Did You Wash Your Hands?

Since March of 2020, we've been bringing you different perspectives on living through and understanding the coronavirus pandemic. Today, host Sam Whitehead sits in the interview chair to share some of the things he's learned.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dave O'Connor, a virologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, says there's lots of disagreement among scientists about the value of COVID-19 booster shots even as federal regulators make recommendations for them.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr. Kimberly Manning, an internist at Grady Memorial Hospital, says giving people a space to share their concerns about COVID-19 vaccines can make them more confident in getting them.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr. Joe Bresee, with the Task Force for Global Health, shares how the nonprofit's work on standing up influenza vaccination programs equip it to help countries establish COVID-19 vaccination programs.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, we held a special live taping of the podcast with Dr. Lilly Cheng Immergluck, Immergluck, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the Morehouse School of Medicine, and Dr. Audrey Arona, who leads the Gwinnett, Newton, and Rockdale health district. The conversation focused on some of the challenges ahead and even some reasons for optimism.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cecile Viboud, an epidemiologist with the National Institutes of Health who helps run the COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub, joins me to talk about the latest projections from the group, which show the pandemic slowing down in the next few months.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sarah Jane Tribble, with Kaiser Health News, says top U.S. scientists started talking seriously about COVID-19 booster shots in January, at a time when many Americans hadn't received their first vaccine doses.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lawrence Gostin, who directs the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown Law. says there's a long history of vaccine mandates in the U.S. that have paved the way for those President Biden recently announced.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Becky Sayler has three kids in elementary school in the Cobb County School District. Within the first week of school one of them contracted COVID-19. She shares how her family has been navigating the situation.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr. Carlos del Rio, infectious diseases specialist at Emory University, says low vaccination rates and the highly transmissible delta variant of the coronavirus are to blame for the current wave of COVID-19 pandemic.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.