:44 Importance of patient advocacy.00:39:21. Medical PTSD is real.00:41:54 Importance of compassion in healthcare.00:47:14 Early medical experiences can traumatize.00:53:49 Consider self-publishing or hiring a ghostwriter.00:57:39 Consider partnering with a ghostwriter.About the Panelists:Brenda is a writer and editor currently living in rural North Carolina. She is the author of numerous articles about cancer-related topics and treatment-related medical PTSD, including For My Own Good: Medical PTSD and Me as well as the founder and co-moderator of a support group for PTSD on Facebook.When she is not writing--and has the energy--she tackles the upkeep on her property, and tries to get in some exercise (because after all, exercise is "the answer" for just about everything that ails ya', right?), enjoys being with her grandkids, and grabs most of her opportunities to spend time with friends. In her downtime, she is currently hooked on digital jigsaw puzzles as a suitable low-brain-demand activity. She is a doggie mom to two large and energetic puppies--which as she knows now is never (in her opinion) a good idea for older people! And she is owned by a geriatric cat, which is definitely more her speed.Elaine Schattner is a physician, breast cancer survivor, and former oncologist whose book, From Whispers to Shouts: The Ways We Talk About Cancer, is published by Columbia University Press and was recently released as an audiobook. Her work explores public attitudes toward cancer through the history of cancer awareness campaigns, patient advocacy, and news including social media.Dr. Schattner is a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at Weill Medical College. After her cancer diagnosis, she earned a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University. Her freelance work has appeared in Aeon magazine, The Atlantic, NPR, Scientific American, the Washington Post, and elsewhere. She is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors and the Association of Health Care Journalists.+++++++++++++++++++++SurvivingBreastCancer.org's  Mission: To empower those diagnosed with breast cancer and their families from day one and beyond. About SurvivingBreastCancer.org: SurvivingBreastCancer.org, Inc. (SBC) is a federally recognized 501(c)(3) non-profit virtual platform headquartered in Boston with a national and global reach. Through education, community, and resources, SurvivingBreastCancer.org supports women and men going through breast cancer. We provide a sanctuary of strength, compassion, and empowerment, where those diagnosed with cancer unite to share their stories, learn invaluable coping strategies to manage wellness and mental health, and find solace in the unbreakable bond that fuels hope, resilience, and the courage to conquer adversity.+++++++++++++++++++++Follow us on InstagramLaura and Will: Support the show

This roundtable features Community Outreach, Veteran Legislative Voice, We are Globally Connected with KFF Health News, Military & Veteran Women's Coalition and Combat Sexual Assault.October is Breast Cancer, Mental Health, National Disability, and Domestic Violence Awareness Month Host: Cliff Kelley Co-Host: Col Dr. Damon Arnold Executive Producer: Glenda Smith Digital Media Producer: Ivan Ortega Scout's Honor Productions 5PMWe are Globally Connected with KFF Health News Panelist:Judith Graham, a contributing columnist, writes the “Navigating Aging” column for KFF Health News. She has covered health care for more than 30 years. She's been an investigative reporter, national correspondent and senior health reporter at the Chicago Tribune and a regular contributor to The New York Times' New Old Age blog. Judith was the first topic leader on aging for the Association of Health Care Journalists. Her work has appeared in publications including Stat News, The Washington Post, and the Journal of the American Medical Association. She is a graduate of Harvard College and has a master's in journalism from Columbia University.

Mis- and disinformation surrounding reproductive health is not new. But since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in the U.S. in June 2022, the consequences of the vast amounts of false information seeking to affect the reproductive choices of millions of Americans have made their way front and center in people's minds. In our second IJNotes episode on reproductive health reporting, IJNet's Disarming Disinformation Intern, Mya Zepp, spoke with Felice Freyer, a health care reporter at the Boston Globe and president of the Association of Health Care Journalists. Freyer discusses the prevalence and impact of disinformation surrounding abortion and reproductive health, and what journalists should do to promote credible information on abortion safety and access. Listen here: Support the show

This week, we're talking to Ted Alcorn, a New Mexico native and a freelance journalist who has written for The New York Times, teaches at Columbia University and NYU, and previously worked for the Mayor's Office in New York City. Ted recently wrote a long series for New Mexico In Depth called “Blind Drunk,” which you may have also read in the Las Cruces Sun-News. It detailed how alcohol is killing New Mexicans at a higher rate than anywhere else in the country — at a rate that's about three times higher than the national rate, actually — yet the state has largely neglected the growing crisis. That series recently won an award for Excellence in Reporting from the Association of Health Care Journalists. House Bill 230 is a proposed tax increase on alcohol. The bill cleared its first committee on Friday, Feb. 10. If passed, it would add a 25-cent tax to every pint of beer, glass of wine or shot of liquor. The bill's sponsors said increasing the state's alcohol tax is long overdue. New Mexico hasn't raised the alcohol excise tax since 1993 — that's nearly 30 years. Since then, we have seen inflation strip away the effects of having an alcohol tax to help reduce consumption. The sponsors said the proposal could decrease total alcohol consumption in New Mexico by 7%. More than 2,700 New Mexicans died from alcohol last year — more than six people a day – a nearly 50% increase from 2020. That doesn't include DWI cases and other health impacts. Despite the lower consumption, the proposed alcohol tax would still generate more than $155 million a year in revenue, according to projections, which could be funneled into prevention and treatment programs long-term. But… We may not see it pass. On Monday, Feb. 20, the bill was tabled by the House Taxation and Revenue Committee, which voted unanimously to shelve it. This may be a post-mortem on the bill, unless something changes. There's a chance it could be folded into an omnibus tax bill, according to the bill's proponents. We'll talk to Ted about that; he has been following the issue closely. This week, we're happy to have Ted joining us.

Craig Bowron, M.D., F.A.C.P., is a practicing physician and a board-certified internist. His writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Slate, HuffPost, KevinMD, Forbes, and more, and he is a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists and a fellow of the American College of Physicians. He's joining us to talk about his new book, Man Overboard!: A Medical Lifeline for the Aging Male, which dives into how the body works — and what doesn't work quite as well — as we start aging, and what we can do about it.--Resources:Learn more at CraigBowronMD.comRead: Man Overboard!Visit thisishuso.com/rebel and use the code “REBEL25” to save $25Do you want more to empower yourself through healthy living? Is your busy lifestyle an obstacle to your health? Join The Rebel Health Coach community for the support and knowledge you need for better performance, better business and a better you!Click here to join The Rebel Health Coach community now.--Disclaimer: The activities and research discussed in these podcasts are suggestions only and are only advised to be undertaken following prior consultation with a health or medical professional. Fitness training, nutrition, and other physical pursuits should be tailored to the individual based upon an assessment of their personal needs.

Craig Bowron, M.D., F.A.C.P., is a practicing physician and a board-certified internist. He works with first-year medical students at the University of Minnesota Medical School and trains resident physicians at the Internal Medicine Residency Program of Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis. He is also the author of Man Overboard! A Medical Lifeline for the Aging Male. A member of the Association of Health Care Journalists and a fellow of the American College of Physicians, Dr. Bowron lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. Visit him at CraigBowronMD.com. LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE IF: You are over 40 or if you expect to be someday! You are confused by all the medical jargon and misinformation regarding nutrition, medicine, and exercise You are passionate about wellness and staying healthy You want to start better habits to help you live longer You want to understand your health and live your best life

Harriet Hodgson has been a freelance, award-winning writer for more than 40 years and is the author of 45 books. Hodgson is a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists and Minnesota Coalition for Death Education and Support. In addition, she is a Contributing Writer for the Caregiver Space website, the Assistant Editor of the Open to Hope Foundation website, and contributor to The Grief Toolbox website. She is also a member of The Compassionate Friends, an international organization for those who have suffered the loss of a child.She has appeared on more than 185 talk shows, including CBS Radio, and CNN. A popular speaker, she has given presentations at caregiving, public health, Alzheimer's, and bereavement conferences. Her work is cited in Who's Who of American Women, World Who's Who of Women, Contemporary Authors, and other directories. Today's topic is: Creativity and Resilience. Resources: http://harriethodgson.net

Janine Zeitlin is an investigative and enterprise journalist for the USA TODAY Network-Florida. She has also written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Vice and BBC. Her journalism has received more than 50 state and national awards. Her reporting on Florida farmworkers and migrant students during the pandemic was recently honored by the national Association of Health Care Journalists and the national Education Writers Association.

Today's guest is Deanne Wilk, BSN, RN, CCDS, CDIP, CCDS-O, CCS, director of CDI at Penn State Health in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Today's show is co-hosted by Laurie Prescott, RN, MSN, CCDS, CCDS-O, CDIP, CRC, the CDI education director at HCPro and ACDIS in Middleton, Massachusetts. Featured solution: Today's featured ACDIS solution is ACDIS Pro. Just like the printed ACDIS Pocket Guide, this online portal provides all of the detail, explanation, and content you have come to trust and expect from the ACDIS team but is updated in real-time to keep you at the forefront of the CDI industry! Easily access all the query, coding, and documentation resources you love and need every day – anywhere, any time! This new, fully customizable, easy to navigate online portal can be accessed on any device – pull it up on your phone in a meeting to make sure you have the right code, access it on the go while talking to a physician, or from your office! With the ability to add your own personal notes directly into conditions for easy reference, ACDIS PRO will become your favorite reference. Click here to learn more or purchase access.  (http://ow.ly/Q5m830s1BMn)   In the News: “Find out how to prepare your audiences to respond if they find errors in their medical records” by Kerry Dooley Young in the Association of Health Care Journalists (http://ow.ly/17Bo30s6jfP) ACDIS update: “Maintaining ethical and compliant practices in quality reviews” by Deanne Wilk, BSN, RN, CCDS, CDIP, CCDS-O, CCS, in the November/December 2021 edition of the CDI Journal (http://ow.ly/shgE30s6jcY) The ACDIS Code of Ethics (http://ow.ly/CGag30s6jeE) The 2022 ACDIS conference! (http://ow.ly/fX1V30s6jgk)

In this episode, Dan LaBroad continues his conversation with Marshall Allen on why you should never pay the first healthcare bill and the truth behind healthcare costs. He's spent more than fifteen years investigating the health care industry as a journalist, exposing the insidious ways the system preys on vulnerable Americans: price gouging, sloppy billing, fraud, insurance denials, unnecessary treatment, and more. He is the author of, “Never Pay the First Bill: And Other Ways to Fight the Health Care System and Win”. His stories have been featured by the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, The Today Show, and other outlets. Speaking engagements include AcademyHealth, the Association of Health Care Journalists, the Michigan Hospital Association, the National Patient Safety Foundation, and Stanford's Medicine-X. Useful Links: Marshall Allen https://www.linkedin.com/in/marshallallen/ https://www.marshallallen.com/ This podcast is hosted by Dan LaBroad, CEO of Ovation Health & Life Services. https://ovationlife.com Produced by Work Innovators Network https://www.workinnovatorsstudios.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Dan LaBroad speaks to Marshall Allen about why you should never pay the first healthcare bill and the truth behind healthcare costs. He's spent more than fifteen years investigating the health care industry as a journalist, exposing the insidious ways the system preys on vulnerable Americans: price gouging, sloppy billing, fraud, insurance denials, unnecessary treatment, and more. He is the author of, “Never Pay the First Bill: And Other Ways to Fight the Health Care System and Win”. His stories have been featured by the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, The Today Show, and other outlets. Speaking engagements include AcademyHealth, the Association of Health Care Journalists, the Michigan Hospital Association, the National Patient Safety Foundation, and Stanford's Medicine-X. Useful Links: Marshall Allen https://www.linkedin.com/in/marshallallen/ https://www.marshallallen.com/ This podcast is hosted by Dan LaBroad, CEO of Ovation Health & Life Services. https://ovationlife.com Produced by Work Innovators Network https://www.workinnovatorsstudios.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sneha graduated from Indiana University in May 2020 where she majored in chronic illness advocacy as well as journalism. She created the Health Advocacy Summit (HAS) and its program the Crohn's and Colitis Young Adults Network (CCYAN) with support from foundations such as the Helmsley Charitable Trust to create support systems for adolescents and young adults with chronic medical disabilities across the U.S. and internationally. She is proud to work with a team composed entirely of young adults with chronic medical disabilities and also to keep the HAS and CCYAN and independent from the pharmaceutical and insurance industries. Sneha has completed an undergraduate research fellowship in health policy at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She has also interned at numerous places such as Pfizer Global Headquarters in health economics and outcomes research for Inflammation and Immunology. Sneha has spoken on Capitol Hill, featured nationally on C-SPAN, and is a past contributor for U.S. News and World Report. She has served on the Democratic National Committee Disability Policy Subcommittee and recently joined the Midwest Comparative Effectiveness Public Advisory Council, an independent appraisal committee of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review. Sneha was awarded two academic fellowships with the Association of Health Care Journalists. She was previously a national policy fellow at RespectAbility and now serves as the youngest director on the board for the national nonprofit. Sneha has spoken at the Democratic National Convention, Stanford Medicine X, the National Academies of Medicine, and other major avenues. For her work, Sneha was selected as one of the most influential teenagers in 2018 by the We Are Family Foundation and was recognized as an American Association of People with Disabilities Emerging Leader in 2020.

— Grief changes you. You are a more sensitive person now. Most importantly, you understand that being alive is a miracle. Your miracle. Valeria Teles interviews Harriet Hodgson — the author of “Grief Doodling: Bringing Back Your Smiles.” Rochester, Minnesota resident Harriet Hodgson has been a freelance writer for 43 years, is the author of thousands of articles, and 42 books. Two new books are in production now. She has a BS from Wheelock College of Education and Human Development at Boston University, an MA from the University of Minnesota, and additional graduate training. After four family members died in 2007 the focus of Hodgson's work changed from health/wellness to grief healing, and she is the author of 10 grief resources. Hodgson cared for three generations of family members. When her disabled husband was dying, she searched for ways to de-stress. To her surprise, she found a half hour of doodling refreshed her and she was able to return to caregiving with new energy. If doodling helped her Hodgson figured it could help others. Hodgson is Assistant Editor of the Open to Hope website, a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists, Alliance of Independent Authors, Rave Reviews Book Club, Rave Writers International Society of Authors, and Minnesota Coalition for Death Education and Support. She has appeared on more than 190 talk radio shows, including CBS Radio, dozens of television stations, including CNN, and dozens of Blog Talk Radio programs. A popular guest, she has given presentations at public health, Alzheimer's, bereavement, and caregiving conferences. To learn more about Harriet Hodgson and her work, please visit: https://www.harriethodgson.com/     — This podcast is a quest for well-being, a quest for a meaningful life through the exploration of fundamental truths, enlightening ideas, insights on physical, mental, and spiritual health. The inspiration is Love. The aspiration is to awaken new ways of thinking that can lead us to a new way of being, being well. 

Physician, sociologist and author Nicholas Christakis speaks with NPR journalist Rob Stein about Dr. Christakis’s bestseller, "Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live." Nicholas Christakis directs the Human Nature Lab at Yale University, where he is also the Co-Director of the Yale Institute for Network Science. Dr. Christakis is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2009, Christakis was named to the Time 100, Time Magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2009 and again in 2010, he was named by Foreign Policy magazine to its list of top global thinkers. Rob Stein is a correspondent and senior editor on NPR's science desk. Stein covers health and medicine, focusing on stories that illustrate the intersection of science, health, politics, social trends, ethics, and federal science policy. Stein's work has been honored by many organizations, including the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Association for Cancer Research, and the Association of Health Care Journalists. He was twice part of NPR teams that won Peabody Awards.

The Weaponization of the CDC Against Public Health Richard Gale and Gary Null Progressive Radio Network, April 30, 2021   What if you were to know that a cabal of corrupt bureaucrats and scientists at the heart of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have known for almost two decades that vaccines, including the MMR, can lead to autism and other neurological disorders? Most people are unaware that the CDC is a militarized federal agency further influenced by private pharmaceutical interests. Due to the politicization of national immunization, vaccine efficacy and safety has become all but irrelevant.  Its policies drive profits for itself and its partners. Now the agency is committed to have as many Americans mandated to be fully vaccinated as soon as possible, irrespective of how many lives are destroyed.  The very mindset and disregard for human life that created the notorious Tuskegee experiment is alive and thriving in the innards of the CDC.    It is time to take a hard look at the advocates of compromised pharmaceutical science and the motivations that compel the CDC and it’s vaccine network to systematically mislead the public for personal benefit, power, and greed.  We need to begin to understand that the agency operates as an independent “deep state,” secretive, non-transparent, and conducting itself in covert ways behind the disguise of heralding public health. When the brilliant journalist I.F. Stone wrote, “Every government is run by liars, and nothing they say should be believed,” he may have just as well been speaking about the CDC and its alliance with the pharmaceutical industry, many medical journals, and the mainstream media.   The money-driven institutions of evidence-based medicine and science, which have hijacked America's health agencies--the CDC, FDA, Health and Human Services (HHS), National Institutes of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Mental Health, the National Cancer Institute, and the USDA-- have plunged a stake into the heart of authentic scientific inquiry, knowledge and innovative medical progress.  Its efforts to hermetically seal and silence the debate on vaccination safety with propaganda, coercion, erroneous and deceptive research, and blatant criminality have succeeded in transforming modern vaccinology into an egregious pseudo-science that is today destroying the lives of millions of infants, children and their families.    The deep-seated problems that reside in the CDC are not going unnoticed by a growing number of Americans. A Rand Corporation survey of public trust in the agency during the Covid-19 pandemic found a 10 percent decline. For decades distrust in the CDC has been high among Black Americans; today, levels of trust among non-Hispanic whites and Hispanic respondents are comparable.  One of the fundamental reasons for Americans’ mistrust and skepticism has been the agency’s culture of muddying the lines between scientific facts and compromised opinions that support gross and deep-seated conflicts of interest.     This problem has also entered the ranks of CDC personnel.  A group of CDC scientists who called themselves SPIDER (Scientists Preserving the Integrity, Diligence and Ethics in Research) became anonymous whistleblowers after releasing a written complaint criticizing the agency for operating as a tax-funded subsidiary of the drug industry in partnership with the FDA.  And after a Congressional Government Reform Committee brought CDC officials to testify before legislators, the Committee concluded the agency had routinely allowed scientists with conflicts of interest with pharmaceutical companies to serve on its two advisory committees that make recommendations on vaccine policy   The blurring of the lines between the pharmaceutical industry and our federal health agencies has been a scandal evolving over the course of several decades. The revolving door between private interests and top government employees never ceases to gyrate.  For example, former CDC director Julie Gerberding left government to become president of Merck's vaccine division, a move that has since earned her upwards to $3 million in stock options.  This may seem to be a modest reward for Gerberding heading the agency now irrefutably responsible for the cover-up of the CDC's own studies proving the MMR vaccine increases the risk of autism in African American boys.  The MMR is manufactured by Merck.   Robert Kennedy Jr, one of the nation’s expert watchdogs in the corporatization of our federal medical establishment, has called the CDC "a cesspool of corruption." Unlike the FDA, which has a contract with the American public to assure warnings about health risks and contraindications of registered drugs and medical devices, the CDC has no such contract with the nation's citizenry.  It seemingly holds no ethical standard and abides by no mandated rules of law. For this reason it may be best regarded as an intelligence agency rather than an institution committed to public health.   One recent example of the CDC's covert activities took place in 2016. Across the mainstream media, journalists en masse denounced the documentary film Vaxxed: From Cover-up to Catastrophe. The film recounted the events of CDC whistle-blower Dr. William Thompson and his agency's intentional cover-up and destruction of documents of scientific evidence proving the MMR vaccine caused autism. Rather than denouncing the nation's vaccine agenda, the film uncovers massive corruption in the CDC's vaccine division.  But a problem with the media-wide demonization of the film arose, which included outlets such as ABC, CNN, MSNBC, the Guardian, the Washington Post and the New York Times, Forbes, Rolling Stone and many others. The media blitzkrieg occurred before the film's actual release. None of the journalists had watched it. None knew the underlying story line aside from what could be gleaned from a 3 minute trailer. Our investigative article, "Why is the CDC petrified of the film Vaxxed" uncovered a template for an editorial script upon which all of these reviews were based.  They originated from a single source, and the tracks led to the halls of the CDC. The CDC's partnership and fellowship programs with the Association of Health Care Journalists is nothing less than an intelligence indoctrination program to train journalists to be the mouthpieces of the CDC's fake science. The curriculum held at the CDC's Atlanta campus includes propaganda in federal health policies, epidemiology (no authentic gold standard biological science), pandemic preparedness, vaccine safety and autism. Journalists are also instructed to access CDC publications and databases to peruse federal resources, public relations kits, and propaganda.    Vaccine policy and the development and promotion of the childhood vaccine schedule is only one of the CDC's many corporate tasks. It is not exclusively concerned with the physical and mental health of the nation. It is also engaged in the design and development of biological weapons and threats of bioterrorism. Because vaccines are biological drugs that may be weaponized, they fall under the CDC's purview and jurisdiction. Consequently the Centers work closely with the Department of Defense and the intelligence agencies such as the National Security Agency with whom there is the exchange of data collection and sharing of classified information.  In its April 21, 2000 MMWR report entitled "Biological and Chemical Terrorism: Strategic Plan for Preparedness and Response" the CDC reported that for "the first time the CDC has joined with law enforcement, intelligence and defense agencies in addition to traditional CDC partners to address a national security threat."    This may have been the turning point when the Centers morphed into a pseudo-intelligence agency and assumed a “deep state” role by adopting an inquisitional task of population surveillance and information data collection as a matter of intelligence gathering instead of improving healthcare. During the past years, this has further grown into spying and covert operations against the critics of our national health and immunization policies. Immunization, as described on the CDC's website, is now a matter of national and global security.  Therefore, no longer are vaccines simply a public health intervention. In fact, immunization has been removed from science altogether and consequently can only rely upon flawed and unreliable research to support policy templates and recommendations that get enacted at state levels. These policies are left for politicians to debate, which is rarely done, and is no longer open for discussion among expert medical researchers outside of the CDC’s ranks and its network of trolls, shills and medical puppets spewing disinformation into the public sector.  This alone is sufficient incentive for targeting and silencing voices challenging vaccine safety and efficacy and who demand a reevaluation of vaccination and its toxic ingredients.    Few people realize that the CDC owns 56 vaccine patents; these patents are licensed to drug makers with royalties who later buy and distribute $4.6 billion worth of vaccines through its Vaccines for Children Program, which accounts for 40% of its budget. This has given rise to a 2015 British Medical Journalinvestigative report accusing the CDC of becoming a lapdog for commercial interests.    The CDC also controls a separate non-profit institution known as the CDC Foundation, which operates like an astro turf organization. Founded in 1992 through an amendment inserted into the George H.W. Bush’s Preventative Health Act, the Foundation operates outside of Congressional oversight. This is clearly stated in its documentation:     “The Foundation shall not be an agency or instrumentality of the Federal Government, and officers, employees and members of the board of the Foundation shall not be officers of the Federal government…. The purpose of the Foundation shall be to support and carry out activities for the prevention and control of diseases, disorders, injuries and disabilities, and for promotion of public health… the Foundation shall establish a fund for providing endowments for positions that are associated with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…”   In other words, the Foundation has been established as a recruiting service, funded by non-Federal sources, which can include private corporations and drug makers, for the sole purpose to serving the tax-funded CDC.  Moreover, endowments to the Foundation are “unrestricted,” which means they can be spent solely based upon the discretion of the donator and to support the giver’s vested interests.  Among the CDC Foundation’s list of partners we find all of the large vaccine makers – Glaxo, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, and Sanofi Pasteur – and of course the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. A Freedom of Information Act submission discovered that the CDC had been providing guidance to the companies for influencing authorities on sugar and beverage policies. For example, the CDC Foundation receives large donations from Pepsi and Coca Cola, and thereby exerts its influence to taint national guidelines about diabetes, liver disease and other illnesses. In another example, Roche, the manufacturer of the drug Tamiflu against influenza infection, donated $193,000 to the Foundation in return for the CDC’s advocating the drug’s benefits for relieving flu symptoms.  This completely undermines the FDA’s own ruling that Tamiflu’s clinical trial data does not support the claims that the drug saves lives or lessens hospitalization.    It has been through the Foundation that Bill Gates’ faux philanthropy has bought off the CDC. Gates has given tens of millions of dollars to the CDC Foundation over the years.  In 2013, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gave $13.5 million to support the CDC’s efforts to undertake surveillance and increase meningitis and rotavirus vaccination rates in Sub-Sahara Africa.    Furthermore, the Centers' activities are no longer limited to the US' domestic health; after 911, its mission expanded, far beyond its original mandate, and today the agency is globally engaged.  On the Centers’ website, it defines itself as America's "Global Health Protection Agency" in charge of "implementing global health security" and works in partnership with other nations. Since 2006, the CDC claimed it had trained over 115,000 professional personnel in its interpretation of health issues. It’s Global Rapid Response Team of over 400 experts "can deploy in as little as 48 hours" to respond to local and regional health emergencies. In brief, the Centers are immersed in the technology of surveillance, information gathering and analysis. These are among the defining characteristics of an intelligence agency.    Other intelligence activities often associated with a “deep state” and now undertaken by the CDC include pressuring peer-reviewed medical journals to retract studies that challenge their ideology or endanger the agency's reputation.  In 2014, Prof Brian Hooker, a biochemist at Simpson University, reevaluated the CDC's own data showing a 350% increase in autism among African American boys receiving the MMR. Initially approved for publication by the journal Translational Neurodegeneration, the study was shortly thereafter suspended after the CDC pressured the journal with fabricated claims against Dr. Hooker. This is a textbook case of intelligence sabotage of a critic by false accusation.     Similar to the Pentagon and the CIA, the CDC has also infiltrated Hollywood. Hidden within the corridors on the University of Southern California campus is the relatively unknown organization Hollywood Health and Society. Its top funders include the CDC, the National Cancer Institute, the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the largest private funder of vaccines, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  The small organization's mission is to provide "briefings and consultations with experts, case examples, panel discussions about timely health issues" for Hollywood script writers and producers. Among the main topics listed on its website are influenza, smallpox and autism, all official propaganda stamped with the CDC's seal of approval.    Among the trove of classified national security documents released by NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden, were several regarding the government's intelligence agencies' infiltration of the internet in order to manipulate information, deceive the public and destroy personal reputations of opponents, including independent journalists.  Among the documents was a manual, "The Art of Deception: Training for Online Covert Operations." One of its stated missions is to flood the internet with false information and data to destroy the reputation of its opponents.  Furthermore, the manual provides instructions on taking control of online public discourse in order to generate allegiance to the intelligence agency's false point of view.    Vaccine opponents often complain about the blogosphere being riddled with anonymous trolls, most who would be unable to debate their way out of cardboard box on scientific issues regarding vaccines, but who nevertheless follow the intelligence manual's strategies to disparage vaccine critics.  Bill Gates, who is on record condemning parents who refuse vaccines and who is no stranger to the higher echelon of executives in the vaccine industry and department heads at the CDC, funded a professor at the University of Connecticut to develop a monitoring system to track all anti-vaccine internet traffic. Given Gate's utter disdain towards voices speaking out against vaccines, we can be certain this was not for humanitarian, research purposes but as part of intelligence gathering in the CDC's war against the health of the nation.  Others who have been CDC mouthpieces yet are viewed as respectable and medically credentialed kingpins, such as Paul Offit, Peter Hotez, Senator Richard Pan, and others are welcomed by the media as the foremost authorities and final voices on vaccine topics.    To our peril, federal agencies take full advantage of the average American's scientific illiteracy.  An important survey conducted by Michigan State University found that only 4% of American adults had an understanding about stem cells. Seventy percent could "not read or understand" the science section in the New York Times.  An earlier study funded by the US National Science Foundation noted that about half of Americans understood that the earth rotates once around the sun annually, 45% of people had an "acceptable" understanding of DNA, and only 22% knew what a molecule was.  Although scientific illiteracy is an enormous threat to a functioning democracy and an informed public, nevertheless it is a boon for the CDC and the vaccine industry. Manipulating this ignorance with heavy doses of fear tactics, such as revealed through the CDC's press model to guide the mainstream media's role in increasing vaccine compliance, health officials have managed to successfully thwart many efforts to educate the public to evaluate the pros and cons of vaccination.    Along with the corporatization of Washington's three branches of government, and the emergence of a surveillance state watching over the shoulders of every citizen, the politicization of medicine, particularly vaccines, is another sign of the further decay of the nation towards totalitarianism. For almost two decades, fake news and bureaucratic deception, anger, hatred and disproportional distrust has taken the spotlight as the nation's health further erodes. Annually, the quality of Americans' health is declining and this is most evident in the younger generations who have received the bulk of vaccines. While the CDC and its allies conjure distorted statistics with no sound scientific basis from thin air in order to convince us that vaccines have saved countless lives, in fact these screeds are no more scientifically reliable than visiting the local gypsy soothsayer to have your palm read. A doctorate in science or a medical degree from Harvard does not excuse a person from duplicitous chicanery.    The good news is that the tide is slowly turning. The populace is steadily losing its faith in government. Autism rates continue to rise and parents are able to access extensive independent medical research to understand the real dangers of vaccines. A fundamental reason why parents increasingly refuse to vaccinate themselves and their children is quite simple; the cartel of pharmaceutical-friendly bureaucrats writing the nation's healthcare policies has been losing the public's trust. There is no secret why federal health officials and their absolutist claims to mandate vaccine compliance are untrustworthy. In 2016 over 1500 medical researchers surveyed by the prestigious journal Nature failed to reproduce another scientist's experimental results. Over half were unable to reproduce their own experiments. The article concludes that the potential reasons for this lack of scientific confirmation are numerous. However, most important is that no single scientific study or paper can claim to be the final word on any medical issue, and this is especially true with vaccine research. The complexities of the human immune system, its biomolecular mechanisms and epigenetic relationships with external environmental factors are not fully understood.  And there remains much more to discover and digest.  Modern immunology still has a long ways to go and needs frequent revision as new discoveries emerge. In contrast, vaccine science continues to rely partially upon an antiquated understanding of the body's immune system focused almost exclusively on antibody generation.   One example of medical negligence has been the rising epidemic of citizens who are immune-compromised and therefore most susceptible to adverse vaccine reactions. When a severe condition of immunosuppression is clearly diagnosed, it is not uncommon for physicians to withhold vaccinations.  But how many Americans are immune-compromised?  When this question was posed to a researcher at Johns Hopkins University in 2015, to his surprise Theo Schall discovered there were no population accurate statistics and none of our federal health agencies nor medical institutions were tracking it.  Not only are these people at higher risk for vaccine injury, they are also at a higher risk for infection from wild viruses. Federal vaccine policies do not differentiate the population with weakened immune systems from healthier individuals. The CDC' immunization schedule is a one-size-fits-all paradigm/ Its bottom line demands that everyone should and must be vaccinated.    After reviewing the different immune-compromised populations (eg, immunosenescence or weakened immunity due to age in the senior population, malnourishment, cancer patients, people with AIDS and HIV, transplant recipients, patients under immunosuppressive drugs with autoimmune conditions, and primary genetic immunodeficiency disorders, Schall estimated there were approximately 122.6 million Americans with a weakened immune system and stand at higher risk for infections. Our revaluation of the available figures places this figure now at 130.4 million, over one-third of the US population.   The question whether 130 million people, including hundreds of thousands of children, should be subject to injections with infectious viruses-- live, attenuated or killed – or now the new generation of mRNA Covid-19 vaccines that have no prior precedence for observing long-term adverse effects, is never discussed. Volumes of medical and biochemical research confirming the severe vaccine ingredients are also ignored. Nor is any consideration given to the number of vaccines administered and the risks due to the accumulative levels of toxic ingredients when multiple vaccines are given simultaneously or within short time intervals. Nor do pediatricians routinely evaluate the state of children's immunological health before determining whether or not to administer vaccines. There is no profit from delaying or postponing vaccination.  No perks are received from insurance companies for increasing vaccination compliance.  And finally, physicians and pediatricians are largely as ignorant as the general public about the scientific evidence supporting and debunking vaccine safety and efficacy myths.  Their primary source of information is channeled through the CDC and its disinformation campaign.    The CDC has yet to conduct or fund definitive and legitimate studies to determine once and for all individual vaccine safety and whether or not vaccines as exogenous factors are contributing to the onslaught of illnesses ravishing the country. Yes, such gold standard studies, which remain absent from the pro-vaccine arsenal, would be very costly.  But that would be the price to pay to bring sanity to the irrational conclusions of the CDC’s decision makers on our nation’s national advisory vaccine committee. Nevertheless, the cumulative financial cost of all previous government sponsored fake science would be a small price to pay for the future well-being of children.     During Congressional proceedings in 2002 into the causes for the unaccountable rise in autism in the United States, CDC officials confirmed no studies have been undertaken to compare the quality of health between vaccinated and unvaccinated children. Yet the subcommittee was assured by the CDC that such studies would be conducted. A decade later, when the CDC was again yanked back into a subcommittee, still no studies had been conducted, and again, Congress was assured such studies were forthcoming.    We should not hold our breath. Officials at the CDC and Department of Health and Human Services know perfectly well that vaccinated children are susceptible to far more allergies and illnesses than their unvaccinated peers.  Their greatest fear is a thorough long-term study to see whether unvaccinated children are indeed healthier. Otherwise, the necessary research to prove the health advantages of vaccines would have been conducted long ago.    Yet there are reasons why such studies are not mandated nor funded. Health agencies are fully aware that vaccines are a scourge. Instead they pump out ecological and epidemiological cohort studies, notorious for subjective manipulation, confounders and biases to support their dogma. Such studies, which are little more than algorithmic equations for sifting, shifting and fudging data, are scientifically invalid for determining any medical truth.  Nevertheless, epidemiological studies remain the most cited articles by the most vocal proponents of vaccination and vaccine mandates.    However, corruption at the CDC is not limited to national vaccine policies and the deceptive manipulation of scientific data to further advance a national vaccination regime. The agency has also been discovered to mislead the nation on other health issues that in turn shape government policies. Earlier it was accused of inflating numbers of rapes in the US. The CDC estimated 2 million rapes occurred within a single year (2011); however, the Justice Department's crime statistics recorded only 238,000. Later Time magazine reported that the manner the CDC gathered its information was extremely flawed and biased.   In 2016 The Hill reported that the CDC misled Congress with its WISEWOMAN project --  a national screening and evaluation project to help reduce heart disease risks in women between 40-64 and to promote healthier lifestyles.  The CDC's data of the project was all "cooked" to make the results look better than it was and that the project was larger and more inclusive than it actually was   The writings of Hannah Arendt over fifty years ago about the origins of totalitarian ideologies and states have never been more poignant and prophetic than today.  She worried deeply about the language of absolutism, and particularly in the realm of science, which is now the underlying mission of the CDC to politicize immunization. The attempt to reduce all of human life to well-defined processes, to predictable patterns and primitive linear reductionism, was in Arendt's view both self-defeating and extremely dangerous for a healthy society. In a totalitarian state, objectivity is tyrannical. Scientific objectivity that threatens the official policy even more so. In the case of vaccines, the entire industry is a creed that has institutionalized a denial of the most fundamental principles of science and fact finding. And worse, the CDC's ongoing war of terror against the unvaccinated has become lawful.  And this is what gives rise to a totalitarian culture of science.    Arendt was certain that a fascist worldview does not necessarily have to be framed in nationalism, religious doctrine nor based upon race and ethnicity. She worried that science, and its technologies, once they become politicized, would give rise to new forms of totalitarianism and persecution in the future. And today this totalitarian stench breathes through many scientific institutions and universities, throughout the private vaccine industry, and its most pungent odor of rot and decay fills the halls of the CDC. 

While we wait for vaccines to stem the tide of the Covid onslaught, Clay brings on author and health care expert Jonathan Cohn to take a look at the state of healthcare in our country.  Why aren’t all of us covered in the pandemic era? And isn’t there an incentive for business to turn over employee coverage to the government?  The devil is in the details, but many recent plans have the potential to take us past the goal line of universal coverage-- something that could have saved thousands of lives during COVID.  Will the current Congress and President Biden make any bold moves  to get us to it?  Or must we wait for legislators to overcome their historic inertia (not to mention interest groups) and deliver change that could benefit all Americans for decades to come?Guest:Jonathan Cohn Jonathan Cohn is a Senior National Correspondent at HuffPost who writes about politics and policy with a focus on social welfare. Jonathan worked previously at the New Republic and American Prospect, and has written for the Atlantic, New York Times Magazine, and Self. His journalism has won awards from the Sidney Hillman Foundation, the Association of Health Care Journalists, World Hunger Year, and the National Women's Political Caucus. He is the author of the 2007 book Sick: The Untold Story of America's Health Care Crisis and, coming from St. Martin's Press in February 2021, The Ten Year War: Obamacare and the Unfinished Crusade for Universal Coverage.Get more from Jonathan Cohn with: Twitter | @HuffPost |Author of “The Ten Year War” | And other books! Host: Clay Aiken has sold 6 million albums, authored a New York Times bestseller, and ran for Congress in North Carolina in 2014 almost unseating a popular Republican incumbent.Follow Clay Aiken further on: Twitter  | Instagram | Facebook Email your questions to podcasts@politicon.com FOLLOW @POLITICON AND GO TO POLITICON.COM

I welcome Kristina Marusic to the show to talk about her new devastating, investigative series for Environmental Health News, “Fractured: The Body Burden of Living Near Fracking.” Fractured lays bear their scientific findings from a 9-week pilot study in Southwestern Pennsylvania where families are exposed to harmful chemicals and the failure of local, state, and federal officials to protect communities’ physical, mental, and social health. The series focuses on five families, three in Washington County, PA and two in Westmoreland County, PA. The study finds not only high levels of toxic chemicals in the air and water - but inside the bodies of these families, with children frequently showing the highest levels of toxins. The study also explores how the explosion of fracking in Southwestern PA has also led to significant costs on the mental health of residents and a breakdown in the social well-being of communities.  Kristina Marusic covers environmental health and justice issues in Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania. She has received recognition or awards from the Society of Environmental Journalists, the Association of Health Care Journalists, the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Institute of Health Care Management, the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania, the Carnegie Science Center, and the Pittsburgh-based Group Against Smog and Pollution (GASP) for her reporting on these topics. Prior to joining EHN, Kristina covered issues related to environmental and social justice as a freelancer for a wide range of digital media outlets including Slate, Vice, Women's Health, MTV News, The Advocate, CNN, and Bustle. She is also the co-president and co-founder of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Association of LGBTQ Journalists. She is also working on a new book called, The New War on Cancer, about the doctors, researchers, and activists leading a nationwide movement to rethink cancer prevention strategies through the lens of toxic exposures, to be published by Island Press in 2022. She lives in Pittsburgh, where she spends much of her free time kayaking the city's iconic three rivers, consuming coffee and eating adventurously. Reach her at kmarusic@ehn.org. And, make sure to check out all the awesome reporting over at Environmental Health News, https://www.ehn.org/. Read the series:  “Fractured: The Body Burden of Living Near Fracking.” Follow Kristina Marusic on Twitter: @KristinaSaurusR Follow Environmental Health News: @EnvirHealthNews

Whatever it is you're doing to cope with the constant new normal of these uncertain times as we barrel into the holiday season, we are glad you are here! Joining us today is Tara Haelle. Tara is a regular http://www.forbes.com/sites/tarahaelle/ (Forbes contributor) and the http://healthjournalism.org/blog/category/covering-medical-studies/ (core topic leader in medical studies) for the Association of Health Care Journalists. As a freelance science and health reporter and parenting blogger, her pieces frequently appear in NPR, Scientific American, Slate, Politico, HealthDay, Everyday Health, and Consumer Reports.  Tara is author of http://theinformedparentbook.com/ (The Informed Parent: A Science-Based Resource for Your Child's First Four Years), coauthored with Emily Willingham. In another life, she was also a world traveler — backpacking, hiking, train-hopping and motorbiking through more than 40 countries on six continents while eating strange insects, climbing ancient ruins and swimming with sharks — before she became a mom. It was also pre-pandemic, and our interest in this interview is discussing what research is telling her about how we can cope in a crisis that just keeps going on and on. https://medium.com/@tarahaelle (https://medium.com/@tarahaelle) https://www.tarahaelle.net/ (https://www.tarahaelle.net/) Time Stamps: 2:35 We open up the discussion talking about the pandemic and Tara shares her story about her personal emotional crash 5:43  Tara discusses surge capacity and how the pandemic created a situation for us where we have exceeded that capacity  7:20 Shelley talks about chronic stress syndrome and the feelings of tired and wired 8:25 We discuss why this time has been especially hard for high performers  11:00 Tara shares how accepting our current reality and accepting what that means are the keys to managing this pandemic  14:40 Tara explains the concept of ambiguous loss as it relates to the pandemic  17.40 We discuss parenting in the pandemic  24:16 We talk about screen time and how it relates to anxiety before and during the pandemic  30:12 Tara shares creative suggestions, practices and routines that she recommends to take care of ourselves through the pandemic and building up your resilience bank account Leave us a review and https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-big-self-podcast/id1485907203 (subscribe on Apple iTunes). https://open.spotify.com/show/1yx9VzUCRcYezd7cUlSRn4?si=Xygeo5a7T0ePnX7IaHu0AQ (Subscribe on Spotify). Find us at the Big Self Community on Facebook.

On this episode, we're joined by journalists Tara Haelle and Bara Vaida to talk about the Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ) and health journalism in the age of Covid-19. They explained what the organization does, why it is invaluable to health care journalists as an informational and networking resource, as well as their role as topic leaders in medical studies and infectious disease, respectively.Tara talked about the importance of media understanding the different stages of vaccine development. Bara talked about writing about pandemic preparedness and why it's important for reporters to understand the connection of politics and health care.They explained the challenges that occur when some political reporters enter the health journalism landscape – understanding that evidence trumps “both sides” reporting. They talked about the value of Twitter in helping them find public health experts and lessons learned that could be applied to reporting on future health care issues (such as health care disparities, listening to the right experts for the right questions, and building public health literacy).We ended the discussion by talking about their journalistic passions, what advice they would have for future journalists, and what journalism organizations they would like to salute. Notable LinksAHCJ websiteAHCJ TwitterTara's TwitterBara's TwitterTara's website, TedXTalk on vaccination, and parenting bookBara's website and pandemic preparedness article  

It's All Journalism host Michael O'Connell is joined this week by Ivan Oransky of the Association of Health Care Journalists to discuss resources and tools available to reporters who find themselves covering the coronavirus pandemic without any specialized training in medical or health reporting. Keep up with the latest news about the It's All Journalism podcast, sign up for our weekly email newsletter.

A senior at Indiana University majoring in chronic illness advocacy and journalism, Sneha Dave is no stranger to #SpoonieLife. Diagnosed at the age of six with ulcerative colitis (UC), she is the founder of Health Advocacy Summit (HAS), an organization that hosts events in various cities around the country to provide education, insight, and community to an often underserved patient population affected by chronic illness: young adults transitioning from pediatric to adult care. HAS’s sister organization, the Crohn’s and Colitis Young Adults Network (CCYAN), connects the IBD youth community around the world. An advocate through and through, Sneha has spoken on Capitol Hill, featured nationally on C-SPAN, and contributed to U.S. News and World Report, Yahoo! News, Huffington Post, and others. In 2018, the We Are Family Foundation chose her as a Global Teen Leader through its Three Dot Dash program. Sneha has completed a research fellowship in health policy at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where she is continuing research as an undergraduate in health care related to young adults. She has also interned at the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation Headquarters and Pfizer Global Headquarters in health economics and outcomes research for Inflammation and Immunology. She created and chairs the first disability caucus in Indiana, and has served on the Democratic National Committee Disability Policy Subcommittee and Women’s March Disability Caucus. Sneha was awarded two academic fellowships with the Association of Health Care Journalists. She was previously a national policy fellow and now serves as the youngest director on the board for RespectAbility, a nonprofit fighting stigma and advancing opportunities for people with disabilities. Sneha has spoken at Stanford Medicine X; at the Harvard Youth and Public Health Summit; the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine; and other major avenues. She is also a national ambassador for the Invisible Disabilities Association and Lyfebulb. Sneha is passionate about advancing health care in rural communities, and is an ardent proponent for greater transparency in the patient advocacy space. Tune in as Sneha shares… how she was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, and what treatment was like in the early stages of her illness that she used the restroom up to 20 times a day in her worst flares that she weighed about 60 lbs during her freshman year of high school that she had a full colectomy in her freshman year of college (removal of her large intestine and colon) that she now lives with a j-pouch and has chronic antibiotic-refractory pouchitis —and is still seeking a viable treatment option for this condition why bowel disease is difficult to discuss as a young adult background on 504 accommodations (disability accommodations for US high school students) how Sneha’s mom has been an advocate for her over the years — and how they’ve become closer as a result how she seeks accommodations for her illness, and the barriers she’s had to surmount to do so her journey to identifying as disabled why she started Health Advocacy Summit the urgent need for peer support among young women with chronic illness, in particular why young adults have such particular needs in terms of disability support, community, and access

On this episode, Wendell and Joey discuss health care reform, rural America and the state of health care journalism with past president of the Association of Health Care Journalists and Tarbell.org contributor, Trudy Lieberman.   P.S. You may not hear from us for a bit because we have a lot in store for season 2 of The Potter Report coming soon! 

Beth Skwarecki is the author of two books and the Health Editor of Lifehacker. She's here to dispel fitness and health myths that might be leading us astray. Beth is a member of the National Association of Science Writers and the Association of Health Care Journalists. After getting a BA in biology from Alfred University, she received her Master's in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Rutger's University. She also has previously taught nutrition and environmental sciences at the Community College of Allegheny County. Her two books will interest the science nerds out there: Outbreak: 50 Tales of Epidemics That Terrorized the World Genetics 101: From Chromosomes and the Double Helix to Cloning and DNA Tests, Everything You Need to Know About Genes This conversation focuses on the many side aspects of a healthy lifestyle that make running easier. After all, it's critical to have a lifestyle that supports running. You can't train well if you barely sleep and drink a lot... We're talking about: DNA trivia for runners How her job has changed her outlook on health and fitness How to engineer a less groggy morning (for the morning runners out there!) Whether elderberry supplements are a waste of money Beth and I also discuss running in the dark, the cutoff point for running in extreme cold, and the warning signs of frostbite.

Mary Otto is the oral health topic leader of the Association of Health Care Journalists. In recent years her research has been on oral health, and the life stories she's uncovered, people dying from an abscessed tooth because they could not afford a dentist, or the medication. This and other important stories are found in her important book--Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality and the Struggle for Oral Health in America. This also is important insight on the importance of oral health and its impact on our general health. http://thenewpress.com/books/teeth

Harriet Hodgson has been a freelance writer for 37+ years and is the author of 35 books. She has a BS from Wheelock College in Boston, MA and an MA from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN campus. Hodgson is a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists and Minnesota Coalition for Death Education […]

A multi-year investigation of the dental health in America has come up with some interesting questions. For example, why is oral health separate from overall health, despite a century of research that says the two ought to be connected? Why do more than half of all dentists not participate in public insurance programs? And why the dramatic increase in emergency visits because of dental problems? On this week’s Perspective program a look at the background of these and many other puzzling questions concerning American dental health. Guest: Mary Otto, author of Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America. She is also the oral health topic leader for the Association of Health Care Journalists.  Perspective is a weekly public affairs program hosted by Richard Baker, communications professor at Kansas State University. Perspective has been continuously produced for public radio stations by K-State since the mid-1970s and has included interviews with dignitaries, authors and thought leaders from around the world. Send comments, questions or requests for copies of past programs to ksrenews@ksu.edu.

Mary Otto is the oral health topic leader of the Association of Health Care Journalists. In recent years her research has been on oral health, and she brings us an important book: "Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality and the Struggle for Oral Health in America". http://thenewpress.com/books/teeth

Listen Now As former DHHS Secretary Louis Sullivan wrote in support of this work, "Mary Otto brings history, policy and painful personal realities together in this compelling and engaging book about our nation's highly preventable epidemic of oral disease.  Teeth should be read by every policy maker and health professional who believes we can and must ace to reduce the current barriers to dental care."  (Listeners of this podcast may be also interested in related interviews with Burton Edelstein, DDS, from April 2013 and my interview with the American Dental Association's Dr. Marko Jujicic from January 2016.) During this 22 minute conversation, Ms. Otto discusses the impetus for her work, i.e., the 2007 death of a 12-year old Maryland resident, Deamonte Driver, from an abscessed tooth, she discusses efforts to integrate oral health with overall physicial health, the problems of substantial racial/ethnic disparities in oral health in light of the industry's increasing financial interests in provided cosmetic dentistry, the battle between dentists and mid-level providers, e.g., dental hygienists, over the latter's efforts to improve oral health primary and secondary prevention and the possibilities for improved oral health coverage moreover for adults under both Medicare and Medicaid.   Ms. Mary Otto is the oral health topic leader for the Association of Health Care Journalists.  She began writing about oral health at The Washington Post, where she worked for eight years covering social issues, including health care and poverty.  Ms. Otto is a resident of Washington, DC.  Ms. Otto's volume is available via Amazon at: https://www.amazon.com/Teeth-Beauty-Inequality-Struggle-America/dp/1620971445.   A review of her work appeared in the March 23rd issue of The New York Times, at: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/23/books/review/teeth-oral-health-mary-otto.html?_r=0.   An executive summary of Surgeon General David Satcher's 2000 report, "Oral Health In America," noted during this conversation, is at: https://www.nidcr.nih.gov/datastatistics/surgeongeneral/report/executivesummary.htm.  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thehealthcarepolicypodcast.com

Harriet Hodgson has been a freelance writer for 37+ years and is the author of 35 books. She has a BS from Wheelock College in Boston, MA and an MA from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN campus. Hodgson is a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists and Minnesota Coalition for Death Education […]

Elisabeth L. Rosenthal, a New York Times correspondent who trained as a medical doctor, is the author of Paying Till it Hurts, an award-winning 2 year-long series on health care costs and pricing. She is currently completing a book about the commercialization of American medicine, to be published by Penguin Random House early in 2017. During 20 years as a reporter/correspondent for the New York Times, she has covered a wide variety of beats – from health care to international environment to general assignment reporting for 6 years in China. She is a frequent contributor to the New York Times’ Sunday Review section. Ms. Rosenthal’s journalism awards include the Victor Cohn Prize for medical reporting, the Association of Health Care Journalists’ beat reporting prize, the Online New Association’s award for Feature reporting and the Asia Society’s Osborn Elliott prize. She has been a Poynter Fellowat Yale and a Ferris Visiting Professor at Princeton. Born in New York City, Ms. Rosenthal received a B.S. degree in biology from Stanford University and an M.A. degree in English literature from Cambridge University. She holds an M.D. degree from Harvard Medical School. She trained and worked at Weill-Cornell Medical Center in the Emergency Department before becoming a full-time journalist.

Ellen Rand, author of the book, "Last Comforts: Notes From the Forefront of Late Life Care,"has been a journalist for more than 40 years, including five years as a housing columnist for The New York Times. She is a hospice volunteer with Holy Name Medical Center in Bergen County, New Jersey, a member of the Hospice Volunteer Association and the Association of Health Care Journalists. Her essays have appeared in several medical humanities publications, including Pulse—Voices from the Heart of Medicine; KevinMD; and Life Matters Media. She blogs at http://lastcomforts.com.  End of Life Care Certificate Program Learn.Create.Serve. training and mentoring doulas, companions, guides and midwives since 2005  

This is the first of an occasional series profiling standout health care journalists. Christie Aschwanden is currently the lead science writer for FiveThirtyEight.com, but her work has appeared in many outlets. In her writing she keeps pursuing important basic questions, such as “How do we know what we know and how certain can we be about it?” This podcast is embedded in a broader blog post, found at: http://www.healthnewsreview.org/?p=44544.

Scientific American editor Christine Gorman talks about the recent conference of the Association of Health Care Journalists, including Jimmy Carter's efforts against guinea worm and trachoma, and Rosalynn Carter's mental health initiatives

Scientific American editors Christine Gorman, Robin Lloyd, Michael Moyer and Kate Wong talk about their recent trips to different science conferences: the meetings of the Association for Health Care Journalists, the Paleoanthropology Society, the American Association of Physical Anthropologists and an M.I.T. 150th-anniversary conference called Computation and the Transformation of Practically Everything

"Dr. Neal Barnard's Program for Reversing Diabetes"Neal D. Barnard, MD is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine, and President of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine,   a non-profit organization that promotes preventative medicine, conducts clinical research, and encourages higher standards for ethics and effectiveness in research.Dr. Barnard is the author of numerous books, including Breaking the Food Seduction, Turn Off the Fat Genes, Foods That Fight Pain and his latest book, Dr. Neal Barnard's Program for Reversing Diabetes. In his monthly column for Vegetarian Times, he answers reader's questions about health and nutrition. His scientific articles have appeared in prestigious journals, such as Scientific American, The American Journal of Cardiology, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, The Archives of Family Medicine, The Journal of American Dietetic Association, The Lancet Oncology, The Journal of Nutrition Education, Nutrition Reviews, The American Journal of Medicine, and Preventative Medicine.He is a frequent lecturer at scientific and lay conferences and has made presentations for the American Medical Writers Association, The World Bank, The National Library of Medicine, The Franklin Institute, The Association of Health Care Journalists, The Center for Science in the Public Interest, and many state dietetic associations.Dr. Barnard resides in Maryland.           If you have any questions or comments for any of our team or would like to hear your voice on one of our upcoming shows, call our special voicemail line or email us. You might soon be a podcast star. Comment Line: (206) 888-0444 email: feedback @diabetespowershow.com