JUST FOR THE HEALTH OF IT [ARCHIVE 2022]: Public Health Radio Show on WAKT 106.1 FM Toledo

ARCHIVE of SHOWS, 2022

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JUST FOR THE HEALTH OF IT: Public Health Radio Show on WAKT 106.1 FM Toledo

Just for the Health of It - The Science of Health for ALL - PUBLIC HEALTH radio show, WAKT 106.1 FM ToledoJust for the Health of It is my weekly one-hour public health show on WAKT, 106.1 FM Toledo. You can listen at 9:00 AM Tuesdays and Thursdays (after Democracy NOW) or 6:30 PM Tuesdays on-air or on-line ToledoRadio.org.  To listen anytime you want online, below are links to the latest shows (and all past shows).

You can follow the program and shows on facebook here.

Just for the Health of It brings you fresh perspectives on the science of health for all; plus local, state, national, and global health news, as well as local guests for home-grown perspectives and connections to local resources. Just for the Health brings you the best of both social justice and personal health.WAKT Toledo 106.1 FM -- Just for the Health of It - Public health radio show

Just for the Health focuses on putting the JUST in Just for the Health of It. 

My aim is to equip you to live healthily in a healthy community on a just planet.

For you of those folks who are perhaps too busy to catch a whole show, or just want to sample my sense of humor, here are a few of my parody PSAs:

Parody PSA: The Dihydrogen Monoxide Conspiracy

Parody PSA: Pla-ce-bo Pharmaceuticals’ Elimin-all

Parody PSA: PR Medica and Merciless Health Systems

Parody PSA: Health Care for ALL

Parody PSA: Cory the Coronavirus

Parody PSA: TL20-squared VIRUS Pandemic

HERE ARE LINKS TO THE ARCHIVED SHOWS of 2022:

Week of December 26, 2022, GREATEST HITS SHOW #2, from June-August, 2019 [episode #124]:

Featuring: GREATEST HITS SHOW #2, from June-August, 2019, featuring: a public health case study that is the obesity epidemic, with a call to move beyond individual behavior and focus on social determinants driving obesity such as fat shaming and bias, and access to culturally-competent health services (2:00); why there is so much commercial corruption in nutrition (11:18); fiber and health, and fiber as a good marker for intake of whole foods (14:50); international drug development processes are irresponsible and must be reformed (18:51); the burgeoning benzo crisis (22:46); psychiatric diagnosis “scientifically meaningless” (28:52); keto diets and other diets that severely restrict carbohydrates, how there is little evidence for their effectiveness, especially considering their potential risks and sustainability issues both individually and ecologically, and how massive carbohydrate restriction hamstrings consumption of health-producing carbohydrates like beans, fruits, vegetables and unrefined grains; keto diets and other diets that severely restrict carbohydrates, how there is little evidence for their effectiveness, especially considering their potential risks and sustainability issues both individually and ecologically, and how massive carbohydrate restriction hamstrings consumption of health-producing carbohydrates like beans, fruits, vegetables and unrefined grains (32:38); how to deal with anxiety about climate change (41:45); seeing greenery linked to less intense and frequent cravings (46:13); nations with strong women’s rights have better population health and faster economic growth (49:09).

Week of December 19, 2022 [episode #191]:

Featuring: COVID vaccines saved 3.2 million U.S. lives (2:42); Updated COVID booster prevents majority of hospitalizations (3:38); White House resumes program sending free COVID tests by mail through COVIDtests.gov (6:16); Survey finds growing opposition to school vaccine mandates for measles (7:27); Medical staff in China’s hospitals say COVID-19 ripping through their ranks (13:27); Beijing crematoriums strain under China COVID wave (16:39); Ohio Measles Outbreak Jumps to 74 Cases (19:57); U.S. deaths fell this year, but not to pre-COVID levels, still 13% higher than 2019 (21:07); Only 14% of diagnosed cancers in the U.S. are detected by screening (22:30); Out-of-pocket health spending rises at highest rate since 1985 (26:23); Higher prices don’t imply better care for patients undergoing joint replacement (29:47); Climate change fueling cholera surge (31:48); Warm days are contributing to gun violence surge across the U.S., says study of 100 cities (35:22).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. How to Actually Enjoy the Holidays, by managing stress and anxiety
  2. How a viral siege is making some people sick for weeks, even months
  3. No One Wants Your Cold — How to know if you’re too sick to hang
  4. Flu, RSV and COVID are wreaking havoc — but teachers don’t feel like they can stay home when they’re sick. Even with paid sick leave, teachers — especially in elementary schools — say staying home creates “more work.”
  5. Kids keep getting sick, overwhelming parents once again. Will the U.S. offer any help?
  6. Paid sick leave is good for workers — and U.S. public health
  7. How Medicare Advantage Plans Dodged Auditors and Overcharged Taxpayers by Millions
  8. Biden administration proposes crackdown on scam Medicare ads
  9. Biden admin extends pandemic-era flexibilities on opioid use treatments
  10. Is Legislation to Safeguard Americans Against Superbugs a Boondoggle or Breakthrough?
  11. U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends PrEP for HIV prevention
  12. Hundreds of incarcerated people are dying of hep C — even though we have a simple cure
  13. People in Rural Areas Die at Higher Rates Than Those in Urban Areas, from every one of the top 10 leading causes of death
  14. States with more abortion restrictions have higher maternal and infant mortality, report finds (maternal death rates 62% higher)
  15. Focusing on Exceptions Misses the True Harm of Abortion Bans
  16. From heart disease to IUDs: How doctors dismiss women’s pain
  17. Drug companies must address “chronic neglect” of women globally says new report
  18. How to Get More Men to Try Therapy (one solution is to convince them that asking for help is a strength, not a weakness)
  19. Suicidal thoughts are often hidden. Here’s how to talk about it.
  20. Parkinson’s Incidence 50% Higher Than Previously Thought
  21. Six reasons the U.S. Is Losing the Fight to Ban Toxic Chemicals
  22. As Workers Battle Cancer, The Government Admits Its Limit for a Deadly Chemical Is Too High
  23. Lessons for the Next Resistance. Veterans of the EPA faced unprecedented attacks under Donald Trump. We banded together and did something about it.
  24. How food became a weapon in America’s culture war. First came the politics of right-wing grievance. Then came the new foodie culture. Together, they combined to create one toxic food fight.
  25. Exercise is medicine for cancer and every dose counts, even in late stages of the disease
  26. Kindness Can Have Unexpectedly Positive Consequences

Week of December 12, 2022 [episode #190]:

Featuring: Hospitals in the U.S. are the fullest they’ve been throughout the pandemic – but it’s not just Covid (1:52); CDC expands use of updated COVID-19 vaccines for kids as young as 6 months (5:48); At least 63 children are sick with measles in Ohio (9:45); Walensky says CDC needs more authority from Congress to collect public health data (12:21); The White House unveils a new system to track and better prevent opioid overdoses (14:12); False holiday suicide myth is driven by media, analysis says (17:00); The Covid Pandemic’s Hidden Casualties — Pregnant Women (18:17); Drug Overdose Deaths in Pregnancy Rose 81% in Recent Years (19:22); Big tobacco brands must display signs in stores explaining risks of smoking, per Justice Department (20:27); Hospital Financial Decisions Play a Role in the Critical Shortage of Pediatric Beds for RSV Patients (24:32); Higher Brain Cancer Risk After CT Exam in Childhood (29:57); U.S. gun death rates hit highest levels in decades (33:27); Repairing abandoned houses found to reduce nearby gun violence (36:38).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. Poll shows few COVID worries for the holidays
  2. For the Uninsured, Covid Care Has Entered a New Stage of Crisis
  3. CDC report shows how infectious MPOX is and how important vaccination was in stemming outbreak
  4. Should Doctors Warn Patients About the Downsides of Medicare Advantage Plans? Beneficiaries may not be aware of plans’ limited networks or prior authorization rules
  5. Congress: Close the gap between funding for nutrition research and the toll diet-related disease takes on Americans
  6. Congress has its sights set too low on addiction, advocates charge
  7. Why does the US keep running out of medicine?
  8. Public Health Leaders Question Whether Asbestos Facilities Should Be Exempt From Surprise Inspections
  9. Before making unbiased pulse oximeters, researchers need a better way to measure skin tone
  10. A boil-water notice in Houston made national news. In rural Texas, it’s a way of life.
  11. For Black Families in Phoenix, Child Welfare Investigations Are a Constant Threat
  12. And Now They Are Coming for the Unhoused: The Long Push to Expand Involuntary Treatment in America
  13. Here’s how states plan to limit abortion — even where it is already banned
  14. Household air purifiers improve heart health among individuals with COPD

Week of December 5, 2022 [episode #189]:

Featuring: Very high levels of flu activity across the nation (1:52); Covid hospitalizations rising post-Thanksgiving after an autumn lull (4:03); Just 1 in 20 people in the U.S. have dodged COVID infection so far (5:13); Young people accounted for greater proportion of COVID-19 deaths and years of life lost in 2021 than 2020 (7:49); COVID-19 in China and global concern (9:47); Measles outbreak in Columbus increases to 50 cases (15:39); CDC expands wastewater testing for polio to Michigan and Pennsylvania (16:58); Biden administration not expecting to renew monkeypox public health emergency (20:43); African continent finally to receive first MPOX vaccines (21:48); WHO to rename monkeypox as “MPOX” (22:42);  A record 40 million kids globally miss measles vaccine dose (23:32); Winter holidays bring more heart attack deaths than any other time of year — here’s what to do (25:02); Poor sleep can make you prickly — here’s what to do (27:11); Americans are eating more whole grains but are still confused by the food labels (32:50); Few Americans aware of cancer risks posed by alcohol (32:50); Laws allowing insurers to deny alcohol-related claims do not deter drinking (37:33); DEA says 6 out of 10 fake prescription pills analyzed contain potentially deadly dose of fentanyl (39:23); Firearm injuries in kids leave lasting mental scars, more so than motor vehicle crash injuries (40:24); Having a high health insurance deductible leads women to skip testing after abnormal mammograms (41:57); How Cleveland will expand air monitoring in poor neighborhoods disproportionately burdened by pollution (45:02).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. Uranium mills’ legacy of pollution is still a toxic threat across dozens of sites
  2. Endgame: How the Visionary Hospice Movement Became a For-Profit Hustle
  3. Stop hospital consolidations to lower health care prices for all Americans
  4. Common Treatments for Knee Osteoarthritis May Be Harmful — Steroids and NSAIDs reduced pain but not disease course
  5. Abortion advocates aim to outflank lawmakers using 2024 ballot measures
  6. Antiabortion forces push local bans in states with legal access
  7. Without Abortion, Doctors in Texas Are Forced to Witness Horrible Outcomes
  8. She Wanted an Abortion. A Judge Said She Wasn’t Mature Enough to Decide.
  9. The Roe Reversal Should Activate Doctor and Nurse Activism
  10. Due to masculine dominance, gynecological science focuses on reproduction rather than women’s health
  11. Paid sick days are necessary for parents and children to withstand the “tripledemic”
  12. There’s no such thing as a good cold — “immunity debt” helps explain this year’s eye-popping cold and flu season — but it is often dangerously misinterpreted.
  13. Twitter stops enforcing Covid-19 misinformation policy
  14. The Future of Monkeypox — as case numbers fall, the outbreak could become entrenched.
  15. “Tranq” is leaving drug users with horrific wounds, and spreading use leaves other communities bracing for the same
  16. Schools, Sheriffs, and Syringes: State Plans Vary for Spending $26B in Opioid Settlement Funds
  17. Why falling asleep with the lights on is bad for your health
  18. A Dangerous Chilling Effect in Gender-Affirming Care — Gender-affirming facilities must continue offering information and resources, despite threats
  19. The Mental Health Industry Speaks Volumes About Our Capitalistic Society’s Priorities

Week of November 28, 2022 [episode #173]:

GREATEST HITS SHOW #5, from October, 2020 thru April, 2021, featuring: global rates of unplanned pregnancies still too high (2:03): how drugs damage the environment (5:19); science supports new dietary guidelines limiting alcohol consumption, especially for reducing cancer in men (12:37); can local food feed big cities? yes, if we cut down on meat (16:17); concentration in the food business — to high, too risky (20:33); hospitals profit on junk food (22:12); how hope can make you happier with your lot in life (26:12); suicide rates did not decrease when antidepressant drugs were introduced (28:10); giving poor people money is more effective for mental health than brief therapy (29:50); people in societies where money plays a minimal role can have very high levels of happiness, comparable to the happiest industrialized nations (33:51); Atlanta creates the nation’s largest free food forest with hopes of addressing food insecurity (35:10); what to do when your friends and family are unsupportive of your depression (38:16); food systems responsible for one-third of human-caused emissions (43:58); greenhouse gas emissions associated with dietary guidelines vary between countries — following U.S. guidelines would increase emissions (44:38); book review — Bittman on food history — Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal (46:18); the surprise catch of seafood trawling — massive greenhouse gas emissions as much as the aviation industry (47:47); feeding cattle seaweed reduces their greenhouse gas emissions 82 percent (48:45); land could be worth more left to nature than when farmed (49:58); study finds evidence of 55 new chemicals in people (52:03); starting smoking cessation in hospitalized patients would reduce many premature deaths (53:43); A new way to measure human wellbeing towards sustainability — Years of Good Life (56:17).

Week of November 21, 2022 [episode #188]:

Featuring: Flu variant that hits kids and seniors harder than other strains is dominant in U.S. right now (1:47); Columbus measles outbreak swells to 24 cases as 9 kids are hospitalized (4:28); Arizona’s Maricopa County reports local dengue case, a marker for global warming (5:50); USDA upgrades WIC program, including keeping extra COVID-era money for fruits, veggies (7:23); More adolescent e-cigarette users report vaping within five minutes of waking up, signaling nicotine addiction (10:16); U.S. overdose deaths may be peaking, but experts are wary (13:55); Fentanyl isn’t just causing overdoses; it’s making it harder to start addiction treatment (17:50); Top U.S. addiction researcher calls for broad deregulation of methadone (22:02); Unsecured handguns account for the majority of firearm suicide deaths in the United States (26:51); Premature births at highest point since 2007 (29:21); Skin-to-skin contact key for premature baby survival, WHO says in shift (30:56); Off-label anti-psychotic and epilepsy drugs widely used as “chemical restraint” in nursing homes (33:51); Most cancer patients want access to complementary therapies before treatment (37:53); Lung cancer screening saves lives. So why do so few of those at risk get one? (41:40); The World Needs New Antibiotics. A Proposed US Program to Develop Them Would Pay Off 28:1 (45:35); Water insecurity is stressing mental health (49:22); Nearly half of world population suffers from oral diseases (50:11); Over a billion young people are potentially at risk of hearing loss from headphones, earbuds, loud music venues (51:34).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. Transgender Americans facing “epidemic of violence”: Human Rights Campaign
  2. Clear spike in anti-trans rhetoric sets stage for violence like Colorado Springs shooting
  3. Health Harms of Mass Shootings Ripple Across Communities
  4. Mental crises excluded from some state abortion exemptions
  5. Antiabortion pregnancy centers are deceiving women. They need to know that.
  6. We argue over the right to end pregnancy, but who’s fighting for the right to begin pregnancy?
  7. The quality of human sperm has dropped by half in the last 50 years
  8. Patient Mistrust and Poor Access Hamper Federal Efforts to Overhaul Family Planning
  9. Redressing the racial health gap through reparations
  10. Why doesn’t the U.S. have more Black doctors?
  11. Brains of Black Americans age faster, study finds, with racial stressors a likely factor
  12. In a Republican-led House, probing science agencies tops the agenda
  13. How Banks and Private Equity Cash In When Patients Can’t Pay Their Medical Bills
  14. Audits — Hidden Until Now — Reveal Millions in Medicare Advantage Overcharges
  15. Replace the failure of Medicare Advantage with “Medicare Part F”
  16. Older and disabled Americans are languishing for years on waiting lists for home care. Why don’t we fix this?
  17. The End of Vaccines at “Warp Speed” — Financial and bureaucratic barriers in the United States mean that the next generation of Covid vaccines may well be designed here, but used elsewhere.
  18. How to think like an aerosol scientist this holiday season to stay healthy
  19. Imaging study shows marijuana smokers having higher rates of emphysema, airway diseases than tobacco smokers
  20. Large concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) are known polluters. Here’s why EPA permits only cover one-third.
  21. Potatoes can be part of a healthy diet
  22. Why All Athletes Should Eat Plant-Based Diets, for performance and health
  23. No more mad cow worries, banned blood donors can give again
  24. An unexpected winner in the midterms: public health

Week of November 14, 2022 [episode #187]:

Featuring: RSV leads a tsunami of respiratory illnesses (1:50); COVID variants BQ.1/BQ.1.1 become dominant in U.S. (6:56); Repeat COVID infections can still be dangerous, study suggests (8:17); Pandemic greed killed more than 1 million people globally, study says (14;31); Measles outbreak reported at Columbus-area child care facility (15:23); Healthcare-acquired infections continued to climb in 2021 (17:05); After wins at the ballot, abortion rights groups want to “put this to the people” in Ohio and other states (18:16); South Dakota Voters Approved Medicaid Expansion, but Implementation May Not Be Easy (19:44); Stopping the Churn — Why Some States Want to Guarantee Medicaid Coverage From Birth to Age 6 (25:23); Animal Agriculture Is Dangerous Work And The People Who Do It Have Few Protections (31:27); Healthy plant-based diets better for the environment than less healthy plant-based diets (36:37); Mindfulness-based stress reduction is as effective as leading antidepressant drug for treating anxiety disorders (38:25); How This Seemingly Brutal Instagram Account Is Promoting Mental Health, by keeping it real (41:30); Repairing relationships through forgiveness may help people recover from moral injury (45:22); Dementia prevalence is declining among older Americans (48:46); Lucid dying — One in five patients recall death experiences during CPR and brain scans (51:51).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. U.S. set to face third Covid winter, this time without key tools and treatments
  2. Annual COVID Shots Mean We Can Stop Counting. For most Americans, “how many” doesn’t matter anymore. “How recently” does.
  3. Lessons from polio about the need to vaccinate kids against Covid-19
  4. People With Long Covid Face Barriers to Government Disability Benefits
  5. Pfizer’s Covid Cash Powers a “Marketing Machine” on the Hunt for New Supernovas
  6. Sick Profit: Investigating Private Equity’s Stealthy Takeover of Health Care Across Cities and Specialties
  7. Thousands of Experts Hired to Aid Public Health Departments Are Losing Their Jobs
  8. Why Texas Republicans still oppose Medicaid expansion while 2/3 Texans support
  9. Homelessness Among Older People Is on the Rise, Driven by Inflation and the Housing Crunch
  10. How the FCC Shields Cellphone Companies From Safety Concerns
  11. How Stochastic Terrorism Uses Disgust to Incite Violence – Dehumanizing and vilifying people supercharged by leveraging disgust response
  12. Every Story Is a Science Story — Science applies to every important social issue. Saying so doesn’t make us “unscientific”
  13. How climate change can help heal conflicts—not just fuel them. Increasingly, environmental cooperation is solving local conflicts around the world that are caused in part by global warming.

Week of November 7, 2022 [episode #186]:

Featuring: COVID tide is rising (1:46); Keeping omicron infection risk low requires 50 times more room ventilation (3:09); Probable Aerosol Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 through Floors and Walls of Quarantine Hotel, Taiwan, 2021 (4:12); Pfizer says new booster shot increases omicron-fighting antibodies (6:38); Expert Panel Releases Global Roadmap for Ending the Pandemic (7:53); “Considerable” monkeypox transmission happens before symptoms (13:07); Abortions dropped 65% in Ohio following overturn of Roe v. Wade (14:27); Travel time for abortions tripled and requests for pills soared in months after Roe v. Wade fell (15:57); Alcohol Deaths Strike Hard at Working-Age Americans (18:24); Alcohol death toll grew at record rate in pandemic (20:55); Millions of Americans have health insurance that isn’t “good enough,” a growing problem (24:53); Pulse Oximeters Need to Work Better for Dark-Skinned Patients, FDA Panel Says (29:15); U.S. Preventive Services Task Force says No Hormone Therapy to Prevent Chronic Conditions After Menopause (30:33); The “Optimal Diet” of Plant-Based Whole-Foods  Passes the Test (32:26); The “Optimal Diet” Tested Even Better the Longer You Did It (37:32).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. Transitioning to net-zero emissions could be the greatest health opportunity of this century
  2. Twitter has spent years trying to combat health misinformation. Will Musk’s takeover make that harder?
  3. Thinking through the holidays this year (regarding COVID)
  4. NutritionFacts.org — the latest and best scientific information on nutrition, presented through short videos and topical blogs 

Week of October 31, 2022 [episode #185]:

Featuring: The main COVID symptoms have changed, research shows (1:53); Humans transmit SARS-CoV-2 to their pets (3:36); The Problem With Our Boost-Boost-Boost COVID Strategy — our leaders lack moral imagination (4:46) Flu season hits early with record high hospitalizations (10:37); Global tuberculosis cases rise for the first time in years (12:38); COVID disrupted measles vaccinations in Africa and now cases are surging (15:56); Americans die younger in states with conservative policies (19:30); The case for redefining “never events” for hospitals [that happen all too often] (25:00); U.S. cancer death rates across all age groups continue on downward trend (28:21); Study finds people who need wearable health devices the most use them the least (31:24); Babies born to Black mothers who use fertility treatments die at far higher rates than those born to white mothers (31:58); OB-GYN Residency Programs Face Tough Choice on Abortion Training, caught between state abortion bans and accreditation requirements (36:22); 1 in 10 older Americans has dementia, as well as 22% with mild cognitive impairment (39:01); Best evidence yet that lowering blood pressure can prevent dementia (39:53); Allocate opioid settlement dollars to real addiction-ending solutions (40:27); Diseases Explode after Extreme Flooding and Other Climate Disasters (45:30); Unburned gas from gas stoves is a substantial source of hazardous indoor air pollution (52:02).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. For experts on stroke, Fetterman-Oz debate is a teachable moment
  2. Group shaping nutrition policy earned millions from junk food makers — the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics invested in food stocks and accepted donations from junk food, sugar and soda makers, even as it trained the dietitians who teach us how to eat
  3. States Opting Out of a Federal Program That Tracks Teen Behavior as Youth Mental Health Worsens
  4. Concussions are a bigger problem for kids’ football than the NFL
  5. What science tells us about structural racism’s health impact
  6. Why More and More Girls Are Hitting Puberty Early
  7. 2022 Inflation Reduction Act: Climate Investments Are Public Health Investments
  8. Pressures grow on the health care industry to reduce its climate pollution
  9. U.S. Preventive Services Task Force says evidence still lacking for routine skin cancer screening
  10. Despite Katie Couric’s Advice, Doctors Say Ultrasound Breast Exams May Not Be Needed. And May Even Cause Unnecessary Harm
  11. When it comes to addiction, Americans’ word choices are part of the problem
  12. “They can’t ignore us any more”: five women on long Covid and medical misogyny
  13. Covid-19 is an inverse equity story, not a racial equity success story
  14. COVID-19 Origins: Investigating a “Complex and Grave Situation” Inside a Wuhan Lab
  15. A Plea for Making Virus Research Safer
  16. Despite More Treatments for Depression, Prevalence Doesn’t Decrease—Why?
  17. Without Liberation Psychology, Therapy Reinforces the Status Quo
  18. You may have hearing loss and not know it. Here’s what it sounds like. Hearing loss can be gradual and difficult to notice, but experts say hearing checks should be a routine part of health care.

Week of October 24, 2022 [episode #184]:

Featuring: Quick COVID situational analysis (1:52); Older Monovalent Vax Has “Limited” Protection Against BA.4/5 Hospitalization (5:09); Biden officials search for backup for key Covid therapy for immunocompromised people (7:33); Uninsured kids will still receive Covid vaccines for free after shots move to commercial market (10:47); CDC Advisors Endorse Adding COVID Shots to Routine Vax Schedule (12:24); COVID-19 contributed to a quarter of maternal deaths from 2020 to 2021 (13:24); Early state lockdowns not tied to worse mental health (14:10); Divide between Republicans and Democrats over flu shots deepens in covid’s wake, worsening flu outlook (15:57); U.S. Flu Hospitalization Rates Nearly 80% Higher for Black Adults (21:59); COVID-19 vaccination rates have dropped 50% in Africa, while only 24% vaccinated (23:57); Biden’s biodefense strategy aims to combat future pandemics (25:40); U.S. Chickenpox Vaccine Program Led to Near Elimination of the Virus (26:41); WHO forced to ration vaccine as cholera cases surge worldwide (29:04); As hepatitis C proliferates, states lift barriers to treatment (31:29); Mortality disparities by education widened in the U.S. in 2020 (36:00); Robust Texas health care system does not produce better patient outcomes (36:57); More than 1.3 million Americans ration life-saving insulin due to cost (38:36); Feds put the Kibosh on Misleading Medicare Advantage Sales Pitches (39:11); EPA launches federal civil rights investigation over Jackson water crisis (42:23); Ongoing global crises have led to a big backslide in women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health (43:30); Sexual-assault-related ER visits increase more than ten-fold in the last decade (46:36); Homicide is a leading cause of death in pregnant women in the U.S. (47:56); Hair-straightening products linked with uterine cancer risk (50:16); Study shows plant-based diet rich in soy reduces hot flashes associated with menopause by 88%, comparable with hormone replacement therapy (51:06).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. The COVID Data That Are Actually Useful Now
  2. Milder COVID cases, lower viral loads in vaccinated frontline workers
  3. Among Seniors, a Declining Interest in Boosters
  4. The Very Real Lessons America Has Learned From COVID — And the very real lessons it has not learned
  5. How racism and inequality created COVID-19’s “Viral Underclass” — how science has won the battle against disease, while racism and capitalism have won the war.
  6. To learn lessons from pandemics, don’t listen to big pharma
  7. Trump officials interfered with CDC guidance for political purposes, panel finds
  8. Covert network provides pills for thousands of abortions in U.S. post Roe
  9. After Dobbs, U.S. medical students head abroad for abortion training no longer provided by their schools
  10. The U.S. Never Banned Asbestos. These Workers Are Paying the Price.
  11. Alleging continual pollution, advocates ask U.S. EPA to take over Ohio injection well permitting
  12. New guidelines greatly expand eligibility for weight loss surgery.
  13. Trying to hold food corporations accountable has not worked well.
  14. Pixels are not people: mental health apps are increasingly popular but human connection is still key

Week of October 17, 2022 [episode #183]:

Featuring: (Relative) calm before the coming COVID storm — booster up (1:52); FDA Says Young Kids Can Now Get Omicron Boosters Too (3:17); Flu off to an early start as CDC warns about potentially severe season (4:02); There’s a spike in respiratory illness among children — and it’s not just COVID or flu (4:52); 4 in 10 misrepresented their COVID status, adherence to public health measures (6:22); Vast majority of red-state seniors have been vaccinated, despite GOP vaccine resistance (9:17); “We are in trouble” — new study raises alarm about impacts of long COVID (11:10); As suicides continue rise, U.S. military seeks to address mental health (12:26); Sexual Violence Takes a Toll on Teens’ Mental Health (14:06); Victims of sexual violence often left with overwhelming medical bills after emergency care (15:26); Maternity care “deserts” continue rise across the U.S. (17:11); Private Medicare Advantage Plans rise on greed and deceit (23:31); Insurance Brokers Earn More to Steer New Beneficiaries to Medicare Advantage (28:57); Universal Basic Income strategy could help tackle mental health crisis among young people (33:21); U.S. grocery chains take little action to limit antibiotic overuse in meat supply chain (34:26); Less than half of people over age 50 worldwide have received glasses or contact lenses needed to correct refractive error (35:59); 200 Million pounds of toxic chemicals dumped into U.S. waterways in 2020, with Ohio among leaders (37:57); Group finds PFAS “Forever” Chemicals Used in Ohio Oil and Gas Wells (41:56); Voters want more protection from harmful chemicals, and they are willing to pay for it (44:05); EPA proposes to declare aviation lead emissions public health danger (46:17); Feds want all new vehicles to check drivers for alcohol use (47:32).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. The next U.S. COVID wave is coming. Why it will be “much weirder than before.”
  2. Messaging — the unrecognized coefficient in pandemic control — matters. Keep talking about COVID
  3. “It still prevented cancers”: Experts discuss furor over colonoscopy screening study and dissect the nuances
  4. How health systems can truly value Black lives: help close the racial wealth gap
  5. EPA Cites Racial Discrimination in Disparities in Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley”
  6. South Dakota signals the end of an era on Medicaid expansion by voters
  7. Baby, That Bill Is High: Private Equity “Gambit” Squeezes Excessive ER Charges From Routine Births by setting up billable maternity ERs at point of delivery
  8. Maternity care in the U.S. is in crisis. It’s time to call the midwife
  9. Adult hospital beds are more lucrative than children’s beds, so hospitals are closing children’s units, creating shortages
  10. New Generation of Weight Loss Medications Offer Promise — But at a Huge Price
  11. Spread of Catholic hospitals limits reproductive care across the U.S.
  12. The lucrative troubled teen industry often uses ineffective, punishing treatments
  13. “A New Frontier” for Hearing Aids — Over-the-counter hearing aids are coming at long last. But lower prices and greater accessibility may take time to materialize.
  14. The first malaria vaccine is here. Let’s meet the moment.
  15. It’s a bleak world “Day of the Girl” due to the pandemic. But no one’s giving up hope.
  16. Economic and social pain is the commonality across drug crises, and this must be healed to end the vicious cycles of addiction.
  17. Do You “Matter” to Others? The Answer Could Predict Your Mental Health
  18. How Gaslighting Manipulates Reality. Gaslighting isn’t just between people in a relationship—it involves social power, too
  19. Why the Pentagon Is the World’s Biggest Single Greenhouse Gas Emitter
  20. A Supersmeller Can Detect the Scent of Parkinson’s, Leading to an Experimental Test for the Illness
  21. Keep it or toss it? “Best Before” labels cause confusion
  22. How to know if it’s depression or just “normal” sadness

Week of October 10, 2022 [episode #182]:

Featuring: Healthcare Workers Unhappy With New CDC Mask Guidance (2:03); CDC drops COVID travel advisories as countries stop tracking cases (4:28); Local COVID-19 Update (5:21); As feds stop free COVID-19 vaccines, commercial insurers must pay bulk of costs (8:08); U.S. Health Officials Urge Vaccination To Help Protect Against a Potentially Severe Flu Season (10:53); Monkeypox vaccine protects 14-fold versus unvaccinated (12:14); Monkeypox case rates 5 times higher in Black Americans (12:31); Gun-Related Suicides and Killings Rose Dramatically in 2021 (13:18); Smoking costs U.S. economy almost $900 billion a year (18:47); Opioid crisis cost U.S. nearly $1.5 trillion in 2020 (20:06); The business case for reducing gun violence costs of over $500 billion (21:09); The U.S. is terrible at keeping businesses from worsening public health (22:20); The Huge Role Of Administrative Waste In Driving Excess U.S. Health Spending (26:23); Over 300,000 “excess” deaths in Great Britain attributed to UK government austerity policies (28:23); Medical Care Alone Won’t Halt the Spread of Diabetes, due to social determinants such as walkable communities, adequate housing, access to health care, and better food, particularly in minority communities (31:02); FDA’s plan to define “healthy” for food packaging — Better than the existing labeling anarchy, but do we really need it? (36:12); Protein restriction can be effective in combating obesity and diabetes (42:51); Call it data liberation day: Patients can now access all their health records digitally (44:58).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. “4-alarm blaze”: New York’s public health crises converge (Monkeypox, Omicron, Polio)
  2. New Infectious Threats Are Coming. The U.S. Probably Won’t Contain Them.
  3. Will there be a Supreme assault on public health?
  4. Suicide is complicated. So is prevention.
  5. A Grim New Reality — Intimate-Partner Violence after Dobbs and Bruen
  6. Abortion Bans Skirt a Medical Reality: For Many Teens, Childbirth Is a Dangerous Undertaking (occurring in states with highest teen pregnancy rates)
  7. Who obtained abortions in Ohio last year? [57 were younger than 15]
  8. Privacy, Stigma May Keep Workers From Using Abortion Travel Benefits
  9. State medical boards may be roadblock to wider telemedicine abortion
  10. Risking Everything to Offer Abortions Across State Lines
  11. From BQ.1.1 to XBB and beyond: How the splintering of Omicron variants could shape Covid’s next phase
  12. Warning Signs About the First Post-pandemic Winter — It may not be as bad as last year’s … but it certainly won’t be good.
  13. Biden’s Operation Warp Speed revival stumbles out of the gate
  14. Long COVID Has Forced a Reckoning for One of Medicine’s Most Neglected Diseases: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
  15. The monkeypox virus is mutating. How worried are scientists?
  16. The Black CDC Scientist Who Couldn’t Get Monkeypox Treatment
  17. Addiction Experts Fear the Fallout if California Legalizes Sports Betting
  18. Sign of the times? U.S. stocks up on radiation sickness drug
  19. Methane emissions may be five times higher than previously thought
  20. Hurricane Ian Shows That Coastal Hospitals Aren’t Ready for Climate Change
  21. “The Cash Monster Was Insatiable”: How Insurers Exploited Medicare for Billions
  22. Nursing Home Surprise: Advantage Plans May Shorten Stays to Less Time Than Medicare Covers
  23. Poll documents how Americans think the U.S. health care system is failing them
  24. Advocates cheer Biden marijuana decision, call for legalization
  25. Voices from the White House Conference on Hunger and Nutrition
  26. Five things to do in your 20s and 30s to reduce your risk of preventable cancer: 1) don’t smoke, 2) practice safe sex to avoid HPV, 3), maintain a healthy weight, 4) drink less, and 5) wear sunscreen.

Week of October 3, 2022:

Featuring: GREATEST HITS SHOW #1, stories from April-June, 2019 [first aired week of July 12, 2020], featuring: a far-reaching riff on epidemiology, the science of the distribution of health, disease and their determinants in populations; in laypersons’ terms, what are the most important things to consider in our community’s health (2:08); Can you be a serious environmentalist without cutting down drastically on animal-foods, that is, cutting way down on meat, eggs, and dairy? (11:01); don’t be confused by industry misinformation – salt consumption is a major risk factor for poor health, and one of the three most dangerous food additives (18:27); tips on cutting back on salt and sugar, and getting more whole grains into your diet (26:53); basic mental health facts and considerations (33:28); the importance of happiness and purpose in driving health and well-being, and the epidemic of meaninglessness in work life (39:26); Is public health in America so bad among the young, supposedly healthier people, that the U.S. may eventually not be able to defend itself militarily? (51:53).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. Humans are dosing Earth’s waterways with medicines. It isn’t healthy.
  2. A New Approach to Domestic Violence: Moving From a Law Enforcement Approach to a Health Care Approach
  3. Advocates seek more say in how opioid settlements are spent
  4. “This program’s really saved us”: As Canada offers safer opioids to curb overdoses, will U.S. follow?
  5. One of Long COVID’s Worst Symptoms Is Also Its Most Misunderstood: Brain fog isn’t like a hangover or depression; it’s a disorder of executive function that makes basic cognitive tasks absurdly hard.
  6. Extreme “Religious Liberty” Is Undermining Public Health
  7. Embedded Bias: How Medical Records Sow Discrimination

Week of September 26, 2022 [episode #181]:

Featuring: Scientists were worried about a particular COVID variant this fall – they didn’t expect its offspring (1:53); Just in time for fall, there’s another brand-new COVID variant making headway in the U.S. (5:11); Those concerned about COVID exposure at work steady since last fall, while those “not concerned at all” sets new high (9:18); Local COVID-19 Update (10:03); Senate Investigation Finds Justice Department Undercounted Prison and Jail Deaths Last Year by Nearly 1,000 (12:21); Veterans suicide rate may be double federal estimates (15:26); U.S. Preventative Services Task Force to Recommend Anxiety, Depression Screening (17:13); Most pregnancy-related deaths in U.S. are avoidable (20:57); America is the most dangerous place to give birth in the developed world — it’s only getting worse (22:23); “Gaming” of U.S. patent system is keeping drug prices sky high (26:49); Structural racism – Hospital financing in black and white (29:45); Medicaid enrollment soared by 25% during the COVID-19 pandemic, but a big decline could happen soon (34:18); Physician Burnout Continues at Record Levels, One-Third Feel “Hopeless” (38:42); Death Is Anything but a Dying Business as Private Equity Cashes In (41:28); Globally, diets are not much healthier today than they were thirty years ago (45:20); Hunger was once a bipartisan issue — will it ever be again? (46:21); Senate approves first climate treaty in decades (50:54).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. Why Omicron Might Stick Around
  2. “Very Harmful” Lack of Data Blunts U.S. Response to Outbreaks
  3. Polio Is Exploiting a Very Human Weakness. The world has been so close to eradicating polio for so long—which is exactly why the virus is staging a comeback now.
  4. The White House has a major chance to improve coordination of federal nutrition efforts, now spanning 200 programs across 21 federal agencies
  5. Nutritional education is health care — let’s make it official
  6. The clock is ticking for U.N. goals to end poverty — and it doesn’t look promising
  7. Extreme hunger on the rise in the world’s worst climate hot spots
  8. Judge Lifts U.S. Ban on Mexicans Entering Country to Sell Blood Plasma – Mexicans with short-term visas have comprised up to 10% of all plasma collected in the U.S.
  9. Private Equity Sees the Billions in Eye Care as Firms Target High-Profit Procedures
  10. How to Avoid Being Overcharged for a Funeral
  11. Surgery needs a new pay model, free from incentives to do more procedures
  12. Is DOJ Underusing Authority to Hold Pharma, Device Execs Accountable? Billions in fines, but only 13 corporate officials prosecuted for illegal behavior since 2000
  13. FDA and USDA need to get on board with the CDC about reducing antibiotic use in raising animals for food
  14. Mental Health Is Political, as social determinants more critical than medical care
  15. Moral Injury Is an Invisible Epidemic That Affects Millions
  16. Eliminating Copayments Doubles Psychologist Visits, Decreases Suicide in Young Adults
  17. With a promising new plan to pay for pricey cures, two states set out to eliminate hepatitis C. But cost hasn’t been the biggest problem
  18. Daily “breath training” can work as well as medicine to reduce high blood pressure

Week of September 19, 2022 [episode #160]:

GREATEST HITS SHOW #4, from December, 2019, thru September, 2020, featuring: hospital alarms prove a noisy misery for patients (1:54); long work hours linked to both regular and hidden high blood pressure (6:20); every American family basically pays a yearly $8,000 “poll tax” under U.S. health system (7:42); Ecopsychology — how immersion in nature benefits your health (11:12); Why drinking diet soda makes you crave sugar (15:50); slow carbs over low carbs – fiber matters (19:06); Hormone-altering chemicals threaten our health, finances and future (22:28); Why sequencing the human genome hasn’t cured many diseases (36:57); In an age of mass protests, what “less lethal” weapons actually do (42:11); Awareness of our biases is essential to good science (51:34).

Week of September 12, 2022 [episode #180]:

Featuring: Research shows that ALL COVID-19 infections include a wide mix of SARS-CoV-2 virus variants (2:09); One CIVID-19 shot per year? We really need to step up our game then (4:57); Local COVID-19 Update (10:48); Ohio is the 6th most polluted state in U.S. (12:43); A 1931 law criminalizing abortion in Michigan is ruled unconstitutional, and MI amendment to protect abortion rights will appear on ballot (14:18); Gov. Hochul declares polio emergency in New York after virus found more widespread in wastewater (16:12); Australia’s bad flu season could foreshadow trouble in the U.S. this fall (20:46); Americans give health care system failing mark (23:32); Biden Administration Reverses Trump-Era “Public Charge” Rule (28:47); “Inflation Reduction Act” has a hidden benefit for coal miners – Permanent funding for black lung (31:18); FDA panel backs much-debated, pricey ALS drug in rare, 2nd review (38:53); Researchers say it’s time for updated warning labels on alcoholic beverages (37:12); Marijuana use is outpacing cigarette use for first time ever in U.S. (39:48); Juul to pay nearly $440M to settle states’ teen vaping probe (40:45); Food Insecurity for Families With Children Reached Two-Decade Low in 2021, yet many gains are expected to be lost (42:27); Chain restaurants have gone on diets due to calorie labelling laws (44:44); Western diet, sedentary lifestyle likely factors in global rise in cancer for adults 50 and under (48:18); Frequency of premenstrual anxiety, mood swings a “key public health issue globally” (51:10).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. Ohio docs say new abortion law has them working against oaths to do no harm
  2. With homicide the leading cause of maternal mortality, new research shows a link to firearms and intimate partner violence
  3. Push to double up on Covid booster and flu shot may have a downside, experts caution
  4. As masks are shed, a routine visit to a medical office can pose Covid risks for some patients
  5. Biden administration is preparing for the end of free COVID-19 vaccines as funds run dry
  6. Pfizer isn’t sharing Covid vaccines with researchers for next-gen studies
  7. California becomes first state to test drinking water for microplastics
  8. Why Aren’t Federal Agencies Enforcing Pesticide Rules That Protect Farmworkers? Without protection from OSHA, farmworkers rely on EPA’s Worker Protection Standard, which is not adequately enforced.
  9. Rise in Deaths Spurs Effort to Raise Alcohol Taxes
  10. Fentanyl test strips could help save lives. They’re still illegal in 19 states.
  11. Forehead Temperature Checks May Miss Fevers in Black Patients — Inaccurate readings could miss cutoffs for triggering notification pathways such as sepsis alerts
  12. Sickle cell patients face a double whammy: Systemic racism and a crippling disease
  13. Black Covid long-haulers felt invisible to the health care system, so they formed their own support groups
  14. Patient Satisfaction Surveys Earn a Zero on Tracking Whether Hospitals Deliver Culturally Competent Care
  15. Breaking the “corporate medical playbook” that silences physicians’ reports of inequity
  16. Monkeypox Is Leaving Working-Class People In Financial Ruin, due to little to no laws guaranteeing workplace sick leave in the U.S.
  17. Agrihoods Promise Fresh Food and Community. Can They Add Equity to the List? Agrihoods promise to save farmland by turning it into a residential amenity. Can this effort to bridge housing and farmland support environmental justice?

Week of September 5, 2022 [episode #179]:

Featuring: Our brains trick us into misperceiving importance of health risks (1:53); Local COVID-19 Update (6:29);  Chengdu locks down 21.2 million people as Chinese cities battle Covid-19 (8:35); Jackson, Mississippi, to go without reliable drinking water indefinitely (10:46); Half of world’s health facilities lack basic hygiene (11:43); Study raises concerns about the effectiveness of the monkeypox vaccine (12:58); U.S. Life Expectancy Falls Again in “Historic” Setback (17:32); Life Expectancy Is Falling — Here’s How to Change That (24:10); The U.S. diet is deadly — Here are 7 ideas to get Americans eating healthier (31:36); “Welfare states” can boost population health through decommodification, reducing dependence on free markets (42:23); Letting Medicare negotiate drug prices won’t be the game-changer Democrats hope it will be — here are the real savings (46:21); Resources on How to Negotiate for Lower Medical Bills (48:26); When abortion at a clinic is not available, 1 in 3 pregnant people say they will consider doing something on their own to end the pregnancy (50:15); Gender dysphoria covered by disability law, court rules (54:04).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. How the Pandemic Shortened Life Expectancy in Indigenous Communities
  2. “Food is medicine” interventions should be the main course at White House nutrition conference
  3. The Tragedy of North Birmingham, where industrial pollution of air and land in its historic Black communities for over a century, officials continue to fail to right the wrongs
  4. Texas-Mexico Border Town Approves Air Pollution Monitoring Following ProPublica and Texas Tribune Investigation
  5. Rahul Gupta, first physician to serve as drug czar, says stigma among doctors is key culprit in addiction crisis
  6. The U.S. lacks adequate education around puberty and menstruation for young people
  7. The Heat Wave Crushing the West Is a Preview of Farmworkers’ Hot Future. What will this mean for agriculture and farmworker communities?
  8. When migrant children in custody attempt to take their lives
  9. Major Depression: The “Chemical Imbalance” Pillar Is Crumbling — Is the Genetics Pillar Next?

Week of August 29, 2022 [episode #178]:

Featuring: Local COVID-19 Update (1:50);  FDA plans to authorize bivalent boosters by Labor Day (3:32); Long COVID relatively rare in children and teens (5:07); Study finds steep rise in type 2 diabetes among children during COVID-19 pandemic (7:01); Are We Approaching “Herd Safety” With COVID-19in highly vaccinated areas? (8:55); Ohio infant mortality rate lowest it has been in past decade (12:27); Ohio Department of Health launches new monkeypox data dashboard and interactive map showing locations of all 147 OH cases (14:39); Studies estimate powerful health, cost-savings benefit of childhood vaccines (15:38); How Long Has Polio Been Circulating in the U.S.? (16:58); Why San Francisco is “cautiously optimistic” the monkeypox outbreak is slowing (18:57); RSV prevention finally in reach after 20 years of research (22:09); Despite flexibility, gig work and insecure income prove harmful to U.S. workers (23:03); Sleepless and selfish — Lack of sleep makes us less generous (24:30); Task force on Hunger, Nutrition, Health report: a missed opportunity? (28:33); Use of Marijuana and Psychedelics Is Soaring Among Young Adults (33:34); The FDA is at a crossroads for reducing tobacco-related disease and death (38:56); White House directs health, science agencies to make federally funded studies free to access (43:31); Congressman’s Wife Died After Taking Herbal Remedy Marketed for Diabetes and Weight Loss (46:32).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. Supplement Regulation and Side Effects: Efforts to Suppress the Truth
  2. Some Sugar Substitutes Affect Blood Glucose and Gut Bacteria
  3. Fall COVID-19 boosters: An update
  4. Wastewater Surveillance Has Become a Critical Covid Tracking Tool, but Funding Is Inconsistent
  5. A pandemic push for data sharing could pay off for pregnancy research
  6. Can the C.D.C. Save Itself?
  7. The FDA stands by as the vaping industry flouts its orders
  8. Tattoo ink is under-regulated, scientists say
  9. Why Outlawing Ghost Guns Didn’t Stop America’s Largest Maker of Ghost Gun Parts
  10. A Needle Exchange Project Modeled on Urban Efforts Aims to Save Lives in Rural Nevada
  11. Americans are highly vaccinated against polio. Here’s why it could still spread.
  12. New hope for easing stigma and isolation of hearing loss
  13. In Schools, Honest Talk about Racism Can Reduce Discrimination
  14. Evening dosing of blood pressure medication not better than morning dosing
  15. Medical error: An epidemic compounded by gag laws
  16. Timely Mental Health Care Is a Key Factor in Strike by Kaiser Permanente Workers
  17. New restrictions from major abortion funder could further limit access unnecessarily
  18. Maternal Instinct Is a Myth That Men Created
  19. “Is an abortion medically necessary?” is not a question for ethicists to answer [it’s clinicians]
  20. After Roe, teens are teaching themselves sex ed, because the adults won’t

Week of August 22, 2022 [episode #177]:

GREATEST HITS SHOW #6, from April thru May, 2021, featuring: Devastatingly pervasive — 1 in 3 women globally experience violence (1:59); Stress from work and social interactions put women at higher coronary heart disease  risk (6:11); Physicians are more likely to doubt black patients than white patients (7:42); Women’s pain not taken as seriously as men’s pain (8:53); Study finds Americans eat food of mostly poor nutritional quality — except at school (11:12); Time to shift from “food security” to “nutrition security” to increase health and well-being (16:48); How to gain a sense of well-being, free and online –free course with full reference materials, “The Science of Well-being” (20:02); Children born to Chernobyl survivors don’t carry more genetic mutations (22:03); Even “safe” ambient carbon monoxide levels may harm health (24:11); Music improves older adults’ sleep quality (25:22);   Spanking may affect the brain development of a child similar to more severe violence (26:34); The clear message on promoting body positivity (28:11); How a shocking environmental disaster was uncovered off the California coast after 70 years (30:57); The Sense, and Dollars, of Food as Medicine (37:47);  New approach to understanding our wellbeing — the ability to connect and feel a sense of belonging (44:42);  Providing medications for free leads to greater adherence and cost-savings (46:14); Long term use of prescription meds for insomnia not linked to better quality sleep (48:19); Number of smokers has reached all-time high of 1.1 billion globally (49:51); Leading global cardiovascular organizations release joint opinion on achieving the “tobacco endgame” (53:00).

Week of August 15, 2022 [episode #176]:

Featuring: Local COVID-19 Update (1:52); CDC eases Covid-19 quarantine and testing guidelines as it marks a new phase in pandemic (4:17); A critique of the new CDC Covid-19 guidance (8:10); Only half of eligible Americans have gotten their first COVID booster (14:36); “Silent” spread of polio in New York drives CDC to consider additional vaccinations for some people (18:29); New data from several states show racial disparities in monkeypox infections (23:44); CDC finds huge treatment gaps in hepatitis C patients when cure exists (32:44); Access to trauma care is improving across the country, but progress remains uneven (35:09); Climate change is going to make infectious diseases far, far worse (41:23); New Langya virus that may have spilled over from animals infects dozens (46:57); Federal Health Agencies Unveil National Tool to Measure Health Impacts of Environmental Burdens — the Environmental Justice Index (50:02).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. What scientists know — and don’t know — about how monkeypox spreads
  2. Fears of losing battle to control monkeypox in California, U.S. as cases surge
  3. With support on monkeypox hard to come by, queer communities turn to one another
  4. Decriminalizing HIV: Scientifically proven and morally correct — 134 countries criminalize or prosecute people based on general criminal laws of HIV transmission, non-disclosure, or exposure.
  5. America has a maternal mortality crisis. Biden has a plan — at least an attempt to jumpstart “whole of government” approach.
  6. Why tween girls especially are struggling so much
  7. How to ease the transition to college when mental health is a concern
  8. Why Hollywood keeps getting abortion wrong
  9. How to talk about disability sensitively and avoid ableist tropes
  10. Social Media Posts Criticize the 988 Suicide Hotline for Calling Police. Here’s What You Need to Know.
  11. How Safe Are Nuclear Power Plants? A new history reveals that federal regulators consistently assured Americans that the risks of a massive accident were “vanishingly small”— even when they knew they had insufficient evidence to prove it.

Week of August 8, 2022 [episode #175]:

Featuring: What is BA.4.6? The CDC is tracking a new COVID “variant of concern” that’s overtaking earlier Omicron strains (1:58); Most reliable estimates to date suggest one in eight COVID-19 patients develop long COVID symptoms (5:34); Local COVID-19 Update (9:05); New York Health Department says hundreds of people may be infected with polio virus (11:06); Inching closer to an essential global pandemic treaty (14:02); Percent of Americans without health coverage hits new low at 8% (19:53); As Staffing Problems Increase, RN Job Satisfaction Plummets, and two-thirds said they intend to leave in the next 3 years (20:45); Primary care doctors would need more than 24 hours per day to provide recommended care without team-based care (24:41); Missouri’s maternal mortality rates are getting even worse, especially for women on Medicaid (27:58);Ohio ranks 32nd healthiest state in the U.S. (32:52); Investing in Health: Seven Strategies for States Looking to Buy Health, Not Just Health Care (36:12); Regular Exercise Program May Stall Cognitive Decline (40:22); Africa sees 10-year growth in healthy life expectancy (43:09).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1.  A challenge for antiabortion states: Doctors reluctant to work there
  2. Federal Court Judge Mulls Challenge to ACA Preventive Care Mandates which could affect provision of free contraceptive care, vaccines, and cancer screenings
  3. Transplant System Urgently Needs Overhaul, Experts Say
  4. What Could Actually Work to Curb Gun Violence
  5. Covid has settled into a persistent pattern — and remains damaging. It may not change anytime soon
  6. “God, No, Not Another Case.” COVID-Related Stillbirths Didn’t Have to Happen.
  7. CDC expected to ease Covid-19 recommendations, including for schools
  8. Experts Warn of Physical, Mental Health Effects of Extreme Heat
  9. History of DDT ocean dumping off L.A. coast even worse than expected, EPA finds
  10. Outside the Safe Operating Space of a New Planetary Boundary for Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS)
  11. The UN just declared a universal human right to a healthy and sustainable environment. But it’s more than just moral posturing. Here’s why.
  12. Saltwater Intrusion, a “Slow Poison” to East Coast Drinking Water
  13. U.S. declares monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency
  14. We need a national action plan to contain monkeypox now
  15. How Well Does the Monkeypox Vax Work? No One Knows for Sure
  16. What Should Worry Most Americans About Our Monkeypox Response
  17. Every New Disease Triggers a Search for Someone to Blame — Focusing on a virus’s origins encourages individualized shame while ignoring the broader societal factors that contribute to a disease’s transmission.
  18. A health equity expert on making monkeypox messaging more inclusive
  19. The campaign to rename monkeypox gets complicated
  20. CDC study highlights community spread of superbugs moving beyond hospital settings

Week of August 1, 2022 [episode #174]:

Featuring: Risk of serious pregnancy complications has doubled since Texas abortion bans (1:46); Abortions in young girls are not uncommon (3:17); A Fall COVID-19 Booster Campaign Could Save Over 100,000 lives in U.S. (4:57); More than 40% of parents of young kids say they will not get their child a Covid-19 vaccine (6:57); Parents still have widespread worries that childhood COVID-19 vaccination might be a bigger risk than getting COVID-19 (11:22); At least 27 million COVID patients may have long-term smell and taste problems (14:12); Local COVID-19 Update (17:28);  1 in 5 Americans OK with threatening health officials (20:43); Bacteria Causing Deadly Disease Found in U.S. Soil for First Time (22:43); Testing is crucial to getting monkeypox under control, but there’s a “shocking” lack of demand (25:34); Africa’s alone in monkeypox deaths but has no vaccine doses (30:27); Botswana hits “historic” U.N. goal against HIV (32:46); Even Well-Intended Laws Can’t Protect Us From Inaccurate Provider Directories (35:24); Coming wave of opioid overdoses “will be worse than it’s ever been before” (42:15); How Many High Schoolers Are Packing Heat? (43:53); Study casts more doubt on use of high-dose vitamin D pills (45:29); First trial to prove a  dietary supplement can prevent hereditary cancer [with resistant starch] (48:28).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. Summer boosters for people under 50 shelved in favor of updated boosters in the fall
  2. Their medications cause pregnancy issues. Post-Roe, that could be dangerous.  People with disabilities are considering the risks of pregnancy with their essential medications.
  3. Leave My Disability Out of Your Anti-Abortion Propaganda
  4. Why Exceptions for the Life of the Mother Have Disappeared. The absence of these exemptions is a sign of the anti-abortion-rights movement’s distrust of women and the medical establishment.
  5. A Nearly Century-Old Maternity Home for Teens in the South Makes Plans for Expansion.
  6. The War on Drugs Has a Warning for Post-Roe America: criminalizing abortion will increase harm while failing to stop the behavior it is intended to reduce.
  7. Biden’s Drug Czar Is Leading the Charge for a “Harm Reduction” Approach.
  8. How Polio Crept Back Into the U.S.
  9. What to know about polio, a disease once again vying for attention.
  10. What Happened to the Monkeypox Name Change?
  11. Encouraged by right-wing doctor groups, desperate patients turn to disproven ivermectin for long COVID.
  12. Studies Throw Cold Water on COVID “Lab Leak” Theory — Researchers say new analyses point to Wuhan market as early epicenter.
  13. Hospices Have Become Big Business for Private Equity Firms, Raising Concerns About End-of-Life Care.
  14. Value-based payment has produced little value. It needs a time-out.
  15. Black life expectancy in the southern U.S. is affected by the legacy of slavery.
  16. Public Health Workers Still Face PTSD, Other Mental Health Problems.

Week of July 25, 2022 [episode #173]:

GREATEST HITS SHOW #5, from October, 2020 thru April, 2021, featuring: global rates of unplanned pregnancies still too high (2:03): how drugs damage the environment (5:19); science supports new dietary guidelines limiting alcohol consumption, especially for reducing cancer in men (12:37); can local food feed big cities? yes, if we cut down on meat (16:17); concentration in the food business — to high, too risky (20:33); hospitals profit on junk food (22:12); how hope can make you happier with your lot in life (26:12); suicide rates did not decrease when antidepressant drugs were introduced (28:10); giving poor people money is more effective for mental health than brief therapy (29:50); people in societies where money plays a minimal role can have very high levels of happiness, comparable to the happiest industrialized nations (33:51); Atlanta creates the nation’s largest free food forest with hopes of addressing food insecurity (35:10); what to do when your friends and family are unsupportive of your depression (38:16); food systems responsible for one-third of human-caused emissions (43:58); greenhouse gas emissions associated with dietary guidelines vary between countries — following U.S. guidelines would increase emissions (44:38); book review — Bittman on food history — Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal (46:18); the surprise catch of seafood trawling — massive greenhouse gas emissions as much as the aviation industry (47:47); feeding cattle seaweed reduces their greenhouse gas emissions 82 percent (48:45); land could be worth more left to nature than when farmed (49:58); study finds evidence of 55 new chemicals in people (52:03); starting smoking cessation in hospitalized patients would reduce many premature deaths (53:43); A new way to measure human wellbeing towards sustainability — Years of Good Life (56:17).

Week of July 18, 2022 [episode #172]:

Featuring: Wastewater surveys suggest COVID surge could be biggest yet for infections (1:52); Local COVID-19 Update (5:02); Among 100 largest cities, Toledo ranks 83rd in American Fitness Index (8:02); Toledo ranks as 10th most stressed city in U.S. (10:12); Post-Roe, Health Inequities Will Be Exacerbated, which may create “a permanent subclass” of people with very poor outcomes (12:05); Poll: Abortion bans reshape where young Americans choose to live (13:15); Feds say doctors must offer abortion if mom’s life at risk (14:33); Why this key chance to getting permanent birth control (“tubes tied”) is often missed (15:40);  Gun Safety “Wrapped in a Mental Health Bill” – A Look at Health Provisions in the New Law (18:59); Psychology’s “Winning Streak” Is a Failure of Science, Not Success (24:43); Risk factors in adults with cardiovascular disease are worsening over time despite advances in secondary prevention (26:13); Hospital-Acquired Pneumonia Is Killing Patients – Yet There Is a Simple Way to Stop It (28:33); U.S. hospital adverse events drop significantly (31:20); Inaccurate pulse oximeter readings tied to less supplemental oxygen for darker-skinned ICU patients (33:22); Pharma Companies Sue for the Right to Buy Blood From Mexicans Along Border (36:14); DOJ fails to report on making federal websites accessible to disabled people (38:42); Relaxed methadone rules appear safe (41:17); Death rate from Parkinson’s rising in U.S. (42:26); In most ways, women age better than men and live longer. Scientists are trying to figure out why (44:56).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. Post-Roe, many autoimmune patients lose access to “gold standard” drug
  2. U.S. Tells Pharmacists Not to Withhold Pills That Can Cause Abortion, warning that failing to dispense such drugs “may be discriminating” on the basis of sex or disability, citing other conditions that they can treat.
  3. Abortion laws spark profound changes in other medical care
  4. Dr. Caitlin Bernard Was Meant to Write This With Me Before She Was Attacked for Doing Her Job
  5. What Will Happen if Doctors Defy the Law to Provide Abortions? Laws favors conscientious refusers of care rather than conscientious providers of care
  6. What it costs to have a baby in the U.S. — on average, $18,865
  7. Conservative Blocs Unleash Litigation to Curb Public Health Powers
  8. “Cooking Them to Death”: The Lethal Toll of Hot Prisons
  9. American Nurses Association Apologizes for Racism, Past and Present
  10. The four bases of anti-science beliefs — and what to do about them, as political divisions have potent effects on attitudes
  11. The new 988 mental health hotline is live. Here’s what to know
  12. Spirituality linked with better health outcomes, and patient care
  13. Many Cancer Centers Push Too Many Tests
  14. “You get goosebumps from the data” — hopes rise for new malaria vaccine. The disease is a leading killer of under fives across Africa. But trials for a new vaccine suggest an end to the death toll could be in sight

Week of July 11, 2022 [episode #171]:

Featuring: “Set them up for failure” – Sex education not required in many states where abortion is or will be banned (1:52); Montana clinics preemptively restrict out-of-state patients’ access to abortion pills, for fear of prosecution (6:38); 1,100-plus Ohio doctors band together to defend reproductive rights (10:31); Newest Omicron subvariants can evade boosters increasingly effectively, doubling each recent wave (14:31); Studies show that 8% of athletes have persistent symptoms after contracting COVID-19 (15:52); Lower Long COVID Risk Tied to More Vaccine Doses (16:57); About 12%  of COVID Hospitalizations Involve Immunocompromised People (17:44); Poll Describes Americans’ Readiness to Emerge from the Pandemic and Changes to Daily Life (18:27); Local COVID-19 Update (20:47); Let’s call monkeypox what it is: A pandemic (26:47); Ghana reports first-ever suspected cases of highly-infectious hemorrhagic viral disease (32:56); Global plan calls for more funding to bring TB under control (35:03); UN Report: Global hunger numbers rose to as many as 828 million in 2021 (38:07); Insulin is an extreme financial burden for over 14% of Americans whose life depends on it (40:21); Gov. Newsom announces California will produce its own “low cost” insulin (42:12); How Much Health Insurers Pay for Almost Everything Is Going Public (45:08); FDA appears to hold off on crackdown on synthetic nicotine products, despite Congressional mandate (52:28).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. Women in prison and under court surveillance will suffer under new abortion bans
  2. “It’s Scary”: Students Fear Going to College in Red States After Roe
  3. This Is the Republican Roadmap for Eradicating Reproductive Rights
  4. How do we regain abortion rights? Take a page out of Mothers Against Drunk Driving’s playbook
  5. Federal Patient Privacy Law Does Not Cover Most Period-Tracking Apps. A patient privacy law known as HIPAA, passed in 1996, hasn’t kept pace with new technologies and at-home tests.
  6. FDA to Weigh Over-the-Counter Sale of Contraceptive Pills
  7. A floating abortion clinic? Medical team plans to launch ship in Gulf of Mexico, in federal waters
  8. MAKE BIRTH FREE —  It’s time the pro-life movement chose life.
  9. Evidence Shouldn’t Be Optional — This Supreme Court often ignores science when handing down decisions, and it affects far too many lives.
  10. Health care in jails and prisons is terrible. The pandemic made it even worse.
  11. What to Know About the New BA.2.75 Omicron Subvariant
  12. In Debate Over Chicago’s Speed Cameras, Concerns Over Safety, Racial Disparities Collide — Cities nationwide look to Chicago as officials wrestle with whether speed cameras improve traffic safety enough to justify their financial burden on Black and Latino motorists.
  13. Are tax-exempt hospitals giving back their fair share to communities?  Dubious accounting puts into question.
  14. Truth is good for health.
  15. Exercise Associated with 25% Lower Risk for Depression.

Week of July 4, 2022 [episode #170]:

Featuring: Abortion facts and health care standards worldwide and in U.S. (2:18); Doctors and Other Health Care Workers Face Unprecedented Legal Risks After Roe Overturn (7:13); Standardize Abortion Education Across U.S. Medical Schools (16:43); Next post-Roe battlefield — Online abortion information (19:06); Supreme Court severely limits EPA in curbing power plant emissions and climate change (23:51); New Guidelines Encourage Breastfeeding Longer, but Call for More Parental Support (25:32); Race not dealt with in most pediatric clinical care guidelines (28:51);  Overdose Deaths Behind Bars Rise as Drug Crisis Swells (31:21); Drastically reducing nicotine levels will save a lot of lives (34:13); Up to 540,000 lives could be saved worldwide by targeting speed and other proven traffic crash prevention interventions (37:05); United States had highest motor vehicle crash mortality rate  among comparable countries in 2019 (38:52); COVID-19 cases rising nearly everywhere in the world (40:28); FDA recommends vaccine makers update Covid-19 shots to target Omicron variants (40:55); Maternal mortality jumped during COVID-19 pandemic, especially among Black and Hispanic mothers (41:57); Local COVID-19 Update (44:20); Privatizing England’s National Health Services’ care led to declines in quality of healthcare, increasing deaths from treatable causes (46:30); Ohio expanded breast cancer screening coverage — Will the nation follow? (49:25); California first to cover health care for all immigrants (51:53).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. How to Have a Medication Abortion. Where to find the pill and what to expect.
  2. The Abortion Pill Can Be Used Later Than the FDA Says
  3. Big Employers Are Offering Abortion Benefits. Will the Information Stay Safe?
  4. After Roe, HHS Guidance Aims to Keep Health Information Secure
  5. Antiabortion lawmakers want to block patients from crossing state lines
  6. There’s another War Between the States coming over abortion. Before the Civil War, Northern and Southern states did battle over fugitive slaves. Once again, something legal in one state is illegal in a state next door.
  7. Abortion pill maker plans multistate legal action to preserve drug access
  8. Abortion rights should be law, not a corporate perk
  9. Indigenous tribes push back on calls to open abortion clinics on federal lands
  10. Catholic hospitals do not provide the same reproductive health options as other hospitals, including birth control
  11. Men rush to get vasectomies after Roe ruling
  12. The Kids Were Already in Crisis Before Roe Ended — With new abortion limits and bans, the pediatric mental health emergency will only worsen
  13. Placebo response reveals unconscious bias among white patients toward female, Black physicians
  14. Rural parents are less likely to say their pediatrician recommended COVID shots. Here’s why that matters.
  15. Survey: Nearly half of physicians changed jobs during the pandemic
  16. Why LGBTQ Adults Are More Vulnerable to Heart Disease
  17. Would carbon food labels change the way you shop? [with tool to compare foods]
  18. How to Get Rid of Medical Debt — Or Avoid It in the First Place
  19. Struggling with positive thinking? Research shows negative moods can actually be useful
  20. The Joy of Saving the World — Research suggests a surprising motive for environmentalism: feeling good.

Week of June 27, 2022 [episode #169]:

Featuring: Ohio’s six-week abortion ban becomes law hours after Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision (1:57); Statement on U.S. Supreme Court Overturning Roe v. Wade (4:07); Brief overview of what Roe reversal will mean for Ohio and U.S. public health (5:40); Texas has a law that allows parents to give up newborns at fire stations or hospitals — it’s very rarely used (8:08); Ohio Department of Health staffer fired after abortion pill mention in newsletter (9:36); American Medical Association condemns overturning of NY gun law, to result in more firearms in public (13:51); Here’s what is in the Senate’s gun bill — and what was left out (15:47); Juul vaping order by FDA triggers broader tobacco fight (21:15); Biden administration says it plans to cut nicotine in cigarettes to nonaddictive levels (23;47); California ranks worst in nation for air pollution because of wildfire smoke(26:57); Colorado bets on a public option to grow health coverage (28:02); U.S. Health Disparities  Cost At least $320 Billion Each Year (31:05); CDC confirms evidence of local monkeypox transmission (33:10); Second COVID Booster Protected Seniors in Long-Term Care (34:07); 1 in 13 of U.S. adults currently report long COVID (35:22); Covid-19 vaccines prevented nearly 20 million deaths globally in first year (36:12); Covid causes global life expectancy to fall for first time since stat recorded in 1950s (37:00); Local COVID-19 Update (38:12);  CDC Advisory Committee Backs “Enhanced” Flu Vaccine for Seniors, estimated to save 2,000+ lives (43:05); Gender bias plummets acceptance of female pharmacists’ recommendations on proper antibiotic use (44:05); New safe-sleep guidelines aim to reduce infant deaths (46:39).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. 18 Ways the Supreme Court Just Changed America
  2. Five Things to Know Now That the Supreme Court Has Overturned Roe v. Wade
  3. Global access to abortion still highly unequal
  4. Abortion Pills Will Change a Post-Roe World
  5. Red states crack down on abortion pills
  6. Abortion pills over the counter? Experts see big hurdles in widening U.S. access
  7. The “abortion pill” may treat dozens of diseases, but Roe reversal might upend research — Mifepristone, the FDA-approved abortion drug, might also treat conditions like cancer and PTSD. Proving it works in a post-Roe landscape could be a challenge.
  8. Black people in the U.S. twice as likely to face coercion, unconsented procedures during birth
  9. HIPAA medical privacy law won’t protect you if prosecutors want your reproductive health records
  10. A major problem for minors: post-Roe access to abortion
  11. Primary Care Providers Can Help Safeguard Abortion
  12. Women less likely than men to get authorship on scientific publications, analysis finds
  13. Black doctors are forced out of training programs at far higher rates than white residents
  14. What will it take to level the playing field for Black medical residents?
  15. Digital back doors can lead down the path to health inequity
  16. Hold science to higher standards on racism
  17. Racism Is Major Driver of Environmental Inequality — But Most Americans Incorrectly Think It’s Poverty
  18. Research on Gun Violence Has Been Thwarted: It’s Now More Urgent Than Ever
  19. Five COVID Numbers That Don’t Make Sense Anymore
  20. World mental health report: Transforming mental health for all
  21. Covid, Conflict And Climate Are Fueling A Global Food Crisis – Leaders Must Act Fast
  22. Monkeypox is not a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, but perhaps it should be
  23. America May Soon Have Another Sexually Transmitted Infection (Monkeypox)
  24. Some parents skip steps to minimize firework risks to kids

Week of June 20, 2022 [episode #168]:

Featuring: I Just Recovered From BA.2. Can I Get BA.4/5? –Probably (1:57); WHO reports COVID-19 deaths rise, reversing a 5-week decline (6:18); Omicron Less Likely to Cause Long COVID, even as more likely to infect (6:53); U.S. Covid test makers anticipate layoffs after government reallocates funds, threatening testing capabilities (10:26); Local COVID-19 Update (12:21); Universal Health Care Could Have Saved More Than 330,000 U.S. Lives during COVID (15:22); A Proposal to Import Drugs from Other Countries Creates an Unusual Alliance in the Senate (20:17); Doctors push to make birth control available without prescription (22:54); 100 Million People in America Are Saddled With Health Care Debt (23:52); Gains in patient safety have stalled over the past decade (34:18); We don’t know whether most medical treatments work, and we know even less about whether they cause harm (36:44); Senate passes major benefits expansion for veterans sickened by war toxins (42:49); Life expectancy for Native Americans has stagnated — even long before Covid (46:02); Death rate increased 51% over 15 years among Working-age Ohioans (46:57); Ohio seniors’ health ranked 37th among states (47:37); Ohioans overall health ranked 37th among states (48:53); Ohio Governor signs bill that reduces training time needed to arm teachers from 700 to 24 hours (52:08); Drownings in home pools, hot tubs kill hundreds of kids each year (53:12); Pioneering Maine looks at tightening PFAS standards after feds say almost no level is safe (54:52); EPA ordered to reassess glyphosate’s impact on health, environment (55:52).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. Under age COVID vaccine Q&A
  2. The irony — and ignominy — of medical conferences as superspreader events
  3. Female leadership attributed to fewer COVID-19 deaths
  4. Clues to Long COVID — Scientists strive to unravel what is driving disabling symptoms
  5. How Covid Did Away With the Sick Day — Some workers have no choice but to clock in. Others find the flexibility of remote work leads them to log in from their sick beds.
  6. Why are my patients still isolating in their homes? Gun violence.
  7. Preventive Care May Be Free, but Follow-Up Diagnostic Tests Can Bring Big Bills
  8. Buy and Bust: When Private Equity Comes for Rural Hospitals
  9. Pesticides Are Spreading Toxic “Forever Chemicals” — Common chemicals sprayed on many crops each year are cloaked in technical misclassifications
  10. U.S. abortions rise, after years of declines, to 1 in 5 pregnancies in 2020
  11. The Right to Become a Parent Is Now at Risk Too — The courts used to understand that Roe stood not so much for the choice to end a pregnancy as for the choice of whether to end one — current state could lead to further forced “choices” like sterilization.
  12. AMA Acknowledges Voting Is a Social Determinant of Health
  13. Global Public Health Workers and Academics Must Step Up Response to War
  14. It’s Hot Outside — And That’s Bad News for Children’s Health

Week of June 13, 2022 [episode #167]:

Featuring: COVID-19 accounted for 62% of duty-related law enforcement deaths in 2020 (2:03); Two newest versions of Omicron are gaining ground in the U.S. (3:11); Local COVID-19 Update (4:52); Support for gun rights has eroded after nearly a decade of mass shootings, poll shows (8:32); Six Predictions About the End of Roe, Based on Research (10:26); A Deep Dive Into the Widening Mortality Gap Across the Political Aisle (15:52); Four in 10 U.S. adults who need mental health care can’t get it (20:03); Reasons Why Most Young Adults Sweep Depression Under the Rug (23:00); LGBTQ students consider quitting college at an alarming rate — why mental health help is hard to find (24:10); A new study shows benefits to dispatching mental health specialists in nonviolent 911 emergencies (26:46); Workplace mental health benefits can reduce sick days, increase productivity, all while providing savings for employers (28:52); Hospitals are required to post prices for common procedures — Few do (32:01); Feds Slap First Hospitals With Fines for Lack of Price Transparency (35:02); Medicaid Weighs Attaching Strings to Nursing Home Payments to Improve Patient Care (36:58); The FDA is not involved in approving 98.7 % of food chemicals (40:57); FDA agrees to reconsider safety of BPA in food packaging (42:11); Good News for Your Credit Report Regarding Medical Debt (42:47); Many baby formula plants weren’t inspected during COVID (43:52); Pursuit of profits is driving drug companies to break the 340B law aiding most vulnerable (46:08); Half of the world’s population suffers from headaches (52:07); Stigma Common Among Migraine Patients, leading to poorer outcomes, quality of life (53:30); Advancing Access to Hearing Health Care (54:26).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. Covid shots for young kids are almost available. Here’s what you need to know.
  2. Abortion Pills Will Be Crucial in a Post-Roe World. But They’re Not the Magic Fix Many Think They Are. It’s About Equity, Equity, Equity.
  3. Abortion Poised to Be a Bigger Voting Issue Than in Past
  4. The New Abortion Bans: Almost No Exceptions for Rape, Incest or Health
  5. If Roe is overturned, the ripples could affect in vitro fertilization and genetic testing of embryos, experts warn
  6. Doula services could soon be covered by Medicaid after racial equity bill passes Ohio House
  7. U.S. fight against opioid overdoses becomes one of racial justice
  8. Long Wait for Justice: People in Jail Face Delays for Mental Health Care Before They Can Stand Trial
  9. The flip side of toxic positivity: Emotional perfectionism
  10. There Is a Right Way and a Wrong Way to Respond to Monkeypox
  11. Monkeypox vaccination begins — can the global outbreaks be contained?
  12. Concern grows that human monkeypox outbreak will establish virus in animals outside Africa
  13. How the hard lessons of the AIDS crisis are shaping the response to the monkeypox outbreak
  14. Blaming Gay Men for Monkeypox Will Harm Everyone
  15. “Discriminatory and stigmatizing”: Scientists push to rename monkeypox viruses
  16. Covid Funding Pries Open a Door to Improving Air Quality in Schools
  17. Children’s Vision Problems Often Go Undetected, Despite Calls for Regular Screening
  18. Blood Tests That Detect Cancers could lead to unnecessary treatments without saving patients’ lives.
  19. Doubt is their product: How Big Tobacco, Big Oil, and the Gun Lobby market ignorance to convince people that the truth can’t be known, delaying policy action.
  20. Study Discovers Extensive Undisclosed Conflicts of Interest in Medical Research
  21. St. Jude Stashed Away $886 Million in Unspent Revenue Last Year, as other children’s cancer nonprofits struggled to raise cash.
  22. “Soil Your Undies” campaign asks Pennsylvanians to bury their underwear to test soil health

Week of June 6, 2022 [episode #166]:

Featuring: Why new COVID variants are driving a surprise surge (1:57); Asymptomatic COVID-19 not spread as easily as symptomatic and pre-symptomatic (4:19); During the Omicron Wave, Death Rates Soared for Older People, Highlighting Their Continuing Vulnerability (7:09); Paxlovid antiviral reduces COVID risk in seniors regardless of vaccine status, but doesn’t help those under 65 (10:45); How many Covid deaths are acceptable? Some Biden officials tried to guess 12:09); Fever, body aches, loss of smell: New COVID study charts evolution of symptoms over waves (13:28); Local COVID-19 Update (14:51); Pediatric Gun Deaths Are a Massive Problem in the U.S. (18:23); Workplace Violence in Healthcare (25:57); Locking People Up Is No Way to Treat Mental Illness (27:11); Climate Crisis Poses Serious Risks for Mental Health (30:54); Big tobacco is having a “devastating” impact on the environment (32:20); Tobacco companies say they don’t advertise to children, but this damning report shows otherwise (36:07); Africa will be the world’s ashtray if big tobacco is able to get its way (38:02); Americans overpay for generic drugs due to middlemen (45:52); Weight loss with bariatric surgery cuts the risk of developing cancer and death from cancer (45:59); Only 6 out of 10 adults feel comfortable taking charge and giving CPR (47:41); Gratitude expressions between co-workers improve cardiovascular responses to stress (49:09); VP Harris calls water security a foreign policy priority (49:09).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. 5 types of long COVID
  2. “Too little too late”: Unpacking Biden’s moves to improve federal prisons’ response to Covid-19
  3. The Missing Part of America’s Pandemic Response — The NIH has become sclerotic and overly cautious.
  4. The Challenges of Calculating a Lab Leak Risk — The odds of a dangerous pathogen escaping a lab are uncertain, and have implications for Covid-19 and more.
  5. Preparing for the next pandemic: Time to follow a social business model for patent-free global medicine production
  6. The good and bad about home medical tests
  7. The Loss of a “Good” Death — Our dying and grieving processes explained
  8. Science Shows How to Protect Kids’ Mental Health, but It’s Being Ignored. Yes, the COVID pandemic has made the problem worse. But our teens were in trouble long before that.
  9. It’s hard to explain (and fix) evil — Mass shootings and mental illness
  10. Surgeons Call for Action to Reduce Gun Violence, with 13 Recommendations
  11. On gun violence, the United States is an outlier
  12. Skirmishes Over Medication Abortion Renews Debate on State vs. Federal Powers
  13. Blue cities in red states say they won’t help enforce abortion bans
  14. In Florida, There’s a Growing Gap Between What People Say About Abortion and What They Do — Inside the coming clash between politics and practice.
  15. How adoption agencies are responding to potential overturning of Roe v. Wade
  16. Faulty oxygen readings delayed Covid treatments for darker-skinned patients
  17. Mistreatment in medical school leads students to leave, with students of color faring the worst
  18. Factoring in patients’ experiences is essential for moving the needle on health disparities
  19. For Many Low-Income Families, Getting Formula Has Always Been a Strain
  20. Beyond baby formula: advancing best practices in FDA’s efforts to prevent shortages
  21. Failure to Launch: The Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program at the EPA
  22. AARP’s Billion-Dollar Endorsement Business Begs Conflicts of Interest
  23. Taco Bowls and Chicken Curry: Medi-Cal Delivers Ready Meals in Grand Health Care Experiment

Week of May 30, 2022 [episode #165]:

Featuring: Local COVID-19 Update (1:57); Vaccines may not prevent many symptoms of long covid (7:50); Vast majority of Americans don’t want Supreme Court decisions on abortion, marriage, contraception overturned (10:43); FBI counts 61 “active shooter” incidents last year, up 52% from 2020 (12:48); Gun-Related Homicides Soar to a Level Unseen in 21st Century (13:55); Traffic Fatalities Reached a 16-Year High in 2021 (15:31); Researchers found alcohol use disorder mortality rates were 25% higher than projected in 2020, 22% higher in 2021 (17:06); Block-by-block data shows pollution’s stark toll on people of color and the poor (17:35); High air pollution from fracking in Ohio county detected by community activists’ sensors pinpoint emissions missed by expensive EPA instruments (19:44); Taxpayers Paid Twice for Healthcare, as private insurers profiteer more than ever during the pandemic (23:42); High cost of cancer care in the U.S. doesn’t reduce mortality rates (30:21); Obamacare found to have helped extend lives of people with cancer (32:22); Younger People More Likely to Undergo Colonoscopy After Guideline Change (33:38); Heart attack mortality rate higher in the U.S. compared to other high-income countries (34:37); One in five male adolescents suffers from high blood pressure (35:58); Black, Hispanic adults less likely to receive CPR, especially in public (37:31); Hispanic people with chest pain wait in ER on average 28 minutes longer than other people (40:03); Diabetes Screening Thresholds Should Be Lowered for Racial Minorities (41:17); Most doctors still believe in prescribing unnecessary antibiotics to treat asymptomatic infections (44:21); The U.S. is soon to become a net food importer (47:00); More Americans Changing Diet for Environmental Reasons (48:00); The FDA considers a “healthy” food label (48:43).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. Hard hit by COVID-19, Black Americans are recovering slowly
  2. New study finds public health messaging could benefit from using “autonomy-supportive” language versus shame and pressure language
  3. The Anti-Vaccine Movement’s New Frontier of Radicalized Parents
  4. What Vaccine Apartheid Portends for the Climate Future
  5. The Science Is Clear: Gun Control Saves Lives
  6. The Long-Term Psychological Impact of School Shootings
  7. The school shooting generation grows up — in a world wholly unprepared to deal with the aftermath of mass school shootings
  8. What we know about mass school shootings in the US – and the gunmen who carry them out
  9. Mass shooters aren’t mentally ill people who suddenly “snap.” They decide to kill.
  10. Why 18-Year-Olds in Texas Can Buy AR-15s but Not Handguns — disparities in how federal and state laws regulate rifles and handguns
  11. The next U.S. abortion battle is over pills, and it’s already begun
  12. A Streamlined Health Care Model for Medication Abortion Access
  13. Men Have a Lot to Lose When Roe Falls
  14. Researchers suggest doctors should start prescribing vibrators to women
  15. “Almost like malpractice”: To shed bias, doctors get schooled to look beyond obesity
  16. Antifatness in the Surgical Setting
  17. A Different Psychiatry Is Needed for Discontinuing Antidepressants
  18. How to stay up-to-date on terrible news without burning out

Week of May 23, 2022 [episode #164]:

Featuring: A third of US should be considering masks (3:17); Covid antiviral pill preventing hospitalizations and deaths, says White House — Fact-check shows misleading (5:41); Does Paxlovid help people who have been vaccinated against Covid-19? Show us the data! (9:00); On-campus COVID-19 measures couldn’t contain Omicron (11:19); COVIDtests.gov is offering another round of free COVID tests (13:05); Pro-Trump counties continue to suffer far higher COVID death tolls (13:45); What happens when the government stops buying Covid-19 vaccines? (17:46); The Costs of Long COVID (23:01); 76% of Long COVID Patients Were Not Hospitalized for Their Infection (27:37); Some COVID Survivors “Sicker Than They Feel” (28:38); “That’s Just Part of Aging” — Long Covid Symptoms Are Often Overlooked in Seniors (29:28); Omitting long Covid from pandemic messaging is harmful for public health (31:43); Local COVID-19 Update (34:37);  New free service aims to connect Ohio’s health care workers with mental health resources – WellBeingCARE.org (38:08); New nonprofit will decide how to spend hundreds of millions of Ohio’s opioid settlement money (40:05); Pollution Responsible for 9 Million Deaths Each Year (42:04); Cutting air pollution from fossil fuels would save 50,000 lives a year in U.S. (43:43); Asthma, COPD Admissions Dropped 40% After a Big Polluter Shut Down (44:27); FDA sparks anger with decision on “phthalates” — a chemical in fast-food packaging (46:25); Rates of unnecessary procedures persisted through pandemic (50:07); New expert consensus statement published on achieving remission of type 2 diabetes using diet as a primary intervention (51:31); WHO Results Report shows global health achievements despite COVID-19 pandemic (53:22).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. What COVID Hospitalization Numbers Are Missing Amid a Health Care Capacity Crisis
  2. Are we in a public health emergency?
  3. How Often Can You Be Infected With the Coronavirus?
  4. The Answer to Covid Fatigue Is Creativity, Not Surrender
  5. Hate your face mask? There’s hope — A U.S. government contest has 10 companies competing to make better face coverings
  6. The Antiscience Supreme Court Is Hurting the Health of Americans
  7. How the End of Roe Would Change Prenatal Care
  8. Abortion and inherited disease: Genetic disorders complicate the view that abortion is a choice
  9. Vague “medical emergency” exceptions in abortion laws leave pregnant people in danger
  10. Better Birth Control Hasn’t Made Abortion Obsolete
  11. Make abortion pills available over the counter
  12. The best way to protect abortion rights? Finalize the Equal Rights Amendment
  13. To improve safety, hospitals should make “radical transparency” real — and accessible
  14. The frequently long waits for insurance prior approvals frustrate doctors and patients needing treatment
  15. The Weight of Stigma: Heavier Patients Confront the Burden of Bias
  16. NEJM, other journals: provide more transparency about conflicts of interest or don’t publish conflicted articles
  17. National Academies report cites “urgent” need to recruit more diverse participants for clinical trials
  18. Monkeypox 101, unanswered questions, and the bigger picture
  19. A CDC expert answers questions on monkeypox
  20. Russian aggression underscores the U.S.’s need for greater investment in medical countermeasures to chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear attacks
  21. Hopelessness around youth mental health is creating a “nihilistic contagion”
  22. Sports and Transgender People  – Endocrinologists weigh in on the rights of transgender athletes and on basing decisions on science
  23. As Red Cross Moves to Pricey Blood Treatment Method, Hospitals Call for More Choice
  24. Climate change likely to reduce the amount of sleep that people get per year
  25. 6 Things You Need To Know About Music and Health

Week of May 16, 2022 [episode #163]:

Featuring: Pandemic gets tougher to track as COVID testing plunges (2:08); Health experts caution against ‘new normal’ strategies for COVID-19 — must deal with chronic diseases and racial/ethnic disparities (3:13); Covid-19 narrows long-standing Latino mortality advantage (5:33); U.S. and world leaders pledge a pathetic $3B to fight pandemic globally (7:37); More people now incorrectly blame Asian Americans for Covid than at height of pandemic (8:16); Local COVID-19 Update (11:02); Overturning Roe highlights need for family planning, especially in trigger ban states (14:49); Cost-Related Barriers Prevent Low-Income U.S. Women from Using Their Preferred Contraceptive Method, Or Any method at All (18:06); Leading medical journal warns “women will die” if Supreme Court overturns Roe (19:12); Medical education of abortion could be erased in red states (21:11); Treasury Secretary Yellen says the Roe ruling helped allow women to finish school and increase their earning potential, leading to higher workforce participation, plus better lives for children (24:13); Covid shutdowns in China are delaying medical scans in the U.S. (26:00); What are the Radiation Risks from CT Scans? (27:31); CT Scans Cause About 40,000 Cancers Deaths Per Year, Similar to Breast and Prostate Cancers (31:44); Genetic study confirms sarin nerve gas as cause of Gulf War illness (33:43); U.S. overdose deaths hit record 107,000 in 2021 (37:10); WHO highlights glaring gaps in regulation of alcohol marketing across borders (38:32); No health benefits among adults who used both e-cigarettes and traditional cigarettes (44:07); Pharmacist Suicides Outpace General Public (45:10); Government watchdog: 1 in 4 older Americans on Medicare harmed during hospital stays (46:35); Staffing shortages slam hospitals, increasing lengths of stay (49:11); One in three people who drowned in Canada had a chronic health condition (49:37); “New and improved” supermarkets trim childhood obesity in NYC (52:11).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. “It’s a tsunami”: Legal challenges threatening public health policy
  2. U.S. to ask world for more on global Covid fight as its own cash dwindles
  3. Five risks if Congress does not pass new COVID-19 funding: Not enough vaccines for everyone in the fall; Running out of treatments; Unable to buy new treatments; Shortages of tests; Cutting back global aid
  4. Strengthening Gavi is a way forward for global vaccine equity
  5. Building scientific talent in the Global South can help prevent future public health crises
  6. The Lab-Leak Theory Is Looking Stronger by the Day. Here’s What We Know [podcast]
  7. The Plot to Keep Meatpacking Plants Open During COVID-19
  8. Yes, Phones Can Reveal if Someone Gets an Abortion
  9. The Sex Ed Wars Will Never End
  10. If Roe Goes, Could Birth Control Be Next?
  11. A Comprehensive Guide to Birth Control
  12. How do people with disabilities feel about abortion? New poll sheds light for first time
  13. To Better Understand Women’s Health, We Need to Destigmatize Menstrual Blood
  14. Why Heart Disease in Women Is So Often Missed or Dismissed
  15. Alzheimer’s blood tests more likely to misdiagnose Black patients
  16. Researchers Try to Understand High Suicide Rate Among Veterinarians
  17. States Move to Regulate Toxic Chemicals; Federal Government Still Far Behind
  18. Formula Shortage: What Providers Are Telling Worried Parents

Week of May 9, 2022 [episode #162]:

Featuring: 4 in 10 American adults know someone who died of COVID-19 (3:02); White House Correspondents Dinner spreads COVID (4:04); Less than 4 in 10 Americans wore a mask regularly when indoors at work (5:47); Omicron as “intrinsically” severe as other COVID variants (7:23); COVID Boosters Blunted Omicron’s Effect on Nursing Homes (9:47); White House documents detail a looming squeeze on Covid-19 boosters (10:39); COVID-19 tied to adverse maternal outcomes, preterm birth (11:44); COVID worsens asthma in children (12:44); Local COVID-19 Update (14:13);   Flu vaccination associated with 34% lower risk of major cardiac events (18:37); Abortion epidemiology – Banning abortions will not stop abortions (19:59); U.S. would lag behind global abortion access if Roe v. Wade is undone (23:46); Next battle over access to abortion will focus on pills (26:46); With abortion in jeopardy, minority women have most to lose (33:08); U.S. international family planning restriction may kill 27,000 people per year (36:51); Feds Launch New Maternal Mental Health Hotline – 1-833-9-HELP4MOMS (41:03); The Sunshine State goes dark on adolescent health. It’s a dangerous misstep (42:40); Record number of people without enough to eat in 2021, crisis growing (47:23); Alzheimer’s Drug Company Admits Defeat (50:46);  Affirmative action bans had “devastating impact” on diversity in medical schools (52:08); Almost half of LGBTQ youths “seriously considered” suicide in past year (52:46); One-Week Social Media Break Reduces Anxiety, Depression (55:42).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. Sweeping, Limited, or No Powers at All? What’s at Stake in the Mask Mandate Appeal
  2. Can Covid Lead to Impotence?
  3. As Overdoses Soar, More States Decriminalize Fentanyl Testing Strips
  4. A pediatrician’s point of view: Antiabortion is anti-child
  5. What the Supreme Court Should Know about Abortion Care
  6. Abortion pill provider sees spike in U.S. interest after SCOTUS leak
  7. Abortion pills by mail pose challenge for officials in red states
  8. Corporate America Doesn’t Want to Talk Abortion, but It May Have To
  9. How to Win the Abortion Argument: Activists overseas have lessons for post-Roe America.
  10. WHO reveals shocking extent of exploitative formula milk marketing
  11. Two-thirds of working parents are burned out. Here’s how to spot the signs — and get help.
  12. Medicare Surprise: Drug Plan Prices Touted During Open Enrollment Can Rise Within a Month
  13. Medicare Beneficiaries Need More Help Navigating the Program

Week of May 2, 2022 [episode #161]:

Featuring: Local COVID-19 Update (3:39); COVID deaths no longer overwhelmingly among the unvaccinated as toll on elderly grows, showing importance of boosters,  and the risks the most vulnerable still face (7:12); Northeast had half the COVID death rate as South (9:39); South Africa’s latest COVID surge blamed on new omicron mutants (10:32); Birx says U.S. must prepare for summer COVID surge as immunity wanes (11:12); Awareness and use of COVID treatments is low (11:48);  Racial split on COVID-19 endures as restrictions ease in U.S. (12:26); Contracting COVID-19 might increase your risk of type 1 diabetes (14:11); Older people who get COVID are at increased risk of getting shingles (16:40); Majority of family members of COVID patients treated in the ICU report PTSD symptoms (17:12); South Africa’s COVID-19 vaccine plant risks closure after no orders (18:59); How climate change could drive animal movements — and threaten more viral spillovers (20:42); Global coalition seeks $4.8 billion for polio eradication initiative (23:37); Africa sees rise in measles as pandemic disrupts vaccines (24:10); New article outlines the characteristics of a “longevity diet” (25:27); Vitamin plus mineral supplementation shows benefit for children with ADHD and emotional dysregulation (26:51); Women Who Live with Gun Owners More Likely to Take Their Own Life (29:25); Crossing Lines — Firearm Deaths Overtake Motor Vehicle Deaths as the Leading Cause of Death among U.S. Youth (31:38); Rates of handgun carriage rise among US adolescents, particularly White, rural, and higher income teens (33:05);  Almost 90% of autistic women report experiencing sexual violence, often on multiple occasions (33:53); PTSD costs in U.S. civilian, military populations combine for more than $230 billion, surpassing costs for conditions such as anxiety and depression (35:11); Thinking about suicide and self-harming alleviates stress (37:27); “Unprecedented” Decline in RN Workforce Driven by RNs Leaving Hospitals (38:58); Private Medicare plans denied nearly 1 in 5 claims that should have been paid (39:43); Medicare  and Medicaid need to include measures for social drivers of health (42:45); Study finds disparities in improper antibiotic prescribing, which is commonplace (45:32); 40% of Americans live with unhealthy levels of air pollution, a growing proportion (47:26); FDA unveils plan to ban menthol in cigarettes, cigars (48:02); New Report Links PFAS “Forever Chemical” Exposure to Liver Damage (49:34); EU unveils plan for “largest ever ban” on dangerous chemicals (50:52).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. The debate over the COVID-19 public health emergency is failing America
  2. GAO Long-Term COVID Overview
  3. The Race to Unravel COVID’s Hidden Link to Alzheimer’s
  4. No Matter How You Feel About Masks, You Should Be Alarmed by This Judge’s Decision
  5. Understanding Black grief as a health disparity
  6. “Belittling, Doubting, or Blaming”: Outdated Medical Language May Harm Patients
  7. Republicans Have Stopped Trying to Kill Obamacare. Here’s What They’re Planning Instead.
  8. Unprecedented increase in number of border wall falls and trauma
  9. Why do teens self-harm? Clinical psychologists explain how to help teens reduce their emotional distress
  10. Psychologists are starting to talk publicly about their own mental illnesses, and patients can benefit
  11. The Problem with Preaching Gratitude – When Toxic Positivity Meets Mental Illness
  12. Emergency Contraception Marks a New Battle Line in Texas
  13. These Laws Are Making Miscarriage More Traumatic in America
  14. America lost its way on menopause research. It’s time to get back on track.
  15. Mental health of college students is getting worse, even before pandemic
  16. Study finds “burnout epidemic” for working women two years into pandemic
  17. Residents enjoy better health after a switch to electric buses
  18. Europe’s Noise Capital Tries to Turn Down the Volume
  19. The Unseen Scars of Those Who Kill Via Remote Control
  20. Climate Change Is Making Jobs Deadlier—and OSHA Can’t Take the Heat
  21. Roles of Cities in Creating Healthful Food Systems
  22. Dietary supplements could be tainted with prescription medications and dangerous hidden ingredients
  23. “A worldwide public health threat”: Rob Bilott on his 20-year fight against forever chemicals
  24. A Black Woman Fought for Her Community, and Her Life, Amidst Polluting Landfills
  25. All My Environmental Heroes Are Black Women
  26. How stress can damage your brain and body
  27. A New Dimension to a Meaningful Life – Appreciating beauty in the everyday may be just as powerful as a sense of overarching purpose

Week of April 25, 2022 [episode #160]:

GREATEST HITS SHOW #4, from December, 2019, thru September, 2020, featuring: hospital alarms prove a noisy misery for patients (1:54); long work hours linked to both regular and hidden high blood pressure (6:20); every American family basically pays a yearly $8,000 “poll tax” under U.S. health system (7:42); Ecopsychology — how immersion in nature benefits your health (11:12); Why drinking diet soda makes you crave sugar (15:50); slow carbs over low carbs – fiber matters (19:06); Hormone-altering chemicals threaten our health, finances and future (22:28); Why sequencing the human genome hasn’t cured many diseases (36:57); In an age of mass protests, what “less lethal” weapons actually do (42:11); Awareness of our biases is essential to good science (51:34).

Week of April 18, 2022 [episode #159]:

Featuring: Many Virus Cases Go Uncounted – “We are flying blind” (1:57); Local COVID-19 Update (6:07); U.S. renews COVID-19 public health emergency (8:40); Poll reveals that Most Americans say COVID is no longer a crisis (9:12); COVID-19 vaccines prevented more than 2.2 million U.S. deaths (10:13); FDA authorizes breath test that can detect COVID-19 in three minutes (11:03); 4 Michiganders with COVID-19 strain unique to mink highlight U.S. spillover cases (12:08); U.S. global vaccination program employees look to leave over lack of funding (13:46); Efforts to make protective medical gear in U.S. falling flat (14:52); State officials in the U.S. say they still have far too few epidemiologists, a CDC survey finds (17:48); Survey indicates primary care physicians are planning exit (19:52); COVID chaos fueled another public health crisis: STDs (20:33); U.S. adult smoking rate fell during first year of pandemic (24:24); Human Rights Watch says unaffordable U.S. insulin is a human rights abuse (27:08); Whistleblower explains how Medicare Advantage plan bilked millions (30:07); Disbelief in human evolution linked to greater prejudice and racism (32:48); National Urban League finds State of Black America is grim (36:05); Americans report mental health effects of climate change, worry about future (38:22); One in three children with disabilities globally have experienced violence in their lifetimes (40:21); Preventive Task Force Recommends Screening Kids 8 and Up for Anxiety (41:22); Rising parental expectations linked to perfectionism in college students (43:41); Driven by widespread fentanyl, rates of fatal teen overdoses doubled in 2020 (46:30); Microbiome experts warn of an ‘invisible extinction’ that’s harming human health (48:08); Home Gardening is Booming (52:52).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. Is Covid More Dangerous Than Driving? How Scientists Are Parsing Covid Risks.
  2. A tale of many pandemics: In year three, a matter of status and access
  3. The Unbelievable Stupidity of Ending Global Covid Aid
  4. After accusations of structural racism at JAMA, a Black health-equity advocate is named the journal’s editor
  5. More than half of clinical trials do not report race/ethnicity data
  6. Experts warn that “patient influencers” are being paid by big pharma companies to hawk drugs to US consumers without telling them
  7. Where do US opioid trials, settlements stand?
  8. Decreasing sex crimes with therapy, friendship
  9. How do I improve my motivation to exercise when I really hate it? Ten science-backed tips

Week of April 11, 2022 [episode #158]:

Featuring: Airlines that dropped mask requirements are now suffering staff shortages due to COVID-19 (1:57); Incomplete data likely masks a rise in U.S. Covid cases as focus on infection counts fades (4:43);  Local COVID-19 Update (7:34); In Washington’s Covid-19 outbreak, new variants flout old “close contact” rule, just begging for an update  (10:13); Using A Donald Trump COVID-19 Vaccine Endorsement Ad Gave Public Health a Shot in the Arm – a missed opportunity of harnessing Republican opinion leaders (15:01); A Shortfall of ECMO Treatment Cost Lives During the Delta Surge (16:35); COVID-19 Tied to High Risk of Thrombotic Events, such as 33-fold increased incidence of pulmonary embolism in month after diagnosis ((18:12); COVID-19 health workers suffer combat-type moral trauma — more than combat veterans (19:16); U.S. life expectancy continues historic decline with another drop in 2021, widening gap with peer countries to over 5 years (21:21); WHO says 99% of world’s population breathes poor-quality air (24:25); World’s vulnerable are being polluted in their own homes as they cook (25:46); Half of older adults now die with a dementia diagnosis (27:12); Nursing home care, funding system need overhaul, report says (28:30); Vegan diet eases rheumatoid arthritis pain (32:02); Over a quarter of 12-to-19-year-olds have prediabetes (33:21); Examining the link between blood pressure and anger in men (34:37); Study finds higher homicide risk in homes with handguns (35:52); Survivors of gun violence and their families face increased risk of mental health disorders, higher health care spending (38:18); “Leaving victims with the bill” — Sexual assault survivors are often charged hundreds of dollars for rape kits, illegally (39:46); Social programs weak in many states with tough abortion law, leaving families faring worse (45:59); Men – especially from rich countries – still dominate the boards of global health groups (48:56); Study finds persistent and worsening racial and ethnic disparities in sleep duration (50:12); Fewer patients of color have health-care providers who look like them (52:38); Recently Updated Lung Cancer Screening Recommendations Tied to Thousands Fewer Deaths (53:53).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. America Is Staring Down Its First “So What?” Wave — The United States could be in for a double whammy: a surge it cares to neither measure nor respond to.
  2. FDA Chief Lists Six Steps to Improve Health Outcomes — Evidence development and the public health data system are on Califf’s fix-it list
  3. Vaccine resistance has its roots in negative childhood experiences, a major study finds
  4. Why Black and Hispanic Seniors Are Often Left With a Less Powerful Flu Vaccine
  5. CDC Can Do Better: Five Former Directors on Room for Improvement
  6. The U.S. Still Doesn’t Know How To Track A Pandemic
  7. The “successful failures” of Apollo 13 and Covid-19 vaccination
  8. EPA moves to ban asbestos after decades of failures — It is the first time EPA has flexed its regulatory muscles under the revamped Toxic Substances Control Act.
  9. Orphaned by gun violence: Two kids, two shootings, two parents gone — Every day in America, more than 40 children lose a parent to shootings
  10. The Grief Pill is Coming!  If you yearn or pine too long for your dead child, partner, spouse, or friend, you may be addicted to grief, according to the new revision of diagnostic manual.

Week of April 4, 2022 [episode #157]:

Featuring: National COVID-19 status report (1:55); Local COVID-19 Update (4:20); What One Million COVID Dead Mean for the U.S.’s Future (7:57); Narrowing the vaccine gap as boosters begin for people over 50 (16:18); Covid-19 pandemic isn’t over for Black Americans, report warns (22;02); In about half of U.S. counties, less than 10% of children ages 5 to 11 are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 (24;42); Ohio’s mild flu season is punctured by its initial pediatric flu death, an 8-month-old boy (26:58); Risk, burden of diabetes surges after acute SARS-CoV-2 infection (28:19); Pregnancy nearly doubles risk of breakthrough COVID (29:48); U.K.’s COVID infections hit record high as free tests end (31:37); Cuts in Britain Could Cause a Covid Data Drought, leaving the world less prepared to spot future variants (33:25); Biden administration launches COVID website for 1-stop info [covid.gov] (34:17); Shortages stretch across health care supply chain, about 10-fold from pre-pandemic (34:53); Cities are making us fat and unhealthy: A “healthy location index” can help us plan better (36:16); Subsidy would improve fruit and veg intake by as much as 15%, say economists (38:26); Almost 800,000 Americans are living with end-stage kidney disease — half of Americans will develop chronic kidney disease eventually (40:18); Fewer than 6% of criminal justice cases get opioid use disorder treatment (42:17); U.N. report: Nearly half of all pregnancies globally are unintended (45:03); “They just gave up” — More than two-thirds of the military community report challenges to building a family (47:22); Ohio kids being sent out of state for mental health treatment (48:43); One in Five High Schoolers Isn’t Heterosexual, CDC Survey Finds (50:21); Sci-Hub Offers the Quickest, Easiest, and Greatest Access to Science — all for free, though illegally (52:15).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. We Need to Clarify the Goal of Our COVID Booster Strategy — The focus should be on stopping severe disease and expanding our vaccine arsenal
  2. America’s choose-your-own-adventure vaccine approach
  3. 44 countries have COVID vaccination rates under 20% despite supply increase
  4. While we line up for a fourth shot, the world’s poor haven’t gotten their first
  5. There’s no return to normal for millions of children orphaned during Covid
  6. How can we put Covid behind us without guaranteed paid sick leave?
  7. Covid’s racial disparities made some white people less vigilant about the virus
  8. What Skydivers Can Teach Us About Pandemic Risk-Taking — with greater protection comes greater risk-taking
  9. What’s next with face masks? Keep wearing them in public, wear the best mask available and pay attention to fit
  10. Women Are Calling Out “Medical Gaslighting” — Studies show female patients and people of color are more likely to have their symptoms dismissed by medical providers. Experts say: Keep asking questions.
  11. Black Students Experiencing Racism on Campus Lack Mental Health Support
  12. Anti-Trans Laws Will Have a Chilling Effect on Medicine
  13. The power of massive databases and trials to unlock precision medicine
  14. Digital health is overlooking its biggest opportunity for disruption — empowering providers instead of profit-making
  15. As research grows on primary care and serious mental illness, a glaring gap remains — between individual versus system-wide interventions
  16. How to compost—and why it’s good for the environment
  17. Traditional knowledge guides protection of planetary health in Finland
  18. E.P.A. Decides Against Limiting Perchlorate in Drinking Water
  19. She’s Supposed to Protect Americans From Toxic Chemicals. First, She Just Has to Fix Trump’s Mess and Decades of Neglect. Biden promised to prioritize people over polluters. His person to deliver that is facing a bare-bones budget, demoralized staff and increasingly angry advocates.
  20. How a California industrial community embodies the deadly link between pollution and gun violence, highlighting powerful social determinants of health
  21. Three reasons why you feel stressed when trying to relax, and what you can do about it

Week of March 28, 2021 [GREATEST HITS SHOW #3]:

GREATEST HITS SHOW #3, from August-November, 2019, featuring: moral injury and burnout in medicine requires collective action (2:00); sexual trauma as a global public health issue (6:09); Defense Department as single biggest polluter on planet (11:31); Man vs. mosquito – at the front lines of a public health war (18:43); role of racial stereotypes in assumptions that African-Americans are more violent (21:35); special series of articles in the American Journal of Public Health documenting role of slavery and racism in health inequalities that persist today (23:37); environmental and health harms are downshifting America’s obsession with the lawn (27:52); cultivating joy through mindfulness — an antidote to opioid misuse, the disease of despair (31:49); taking the cops out of mental health-related 911 rescues (38:33); children’s risk of dying before age 5 varies more than 40-fold (41:21); largest study finds greater reduction in cardiovascular disease and death from taking high blood pressure medication at bedtime rather than in morning (41:25); pharma money paid to doctors is the cancer growing in cancer medicine (46:58); to treat chronic ailments, fix diet first (51:00); study finds focusing on patient value and goals instead of problems yields better outcomes (54:07).

Week of March 21, 2022 [episode #156]:

Featuring: Local COVID-19 Update (2:13); At least nine House Democrats test positive for the coronavirus after a party retreat and late-night voting (5:11); The next COVID variant may not be mild like omicron, study says (5:58); Israel records new COVID variant (8:17); German lawmakers vote to abolish most pandemic restrictions amid surge in cases (9:21); China reports first COVID-19 deaths in more than a year (9:56); Pelosi says White House should double funding request in new COVID aid to get through summer (10:40); Looming vaccine deadline adds urgency to COVID funding impasse (11:51); It Was Already Hard to Find Evusheld, a Covid Prevention Therapy for the Most Vulnerable — Now It’s Even Harder (13:31); Preventing Pandemics Requires Funding (15:25); COVID-19 work cut deeply into essential public health services (17:00); Ohio nursing homes comply with vaccine mandate deadline despite lowest vax rates, through huge exemption loophole (20:30); Biden administration – finally – elevates healthy buildings as part of national Covid strategy (22:27); Metro Detroit hospitals most racially segregated in U.S. (27:26); Ohio “Constitutional Carry” Gun Bill Worries Domestic-Violence Survivor Advocates (29:36); Ohio is seeing more homicides and suicides, and guns are more often involved (32:43); Sleep doctors critique permanent daylight saving time bill (33:47); Permanent daylight saving time? America tried it before, and it didn’t go well (35:18); A third of U.S. adults are struggling to get a good night’s rest (36:47); Even moderate light exposure during sleep harms heart health and increases insulin resistance (38:00); Half of cancer patients report medical debt (40:03); Consumer Agency Weighs Ban on Medical Debts in Credit Reports (41:02); Latino drug overdose death rate jumped 40% in 2020 (42:24); With overdoses at record highs, a veterinary tranquilizer spreading through the U.S. drug supply poses new threats (44:24); Ignoring abortion access is getting harder for companies (47:39); Amid war and disease, World Happiness Report shows bright spot of increased benevolence (49:53); Regular exercise, healthy diet could improve odds of surviving cancer and reduce risk of recurrence (52:45).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. Mental health experts turn to video conferencing to provide psychological support for Ukrainians
  2. COVID’s “Silver Lining” – Research Breakthroughs for Chronic Disease, Cancer, and the Common Flu
  3. Shrugs Over Flu Signal Future Attitudes About Covid
  4. America’s Flu-Shot Problem Is Also Its Next COVID-Shot Problem
  5. The Covid-19 vaccine market is getting crowded — as demand begins to wane
  6. What Humanity Should Eat to Stay Healthy and Save the Planet. Researchers are trying to figure out what that looks like around the world
  7. Commissioner Califf needs to put the F back in FDA
  8. Yes, You Can Still Be Fired for Being Fat
  9. Pronouns Are a Public Health Issue
  10. Study highlights relationship between racism, activism and stress
  11. Gun Violence Is an Epidemic; Health Systems Must Step Up
  12. What happened when smoking was banned in American Indian casinos
  13. The Tobacco Industry’s Renewed Assault on Science: A Call for a United Public Health Response
  14. The Breen bill to protect health providers is well-intentioned. But it won’t stop burnout
  15. An excess of empathy can be bad for your mental health – Compassionate practices are the antidote
  16. How to Avoid Surprise Bills — And the Pitfalls in the New Law
  17. How to eat less salt
  18. This Year, Try Spring Cleaning Your Brain – Five ways to soothe a mind overstimulated by anxiety, stress and streams of information.

Week of March 14, 2022 [episode #155]:

Featuring: COVID’s Death Toll 3 Times Worse Than Official Counts (1:57); Mandatory masking in schools reduced COVID-19 cases during Delta surge, with 72% reduction of in-school transmission (4:03); Mask mandates worked in schools last fall, reducing student and staff infections from all sources (community and in-school) by 23% (7:12); Continuing face mask use continues to be highly cost effective, potentially saving tens of billions (7:41); Media sources defined the COVID culture war (12:02); Increasing COVID cases in Europe may presage increases in U.S. (16:23); Local COVID-19 Update (20:31); “Haven’t we learned anything?” — Experts warn of disastrous consequences if pandemic funding dries up (23:57); Is Covid Over? No, But Global Health Funders Are Moving On (26:56); CDC wants to monitor poop, but states aren’t all on board (30:58); The Humble Cough Drop Could Be Used to Map COVID Spread (32:58); Providing legal advocacy reduces children’s hospital admissions by 38% (33:40); Communities with higher levels of racial prejudice have worse health outcomes and drive health inequity (36:05); Americans are besieged by unprecedented levels of stress (36:36); Some of the world’s lowest rates of dementia found in Amazonian indigenous groups (38:25); High blood pressure, obesity, and physical inactivity have the biggest impact on dementia cases (41:53); Concussions Linked to Mental Health Issues in Kids (42:41); The air quality in your home may be worse than in your office building (43:19); Almost all kids have tobacco on their hands, even in non-smoking homes (45:06); Half of U.S .adults exposed to harmful lead levels as kids, creating persistent problems (46:03); Respiratory illness increased as far as 60 miles away from flaring of methane from oil well (48:08); For-profit hospitals skip less profitable services (49:50); Rural Hospitals in U.S. Face Wipeout With 800 at Risk of Shutdown (50:20); Trauma From LGBTQ Conversion Therapy Costs U.S. $9 Billion Annually (52:50); Diet quality decreased for U.S. seniors from 2001 to 2018, dropping to 61% with poor quality (53:38); WHO Guidelines Encourage Telehealth Abortion Care for First Time (55:00).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. Congress weighs permanent daylight saving time in a debate as regular as clockwork. Nearly two-thirds of Americans want to stop shifting their clocks twice a year.
  2. HOW DID THIS MANY DEATHS BECOME NORMAL?
  3. Ignoring behavioral and social sciences undermines the U.S. response to Covid-19
  4. Vaccinating Kids Has Never Been Easy
  5. There may be a new COVID variant, Deltacron. Here’s what we know about it.
  6. Prisons skimp on Covid treatments like Paxlovid, even as Biden plans to flood pharmacies with it
  7. Pandemic Medical Innovations Leave Behind People With Disabilities
  8. Nurses are waiting months for licenses as hospital staffing shortages spread
  9. Study finds bias in how doctors talk to Black, female patients
  10. Gaslighting of Black medical trainees makes residency something to “survive”
  11. Giving gender-affirming care: “gender dysphoria” diagnosis should not be required
  12. Seeking to Shift Costs to Medicare, More Employers Move Retirees to Advantage Plans
  13. Maternity wards are shuttering across the US during the pandemic, making giving birth more dangerous in the United States.
  14. A look inside the 1st official “safe injection sites” in U.S.
  15. What is harm reduction?
  16. Demand for meat is destroying the Amazon. Smarter choices at the dinner table can go a long way to help.
  17. Hospitals need to get ahead of regulations on climate change
  18. More Latino Men Are Dying By Suicide Even as National Rate Declines
  19. Congress moves to give FDA new powers over synthetic nicotine products including a youth favorite — Puff Bar e-cigarettes
  20. Ukrainians Face Lasting Psychological Wounds from Russian Invasion
  21. Is my memory going or is it just normal aging? Don’t try to assess yourself. Rather, enlist a close friend or family member to detect whether you are having a problem.

Week of March 7, 2022 [episode #154]:

Featuring: Return to “normal” State of the Union address — 6 legislators tested positive (1:56); CDC estimates U.S. COVID infections now close to 140 million, 43% of Americans (3:16); Americans can order another round of 4 free at-home Covid-19 tests at CovidTests.gov (4:48); People who test positive for Covid can receive antiviral pills at some pharmacies for free, Biden says (5:17); Public Health Experts Pitch Their Own Path to the “Next” Normal (8:00); Hong Kong’s Death Rate Is Now World’s Highest (11:43); China Reports Most Daily Covid Cases Since Wuhan Outbreak (12:07); Local COVID-19 Update (14:31);  Surgeon general launches effort to get to the bottom of Covid-19 misinformation (18:09); There’s an uptick in pricing by anesthesiologists due to physician management companies and private equity investment (22:06); Workers have to pay more upfront for care (24:28); The expensive problem with getting health coverage through our jobs (25:44); Employers are flying blind when buying health coverage (27:13); Health care wage growth has lagged behind other industries, despite pandemic burden (28:56); Veterans transported to VA hospitals had better survival rates than veterans taken to non-VA hospitals (31:43); Justice Department sues UnitedHealth over nearly $8 billion anti-competitive deal to acquire tech company (34:08); Non-profit drug maker will provide insulin for no more than $30 a vial (34:58); Medication insecurity is the next public health crisis (36:37); Patients, pharma execs express low trust in drug supply chains (38:02); Salt in Fizzy Tablets Linked to Heart, Death Risk (40:29); More spice could help seniors avoid salt (43:19); One in ten Americans say they don’t eat meat, a growing share of the population (44:53); Calorie restriction trial reveals key factors in extending human health (45:38); Biological clock shock? “Springing forward” loss of sleep may harm heart health (48:24); Cannabis use produces persistent cognitive impairments (49:19); Black Americans are now dying from drug overdoses at a higher rate than whites (51:11); 4.6 million children living in home with loaded, unlocked firearms in U.S. (53:53); Analysis of 20-year study finds malaria control in young children saves lives into adulthood (55:08).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. What to Tell Kids about Ukraine: Recommendations from a Psychologist
  2. Ukraine conflict could spark surges of covid, polio, other diseases
  3. Russian war in world’s “breadbasket” threatens food supply
  4. “Alarming” disparities leave parts of L.A. County hit hard by COVID-19
  5. Covid Hospitalizations in NYC Saw Biggest Racial Gap During Omicron
  6. The Pandemic Is Following a Very Predictable and Depressing Pattern — As with diseases such as malaria and HIV, rich countries are “moving on” from COVID while poor ones continue to get ravaged.
  7. High Demand for Drug to Prevent Covid in the Vulnerable, Yet Doses Go Unused
  8. Turning to social media to get affordable insulin: a clear sign of a broken health care system
  9. The Biden Administration Killed America’s Collective Pandemic Approach — Protections meant to shield everyone can’t be a matter of personal preference.
  10. Here’s what experts say Biden gets right in his new mental health plan
  11. More Black Americans are buying guns. Is it driving up Black suicide rates?
  12. Debunking the “Excited Delirium” Diagnosis for Deaths in Police Custody — Report breaks down how the term was created and misused for years
  13. Synthetic opioids stronger than fentanyl have cropped up in the U.S.
  14. Wood-burning Stoves Raise New Health Concerns — Officials increasingly treat wood-smoke pollution as a public health and environmental justice issue
  15. Particulate-matter pollution: Destabilizing Earth’s climate and a threat to health
  16. The limits of “following the science” as societal values are subjective
  17. Yale’s Happiness Professor Says Anxiety Is Destroying Her Students

Week of February 28, 2022 [episode #153]:

Featuring: New CDC (mask) guidance analysis (2:43); AMA statement on CDC COVID-19 updates (7:28); Denmark as cautionary tale in dropping COVID mitigation efforts quickly (9:05); Vaccination Curbed, but Didn’t Halt, Omicron in Households (11:37); Nearly half of Biden’s 500 million free COVID tests still unclaimed (13:08); U.S. vaccination drive is bottoming out as omicron subsides (13:43); COVID vaccine supply for global program outstrips demand for first time (14:30); Advocates criticize “tepid” Biden request for global COVID-19 funding (16:01); Local COVID-19 Update (17:44);  Ukraine reports higher Chernobyl radiation after Russians capture plant (22:47); Another casualty of Russia’s invasion — Ukraine’s ability to contain the coronavirus (24:23); Medical oxygen running out in Ukraine as war rages, WHO warns (26:10); Firearm deaths become leading cause of trauma-related death (27:06); “Stand your ground” laws linked to 700 additional firearm homicides each year in U.S. (28:35); Provider Groups Miffed Over FTC’s Failure to Authorize Study of Pharmacy Benefit Manger Middlemen (29:40); FTC’s top economist resigned amid dispute over pharmacy middlemen study (30:25); Over half of U.S. abortions now done with pills, not surgery (20:54); Abortion pill use spikes in Texas as thousands of patients circumvent state’s ban (32:19); The Abortion Pill Is Safer Than Tylenol and Almost Impossible to Get (34:17); More than a quarter of women worldwide have experienced intimate partner violence in their lifetimes (41:10); Sexual assault reports increase at U.S. military academies (42:17); Overlooked and underfunded — experts call for united action to reduce the global burden of depression (43:50); Depression linked to heart disease and type 2 diabetes (48:50); Gender-Affirming Meds Have Drastic Impact on Suicide Risk in Trans Youth (49:22); Why the pursuit of happiness can be bad for you, and what you should pursue instead (51:50).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. To restore public trust, the CDC must stop legitimizing the expulsion of asylum seekers
  2. 20 years ago, a landmark report spotlighted systemic racism in medicine. Why has so little changed?
  3. Minority women most affected if abortion is banned, limited
  4. We Need More Illustrations of People of Color in Medical Textbooks — The lack of diversity perpetuates health inequality and stereotypes
  5. Health Care Firms Were Pushed to Confront Racism. Now Some Are Investing in Black Startups.
  6. The nation hasn’t made much progress on health equity. These leaders forged ahead anyway
  7. Researchers Say Science Skewed by Racism is Increasing the Threat of Global Warming to People of Color
  8. The Stumbling Block to One of the Most Promising Police Reforms — The best mental-health responders in the world can help only if emergency dispatchers know when to deploy them.
  9. U.S. Plans New Safety Rules to Crack Down on Carbon Monoxide Poisoning from Portable Generators
  10. Groups urge McDonald’s to honor antibiotics commitment
  11. How Psychologists Can Engage in Civil Disobedience to Defend Ethical Principles
  12. What I learned from Paul Farmer: Treat the systems around the patient, not just the disease

Week of February 21, 2022 [episode #152]:

Featuring: As BA.2 subvariant of Omicron rises, lab studies point to signs of severity (4:35); Had COVID? You’re 5 times more prone to get it again if unvaccinated (9:08); COVID-19 vaccination protective against developing long COVID (9:56); When moms get vaccinated during pregnancy, babies get protection too (10:40); Nearly half of Americans still unsure about popular vaccine misinformation, and most confident are most misinformed (11:46); Study strengthens case that vitamins cannot treat COVID-19 (16:57); Many COVID-19 patients left with bills after cost-sharing waivers expired (18:10); Biden wants billions more in Covid funding. Lawmakers aren’t eager to spend big — again (19:57); Covid Patients May Have Increased Risk of Developing Mental Health Problems (22:30); Controlled studies ease worries of widespread long Covid in kids (26:12); Researchers estimate the true prevalence of COVID-19 taste loss at 37% (27:36); Local COVID-19 Update (28:09); Hong Kong hospitals hit 90% capacity as COVID-19 cases overwhelm “Zero COVID” strategy (31:34); COVID Won’t End Up Like the Flu. It Will Be Like Smoking — Hundreds of thousands of deaths, from either tobacco or the pandemic, could be prevented with a single behavioral change, quitting or inoculation (32:38); Why are alcohol- and drug-related deaths rising in the U.S. and not elsewhere? (41:53); Ohio’s life expectancy among the worst in U.S. (44:33); Nonprofit hospitals’ community benefits should square with their tax exemptions. They often don’t (46;45); Pressure to feel good associated with poorer individual wellbeing in happier countries (52:36); Science of Happiness students beat lockdown blues (54:11);

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. What Would It Mean to End the Covid State of Emergency?
  2. Too soon to lift mask mandates for most elementary schools in US, study finds
  3. Nowhere is safe: Record number of patients contracted Covid in the hospital in January
  4. Whatever Happened to Biden’s Pandemic Testing Board?
  5. The C.D.C. Isn’t Publishing Large Portions of the Covid Data It Collects
  6. The COVID Strategy America Hasn’t Really Tried — The clearest way to reduce deaths is to push to vaccinate more of the elderly — yes, still!
  7. How the intellectual property monopoly has impeded an effective response to COVID
  8. “I trust my drug dealer more than I trust this vaccine”
  9. The Seven Habits of COVID-Resilient Nations
  10. Why France is among the high-income countries where the most people died of COVID-19
  11. Coronaviruses are “clever” — 4 Evolutionary scenarios for the future of SARS-CoV-2
  12. As Politics Infects Public Health, Private Companies Profit
  13. Califf confirmed: The 6 challenges that await the new FDA commissioner
  14. Was a 19th Century Global Pandemic a Case of COVID 1.0? Medical historians suspect Russian flu was caused by a coronavirus and holds lessons for today
  15. How COVID Changed the World — 21 Lessons from two years of emergency science, upheaval and loss [Scientific American special issue]
  16. Pandemics disable people — the history lesson that policymakers ignore
  17. “Red Covid”, an Update — The partisan gap in Covid deaths is still growing
  18. Why America Has So Few Doctors

Week of February 14, 2022 [episode #151]:

Featuring: Half the world is now fully vaccinated. But the global divide is stark (2:25); Poll reveals how America struggles to live with COVID (3:40); Most Americans Still Support Mask Mandates as States Relax Rules (5:12); Commonplace notion of having enough hospital/ICU capacity as a measure of public health success and return to “normal” completely unhelpful (5:57); The Last Pandemic Aid Anybody Wants to Need — Help With Funeral Expenses (10:32); Authorization of new Covid-19 monoclonal antibody treatment  expands arsenal of options against Omicron and its sister variant (11:31); Immuno-compromised people need greater access to monoclonal antibodies (13:30); Biden officials trying to recalculate U.S. Covid-19 hospitalizations (14:27); HHS running out of money to pay providers for treating uninsured COVID-19 patients (16:34); Millions on Medicaid Are at Risk of Losing Coverage When Pandemic Emergency Declaration Eventually Ends (18:05); J&J Pauses Production of Its Covid Vaccine Despite Persistent Need in Developing World (22:07); Local COVID-19 Update (24:34); Medicare can help fix the nurse shortage in hospitals (29:05); Cancer moonshot 2.0 — A missed opportunity for prevention (34:25); Eat your legumes — How a healthier diet can add 10 or more years to your life (42:12); In helping smokers quit, combining treatments is key (44:11); Poor sleep can triple risk for heart disease (47:34); Overdose deaths cost U.S. $1 trillion annually (48:15); Study finds 1 in 16 women take harmful medications during pregnancy (49:09); Most women giving birth in the U.S. have poor heart health prior to pregnancy (50:49); Lifestyle more likely to affect a child’s BMI than the weight of their mother (51:12); The Prescription for More Obesity (51:48); Even light drinking can be harmful to cardiovascular health (53:12); USDA announces stricter standards for school nutrition (55:06).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. Omicron’s Surprising Anatomy Explains Why It Is Wildly Contagious
  2. There Is Nothing Normal about One Million People Dead from COVID
  3. Polio, Chickenpox, Measles, Now Covid. It’s Time to Consult History on School Vaccine Mandates
  4. What Are Taxpayers Spending for Those “Free” Covid Tests? The Government Won’t Say.
  5. Public health in America at a breaking point. The question is now “Can it recover?”
  6. Why Covid-19 vaccines are a freaking miracle
  7. Many faith leaders wary of religious exemptions for vaccine
  8. “Good, not great”: Some long Covid patients see their symptoms improve, but full recovery is elusive
  9. For burned-out health workers, exhaustion from Covid-19 surges mixes with a sense of betrayal
  10. Lander’s resignation over workplace bullying: The tip of the iceberg of a public health problem
  11. The White House’s response to Lander’s exit could determine whether science remains a factory for bullies
  12. What American Mental Health Care Is Missing — Scientific research alone cannot address the challenges that Americans with mental illness face.
  13. There’s no autism epidemic. But there is an autism diagnosis epidemic
  14. Climate Change Enters the Therapy Room
  15. I’m Addicted to My Phone. How Can I Cut Back?
  16. Development of clinical practice guidelines “is a mess”
  17. Why do Black women get more hysterectomies in the South?
  18. Covid Precautions Are Part of Hispanic Community’s Efforts to Tend to Community Good

Week of February 7, 2022 [episode #150]:

Featuring: Mask are effective at preventing COVID-19 infection, with cloth masks at 56%, surgical masks at 66%, and K/N95 masks at 83%, in real-world study (2:38);  First ever COVID-19 human challenge study yields infection clues (3:27); It’s easy to misinterpret at-home COVID test results, data show (5:10); Those COVID tests the government sent you might not work — Cold weather could be to blame (7:36); Medicare beneficiaries to get no-cost at-home Covid-19 tests (10:36); Those at highest risk for severe COVID-19 often least likely to get monoclonal antibodies (11:27); Thousands of COVID-19 at-home antiviral pills hailed as “game-changer” are sitting on pharmacy shelves (12:24); Experts question unusual authorization plan for Covid vaccine for kids under 5 (16:07); New York Sewage “Cryptic” Variant May Be Key to Identifying Next Variant of Concern (19:26); If the United States ignores COVID-19 in Nigeria, we forgo global genomic surveillance at our own peril, reports a new study (19:26); Research shows actions to prevent pandemics cost 5% of typical annual direct costs from emerging infectious disease, highlighting cost effectiveness of prevention (23:05); CDC to ramp up wastewater monitoring program to track COVID-19 (29:08); China’s zero-Covid strategy “won’t work” against omicron, says U.S. epidemiologist (30:01); Local COVID-19 Update (31:45); Researchers discover HIV variant that’s more contagious and more severe (36:15); Millions of Americans have quit their jobs. Is Obamacare helping them? (38:37); For the uninsured, crowdfunding provides little help in paying for health care and deepens inequities (40:57); California Inks Sweetheart Deal With Kaiser Permanente, Jeopardizing Medicaid Reforms, as Universal Health Care Bill Fails (42:46); Biden’s relaunched cancer moonshot needs funding for liftoff (45:29); As internet access limits telehealth’s reach, insurers are starting to cover the bill (48:36); One in three stroke survivors in the U.S. faces food insecurity, twice the likelihood (55:38); New Coalition Launches to Prevent Pandemic of Antimicrobial Resistance (56:30).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. U.S. Has Far Higher Covid Death Rate Than Other Wealthy Countries
  2. Despite Biden’s big promises and a far better understanding of the virus, Covid-19 is still raging through the nation’s prisons
  3. The Supreme Court is partly to blame for the Covid-19 test kit shortage
  4. COVID will always be an epidemic virus — not an endemic one, scientist warns
  5. Medical boards get pushback as they try to punish doctors for Covid misinformation
  6. The Covid Policy That Really Mattered Wasn’t a Policy [Spoiler Alert: It’s Trust in Each Other and Government]
  7. The End of the Pandemic May Tear Us Apart
  8. Ready for Another Pandemic Malady? It’s Called “Decision Fatigue”
  9. How a decades-old IBM database became a hugely profitable dossier on the health of 270 million Americans
  10. How the Sugar Industry Makes Political Friends and Influences Elections
  11. “The numbers are pretty appalling” — Asian scientists rarely awarded top scientific prizes
  12. Recovery community organizations need more than bake sales to help people survive addiction
  13. Millions in state tax dollars flow to anti-abortion centers in U.S.

Week of January 31, 2022 [episode #149]:

Featuring: State of Omicron wave (1:57); Long-term Covid-Infected HIV Patient Developed Mutations (10:01); L.A. County seeing quicker fatalities from Omicron as COVID-19 deaths climb (12:05); 62 percent who tried to find at-home COVID-19 test had difficulty (17:37); Pharmacies, governors say Biden test program is depleting supply (19:05); Government watchdog says U.S. Dept. of health and Humans Services is at “high risk” of bungling public health crises (21:02); Is Long Covid worsening the labor shortage? 23:59); Poll shows where Americans are currently at with pandemic (24:53); Local COVID-19 Update (28:13); Most physicians paid by volume, despite push for quality and value (35:15); Female doctors spend more time with patients, so they make less (36:30); Patients who are Black, unmarried or on government insurance described more negatively in their electronic health record (37:54); Racial inequity in follow-up appointment attendance after hospitalization disappears as telemedicine adopted (38:59); 1.2 million people died in 2019 from antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, more deaths than HIV/AIDS or malaria (42:31); Scientists find link between antibiotics and colon cancer (47:05); Rural air pollution may be as hazardous as urban (48:22); Blood lead levels in Haiti “a warning for other countries” (50:20); Eliminating the FDA’s blood donation ban on men who have sex with men would help ease the U.S. blood shortage (52:27).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. Patchwork system for rationing a Covid drug sends immunocompromised patients on a “Hunger Games hunt”
  2. PCR COVID tests are not very useful. Focus on rapid antigen tests instead.
  3. Here’s how to get free N95 masks from pharmacies or community health centers
  4. Some Americans are hesitant about Covid vaccines. But they’re all-in on unproven treatments
  5. What We Can Learn From How the 1918 Pandemic Ended — Pandemic Fatigue and Desperation to Return to “Normal” Kills More in End
  6. Why the Chemical Industry Is an Overlooked Climate Foe — and What to Do About It
  7. Biden’s focus on environmental justice led to a year of progress — and burnout, as top environmental justice official resigns
  8. Giving low-income families cash can help babies’ brain activity. No-strings-attached subsidies for low-income families improved brain activity in infants, a novel clinical trial finds.
  9. Major Review Finds Limited Effectiveness for Medication and Therapy: Most mental health treatments are only marginally better than placebo
  10. Rising Social and Existential Uncertainty Linked to Mental Distress
  11. How to build resilience and boost your mental health
  12. Can Medieval Sleeping Habits Fix America’s Insomnia? The history of “first sleep” and “second sleep” holds surprising lessons about preindustrial life, 21st-century anxiety, and the problem with digging for utopia in the past.

Week of January 24, 2022 [episode #148]:

Featuring: “Stealth Omicron” – Everything we know about new ‘under investigation’ Covid-19 strain BA.2 (2:32); Patient, Beware: Some States Still Pushing Ineffective Covid Antibody Treatments (6:47); Pharmacies shouldn’t be the only place to get Paxlovid, the new Covid antiviral pill (7:32); More than 2 dozen drug-makers allowed to make Merck’s inferior COVID-19 antiviral pill for poorer nations (9:49); Why Medicare Doesn’t Pay for Rapid At-Home COVID Tests (11:48); COVID rapid test makers struggling to meet demand (13:57); It’s staff, not stuff: Applying crisis standards of care to allocating health care workers (16:19); COVID boosters keep older Americans out of hospitals (24:16); Placebo effect accounts for more than two-thirds of COVID-19 vaccine side effects (25:24); Hundreds of Millions of Covid Vaccine Doses Risk Going to Waste (27:48); COVID in prisons update (28:56); Newer variants of SARS-CoV-2 can infect mice, unlike the original version of the virus (31:10); To get to a “new normal,” public health must focus on all respiratory viruses (33:22); Local COVID-19 Update (40:09); Suicidality is linked to risky driving behaviors in U.S. high school students (44:23); Survey of Americans Who Attempted Suicide Finds Many Aren’t Getting Care (45:48); What types of mental health apps actually work? A sweeping new analysis finds the data is sparse and weak (49:50); Few countries offer a good place to die (50:39); Progress on Lung Cancer Drives Overall Decline in U.S. Cancer Deaths (54:22).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. The C.D.C.’s New Challenge? Grappling With Imperfect Science
  2. The Real Reason Americans Aren’t Isolating: Many workers with COVID-19 still — still! — can’t afford to isolate, because they don’t have paid sick leave.
  3. How Are Private Insurers Covering At-Home Rapid COVID Tests? A Hot Mess.
  4. Plan for free N95 masks could save domestic mask makers — or kill them.
  5. Could a universal Covid-19 vaccine defeat every variant?
  6. How a Powerful Company Convinced Georgia to Let It Bury Toxic Waste in Groundwater
  7. To Skirt Air Pollution Oversight, States Can Play Hide and Seek With Poorly Placed Monitors
  8. Differences in how men and women perceive internal body signals could have implications for mental health
  9. Latest COVID Surge Pushes Parents to Next-Level Stress
  10. We all need help working through grief and hardship
  11. Four ways nature can protect your well-being during a pandemic

Week of January 17, 2022 [episode #147]:

Featuring: Hospital capacity overwhelmed by misleadingly characterized “mild” omicron (1:57); Deep dive into reportedly reduced hospitalization risk, shorter stays for Omicron patients [full scientific article] (9:02); 28% of COVID patients in German ICUs are fully vaccinated or boosted (14:45); Emergency rooms nearing “crisis levels” in parts of California as Omicron surges (16:33); For people over 50, even “mild” COVID‑19 can double risk for mobility problems (20:32); Supreme Court halts Covid-19 vaccine rule for U.S. businesses (23:06); Trust in science at root of vaccine acceptance, more so than trust in government or health care (24:10); Americans should avoid travel to Canada, even though they have lower COVID rates than U.S. (28:23); Health officials let COVID-infected staff stay on the job (29:37); One in ten people may still be infectious for COVID after ten days, new research indicates (30:43); Viral load of omicron can be at its highest at day five so cutting isolation period doesn’t make sense (32:03); Federal website for free virus tests is coming. How will it work? (35:18); Ohio changes priorities for distribution of COVID tests from libraries to schools (37:28); Local COVID-19 Update (40:09); Health-Care Disparities: A Way of Life for Black Ohioans? (45:36); Strong new evidence suggests a virus triggers multiple sclerosis (47:46); Medicare proposes to only cover Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm for use in clinical trials (49:58); Medicare told to reassess premium hike for Alzheimer’s drug (50:31); Long-term use of blood pressure drugs may cause kidney damage (52:18); Why Are We Failing on Diabetes Health Risks? (53:57); Swapping just one food item per day can make diets substantially more planet-friendly (56:35).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. A cascade of Omicron-driven shortages puts U.S. hospitals in a bind
  2. You’d expect health care workers on the Covid frontlines to be tested regularly. You’d be wrong
  3. Open-Source Vaccines Got More Funding From Tito’s Vodka Than the Government
  4. Is It Flu, COVID-19, Allergies, or a Cold?
  5. Why we need to wear better masks
  6. How long can I keep using the same N95 respirator mask?
  7. Feeling powerless in the pandemic? Four self-determination principles can help you take back some control
  8. Politics still make people sick
  9. The Movie Don’t Look Up Illustrates 5 Myths That Fuel Rejection of Science
  10. Public health is missing crucial data on LGBTQIA+ people. It’s not hard to collect
  11. AMA’s new language guide is a step toward health equity
  12. Partial removal of lead water service lines can actually increase lead risks
  13. The Soldiers Came Home Sick. The Government Denied It Was Responsible. The military’s garbage-disposal fires in war zones made them ill.
  14. New Report Reveals Kroger Grocery Workers Struggle to Afford Healthy Food

Week of January 10, 2022 [episode #146]:

Featuring: Record COVID-19 hospitalizations foreshadow record COVID-19 deaths (1:57); U.S. social fabric is more like confetti (6:26);  Supreme Court skeptical of Biden’s workplace vaccine rule (7:25); More trusting societies have been more successful at reducing coronavirus cases and deaths (11:15); “Protect our hospitals” might convince Britons to get Covid-19 vaccines, but it won’t work in the U.S. (15:03); Confessions of a “human guinea pig”: Why I’m resigning from Moderna vaccine trials — corporate profiteering (20:13); Study raises doubts about rapid Covid tests’ reliability in early days after infection (22:38); Containing Covid-19 requires rapid tests that are highly sensitive to infections. Why is the FDA asking for something different? (24:43); Local COVID-19 Update (29:32);  Mental health workforce taxed during COVID-19 pandemic: Worker shortage hinders access (32:50); Loosening of gambling laws raises concerns for addiction: 7% of youth develop gambling disorders (37:18); Teens with disabilities are 5 times more likely to suffer from mental, emotional and behavioral health disorders (40:54); Talk therapy by U.S. psychiatrists declined by half since 1990’s (45:13); Recent global trends highlight global disparities in cancer burden (48:45); Considerable racial, ethnic and sociodemographic disparities present in U.S. cancer rates (50:50); Incarceration increases long-term mortality rates among blacks but not whites (51:27); Financial incentives for smoking cessation proves highly cost effective for society but not for individual businesses (53:33); Resolved to quit smoking this year? Experts offer tips (56:53).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. Doctors have an arsenal of Covid-19 treatments, but setbacks and shortages are undercutting options
  2. Omicron magnifies the distress in the health care labor system
  3. How to hold unvaccinated Americans accountable
  4. “A black box”: Emergency medics remain locked out of electronic health records
  5. I Saw Firsthand What It Takes to Keep COVID Out of Hong Kong. It Felt Like a Different Planet.
  6. The Biden Administration Rejected an October Proposal for “Free Rapid Tests for the Holidays”
  7. The stakes in the Supreme Court’s vaccine cases are even bigger than they seem. The Court doesn’t just threaten the public health, it threatens democracy itself.
  8. The Science of Forming Healthy Habits

Week of January 3, 2022 [episode #145]:

Featuring: Things to look out for in current viral blizzard (1:58); N95 masks: A must-have with Omicron, but fakes abound (14:03); STAT/Harris Poll: Vaccinated Americans far more likely to take Pfizer Covid-19 pill than unvaccinated people (19:23); Nursing home workers are urged to get boosters as cases soar (21:13); Three days of remdesivir cuts risk for severe COVID-19 in outpatients (23:36); COVID-19 can trigger self-attacking antibodies, even in mild or asymptomatic cases (24:40); Local COVID-19 Update (27:50); Trust in science improves globally, but U.S. distrusts government use of science (32:17); GMO food labelling began January 1st, and criticism abounds (37:18); A Healthy Diet Is Too Costly for Three Billion People (40:44); The White House says meat companies have too much power (41:58); Dangerous Antibiotic Use in U.S. Farm Animals Was Falling — Now It’s Not (43:43); Antibiotic use on farms threatens pandemic “much bigger than COVID”, campaigners warn (49:26); Humans could live two years longer if world adhered to WHO pollution standards (52:30); Policy analyses severely underestimate impact of air pollution on racial minorities (55:40); Reaffirming the Foundations of Public Health in a Time of Pandemic — a focus on the conditions of the world around us, on eliminating health inequity, and focusing on those who are marginalized and vulnerable (57:23).

BONUS stories to read online!

  1. Civil Eats: Our Best Food Justice Stories of 2021
  2. 10 lessons I’ve learned from the Covid-19 pandemic
  3. Why do we feel so ‘blah’ after Christmas?
  4. How to purge risky chemicals from your beauty products — Eliminating endocrine disruptors is harder than you might think.
  5. The USDA’s new labeling for genetically modified foods went into effect Jan. 1. Here’s what you need to know.
  6. Big Cars Are Killing Americans — The government can no longer allow the auto industry to treat walkers and bikers like collateral damage.
  7. How Black Communities Become “Sacrifice Zones” for Industrial Air Pollution
  8. Deaths of despair: the unrecognized tragedy of working class immiseration
  9. Leaked SoCal hospital records reveal huge, automated markups for healthcare
  10. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s foot-dragging on patient irradiation suggests regulatory capture
  11. We Need to Talk About Climate Change and Suicide

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