MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2020

Can Facebook’s Two Billion Users Slow the Pandemic? Dr. Farzad Mostashari on the COVID-19 Symptom Data Challenge

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Farzad Mostashari, Founder and CEO of Aledade, former National Coordinator for Health IT, and Chair of the COVID-19 Symptom Data Challenge, a partnership with Facebook Data for Good, Carnegie Melon, Duke, University of Maryland, Resolve to Save Lives and organized by Catalyst @Health 2.0. The challenge is encouraging developers to create tools to mine data submitted by tens of millions of Facebook users, tracking real time COVID-19 symptoms to identify potential pandemic hotspots, for better epidemiological forecasting.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2020

CMS Administrator Seema Verma Talks Expansion of Telehealth, Development of COVID-19 Vaccine and Answers Recent Allegations

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome Seema Verma, Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under the Trump administration, a trillion dollar-a-year agency providing health coverage for 130 million vulnerable Americans on Medicaid and Seniors on Medicare. She discusses the agency’s dramatic transformation in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including hundreds of waivers lifting restrictions for providers across the country, a swift expansion of telehealth adoption, and Operation Warp Speed’s quest to provide a safe and efficacious vaccine for widespread distribution, once it is approved. She also addresses recent allegations around agency spending questions.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2020

Guns, America and the “Violence Inside Us”: US Senator Chris Murphy Explores Origins of the Nation’s Gun Culture and His Own Odyssey for Reform

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with US Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, whose critically acclaimed new book examines America’s long, unique history of violence and its embedded gun culture. His book, “The Violence Inside Us: A Brief History of an Ongoing American Tragedy”, examines the birth and growth of America’s gun culture, the conditions that perpetuated it, and his quest to pass sane gun laws in response to the Sandy Hook School shooting.

MONDAY, AUGUST 31, 2020

National Pediatric Leader Talks About Returning To School In Pandemic

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Sara Goza, President of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the largest organization dedicated to advancing the physical, mental and social health of the nation’s infants, children and young adults. Dr. Goza discusses how pediatricians can help inform the tough decisions families are making to keep kids safe while sending them back to school, the vital importance of continued well-visits and vaccinations for kids, and the policy agenda being promoted by the Academy to insure the health and safety of all children, including gun violence, poverty and social determinants of health.

MONDAY, AUGUST 17, 2020

Should I Send My Kids Back To School? Renowned Scientist Dr. William Haseltine Has Advice for Families

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. William Haseltine, President of ACCESS Health International, a global health think tank. He is also a renowned scientist, entrepreneur, philanthropist and founder of Harvard Medical School’s HIV/AIDS and cancer research centers. He discusses his two new books: A Family Guide to COVID: Questions and Answers for Parents, Grandparents and Children, and A COVID Back To School Guide which are continually-updating ‘living e-books’ offering answers to the many questions families have about how to navigate their way through the pandemic.

MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 2020

New York Times Science Reporter Apoorva Mandavilli On The Challenges of Covering COVID 19

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with New York Times Science and Global Health Reporter Apoorva Mandavilli, who has been covering emerging discoveries around the COVID-19 pandemic. She discusses the rapidly-evolving science on how this novel pathogen spreads, the guidelines for sending kids and teachers back into schools, and the rapid development of therapeutics and vaccines to treat and prevent infection.

MONDAY, AUGUST 3, 2020

COVID-19 Vaccines: When Will They Be Ready? Will They Work? Listen to Leading Expert Dr. Naor Bar-Zeev

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Naor Bar-Zeev, Deputy Director of the International Vaccine Access Center at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He examines the scientific guidelines governing COVID-19 vaccine phase 3 clinical trials, including a broad demographic representation to ensure vaccine safety across multiple populations, and the need to address vaccine hesitancy as well as the global supply chain needed to distribute billions of doses.

MONDAY, JULY 27, 2020

Dr. Eric Topol: What Lies Between Now and COVID-19 Vaccine

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Eric Topol, Founder and Director of the Scripps Translational Institute, and author of “The Creative Destruction of Medicine”. Dr. Topol is a renowned cardiologist and health data champion, and shares a harsh assessment of federal handling of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the US. He’s heartened by the many collaborations yielding significant scientific discovery around rapid testing technology and vaccines. He’s concerned the anti-science movement will undermine deployment of an effective vaccination program, once one makes it to the public.

MONDAY, JULY 6, 2020

COVID-19 and American Indians: Dr. Donald Warne on the Devastating Toll of the Pandemic on Native American Populations

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Donald Warne, Director of Indians Into Medicine (INMED) at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine. A renowned expert on American Indian health policies, Dr. Warne talks about the devastating toll COVID-19 is exacting on communities of color, particularly American Indians, who already suffer the effects of long term poverty, health disparities and Congress’ repeated failure to fully fund Indian Health Services which has led to a huge burden of chronic disease.

MONDAY, JUNE 22, 2020

Inflection Point: US House Majority Whip James Clyburn on Race, Police, and the Pandemic

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with House Majority Whip, US Congressman James Clyburn who says we have reached an inflection point in American history in addressing the high cost to communities of color from health disparities, policing injustices and economic inequality. Congressman Clyburn examines important legislation aimed at stemming racially motivated police brutality, as well as improving health care access for vulnerable Americans through expansion of community health centers and telehealth.

MONDAY, JUNE 15, 2020

COVID 19: We’re in the Second Inning - According to Noted Epidemiologist Dr. Michael Osterholm

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Michael Osterholm, world-renowned epidemiologist, pandemic expert and Director of the Center for Infectious Disease, Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. The author of The Deadliest Enemy: Our War with Killer Germs, Dr Osterholm has warned for years of the likelihood of a pandemic such as COVID-19.He extols the need for ongoing measures to protect the public health and front line health care workers through mask use, social distancing and tests, and the herculean scientific efforts to produce treatments and a vaccine.

MONDAY, MAY 18, 2020

How the US Pandemic Preparedness Failed: Harvard’s Dr. Ashish Jha on the Best Way Forward Through Covid-19

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Ashish Jha, Director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, who is advising state, federal and international governments on Covid-19. He laments the delayed and inadequate response by the federal government to the threat of Covid-19, how failure to deploy a cohesive testing strategy has cost lives, and how an aggressive national approach is needed to safely navigate the way through this pandemic. He predicts the coronavirus will change training of future health professionals, as well as the way the American health care system is run.

MONDAY, MAY 11, 2020

Telehealth, Testing and Contact Tracing: Dr. John Halamka on COVID-19 Healthcare Coalition

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. John Halamka, President of the Mayo Clinic Platform, a partnership with Google and multiple entities to improve healthcare through better data. He recently launched the COVID-19 Healthcare Coalition, with more than 800 private sector and academic partners collaborating on multiple fronts to combat COVID-19. They discuss the “five phases” to a “new normal” including isolation, infection and antibody testing, contact tracing and vaccine development as precursors fully reopening society.

MONDAY, MAY 4, 2020

America’s Loneliness Epidemic Amid COVID-19: Former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on the Toll of Isolation on America’s Health

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome US Surgeon General under President Obama, Dr. Vivek Murthy, whose new book “Together: The Healing Power of Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World” examines the causes and harmful effects of the epidemic of loneliness in America and its impact on health. Dr. Murthy examines how the COVID-19 pandemic is amplifying this crisis, and how we, as a society, must address this issue.

MONDAY, MARCH 2, 2020

Pandemic Expert Dr. Sheri Fink on Reducing Harm From Coronavirus in US

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Sheri Fink, Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times Correspondent and one of the Executive Producers of “Pandemic: How to Avoid an Outbreak” on Netflix. She has covered numerous catastrophes, epidemcis and war zones, and shares her insights into public health interventions that reduce harm from pandemics, and how institutions and individuals must prepare to protect themselves.

MONDAY, FEBRAURY 24, 2020

What You Need to Know About COVID-19 With Dr. Saad Omer of the Yale Institute for Global Health

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Saad Omer, Director of the Yale Institute for Global Health, on the expanding COVID-19 outbreak. A renowned epidemiologist, Dr. Omer discusses the best protocols against spread of the Coronavirus epidemic, the need for evidence-based science to guide government responses, and how the global research community is working together to tackle this outbreak and create a vaccine in record time.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2020

COVID-19’s Global Spread: NIH's Lead on Coronavirus, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Talks about the Growing Epidemic and Whether America is Safe

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Anthony Fauci, globally renowned epidemiologist and Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Fauci shares the latest findings on COVID-19, a new Coronavirus strain that has spread to nearly 30 countries and left thousands dead. He discusses how travel restrictions and local quarantines in China may have averted a bigger global health catastrophe and looks at the rapid development of vaccines already in the pipeline.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2020

Pulitzer Prize Winners Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn Chronicle America’s ‘Deaths of Despair’ in Their Latest Book “Tightrope”

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome Pulitzer Prize winners, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and journalist and consultant Sheryl WuDunn. The prolific husband-and-wife writing team discuss their latest book about a humanitarian crisis happening right here in America. In “Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope”, they explore the decline in life expectancy and the rise of ‘deaths of despair’ in the US. They also examine solutions to address this growing public health crisis.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2020

Guns are Killing American Children: University of Michigan Researcher Rebecca Cunningham is Seeking To Find Out Why

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Rebecca Cunningham, Director of the University of Michigan Injury Prevention Center. Dr. Cunningham is leading a national team of scientists in ground-breaking collaborative research to examine the myriad causes of the gun violence epidemic in this country, now the leading cause of death for America’s teens, and second leading cause of death for American children overall. Congress has recently allocated money for gun violence research after a two-decade drought. Her team is examining social causes, policy requirements and prevention interventions to address the crisis.

MONDAY, JANUARY 27, 2020

Giving Kids Something to Smile About: ADA President Dr. Chad Gehani on National Children’s Dental Health Month

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome Dr. Chad Gehani, President of the American Dental Association which is observing National Children’s Dental Health Month. Tooth decay is the largest unmet health need for children in America, and they discuss the ADA’s Give Kids A Smile program in which thousands of dentists and other dental health professionals provide free dental care to tens of thousands of kids around the country every year. They also discuss the impact of water fluoridation for prevention of tooth decay and the need for expanded access to care for all Americans.