Public Health United

Translating science into policy is challenging, especially when it has to do with vaccinating pregnant women and other vulnerable populations. Our 60th podcast features Dr. Saad Omer (MBBS, PhD, MPH), vaccinologist at Emory University, who is also involved in several working groups to translate vaccine science into evidence-based policy at the National Vaccine Advisory Committee, The World Health Organization, and at the Pan American Health Organization. While Saad has a large research portfolio, he is most known for his trials to estimate efficacy and immunogenicity of maternal and/or infant influenza, pertussis, polio, measles and pneumococcal vaccines. In 2009, he was awarded the Maurice Hilleman award in vaccinology by the National Foundation of Infectious Diseases on his work on impact of maternal influenza immunization on respiratory illness in infants younger than 6 months- for whom there is no vaccine. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Faceb

Science advocacy has been in the news a lot these past two years, but many are still wondering what's the best way to make an impact. I've been learning over the last several podcasts that the way to improve science engagement, acceptance, funding, and policy is to include the public in science and to get them to think of science as an important part of their life. Leah Pagnozzi, Bioengineering PhD Candidate at Cornell University, is doing just this with her 'Take A Politician To Work' Program. Leah gives politicians first hand experiences of how science is done, how cool science is, and how many different kinds of science there are by organizing lab tours to politicians. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink -- Leah would love for this science advocacy program to be spread to other campuses or institutions; get in touch with us at nina@publichealthunited.org if you'd like to be connected. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.

Is the world prepared for the next global health threat? In our latest podcast, Dr. Tom Inglesby, Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security shares with us how the Center is helping the world prepare for health threats, both natural and manmade, with evidence based policy. Originally created by D.A. Henderson, well known for his Smallpox Eradication Campaign, the Center started in the late 90's/early 2000's to research, create and influence evidence-based policy in face of of major health threats like anthrax, SARS, and bird flu. Nina had tons of questions about how to know if policies made by the government are evidence-based or if they are pure fear-mongering (she in particular recalls all of the questions around the Ebola quarantines in 2014 and 2015). Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.

How does Johns Hopkins International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC) help speed up equitable access to life saving vaccines like rotavirus or HPV vaccines? Mary Carol Jennings, MD, on top of being drawn to community medicine, has always felt a calling for advocacy and bringing positive change to her surroundings. Even through her rigorous medical training, she made time for helping others at all stages of her career. At IVAC, Mary Carol is lead on two projects: RAVIN, an accelerator project for equitable access to rotavirus vaccine, and developing a new project on HPV vaccine access and advocacy. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.

“As you may refer to a Dickens novel or a piece of artwork to help contextualize a cultural or lifestyle issue, so you could also bring your science to bear. When you’re looking at the world as a round, you probably want to bring in a scientific perspective, even if you’re not a scientist because that is how the world is.” Dan Glaser is all about crossovers. He is a neuroscientist and co-Director of Science Gallery London, located at King’s College London, where the main message is that art and science are intricately linked. Science Gallery is a space and project that was started in Dublin, Ireland and aims to make science a cultural event that targets 15-25 year olds from neighborhoods that wouldn’t typically be included in science or art campaigns. The exhibits are a testament to social justice and are co-created with the target audience, getting input from 15-25 year olds in the neighborhoods from before the topic is even chosen. Dan also writes a weekly column in The Observer where he gives current event

Six years ago, I was dating someone living in London. While he was at work, I would troll around London by myself and was pulled many times back to London's Natural History Museum (NMH), in particular to The Darwin Center and their very interactive exhibit. The NHM is much more than a museum: it is home to over 300 scientists who are publishing 700+ publications a year on the solar system, earth's geology and life, biodiversity, and sustainability. It also houses over 80 million specimens that span 4.5 billion years! Out latest podcast features John Jackson, Head of Science Communication and Policy at NHM. In the 1990's, NHM changed the way they approached the museum's exhibitions. Traditionally, scientists would take something that they were working on behind closed doors, put it in a display case and then go back to the lab. The major goal has now shifted to include the public in the process of science and to shape both research and exhibits with public engagement in mind. I'm still thinking about The

I'm in London for work! And I snuck in two podcasts in my favorite neighborhood of museums and science spaces in Kensington. First of three was at the British Science Association with Chief Executive Katherine Mathieson. Too often the public feels very distant from science and the scientific process; the BSA is changing that by changing people's perceptions of science and making it into a fun, cultural process. They have many public engagement programs on, and one of my favorites is the British Science Festival. Listen to find out more! Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.

Who's doing a great job of collecting health data and translating it into engaging public health multimedia? For many in global health, the clear leader is the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington in Seattle. Indeed, on my first day at work at IVAC, everyone was throwing around the IHME acronym around like it was PBnJ and definitely a lol moment if you didn't know what it stood for. Our latest podcast features Bill Heisel, Director of Global Engagement at IHME and a must know for all public health lovers. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.

This week, Nina is joined by Advocacy and Communications Specialist Swati Sudarsan as they interview Kate O’Brien, Executive Director of the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC). Did you know vaccines are a tool for social justice? Kate looks beyond efficacy to share the economic, biologic, social, and political benefits that vaccines have to offer. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.

Dr. Peter Hotez, scientist and founding dean at the National School of Tropical Medicine, felt a calling to science and vaccine advocacy after the birth of his autistic daughter. On our latest podcast, Nina speaks with Dr. Hotez on vaccine hesitancy, the flip side of our last podcast on vaccine confidence. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.

We had a transatlantic, bi-coastal three way Skype podcast last month with researchers Drs. Heidi Larson and Pauline Paterson who co-direct the Vaccine Confidence Project at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Heidi and Pauline are globally respected and known for this unique, extensive, and broad research into understanding how we can boost the global community's confidence in vaccines. A large piece of their work is profiling conversations from around the world and to pinpoint factors that lead to confidence or not. The other side of this coin is the term 'vaccine hesitancy' that describes why people do not feel confident in vaccines (a person can still vaccinate their child, but still be vaccine hesitant). Please note. Most of this podcast has good audio quality, however, due to the Skype connection, had a few moments of poor connectivity. The PHU wizards did their best to provide the best quality, please be patient as we continue to improve our Skype recording process.Check out our show li

Our latest podcast guest, Laurie Garrett, is an award winning science journalist (she has won all three major journalism awards: the Peabody, the Pulitzer, and the Polk) and a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. I first heard about Laurie back in 2000 when I read her book, "The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance." Among many accomplishments, she's well known for chronicling the Ebola outbreak both in the 90's and more recently. In this episode, Laurie tells us some of her stories from the frontline of outbreak science journalism and some challenges she sees for the global community in preparing for the next pandemic. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.

Our latest guest is also the latest faculty addition to the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Dr. Monica Mugnier (big news: Monica won an 2016 NIH Early Independence Award which allowed her to skip the tradtional postdoctoral fellowship and become faculty right after completing her PhD work). Monica studies a kind of parasite, called a tropanosome, that causes the disease African Sleeping Sickness. They are very difficult to control for a vaiety of reasons, one of them being the focus of her work (and some very cool science) on how they can rapidly change their coats to avoid detection by our immune system (aka antigenic variation). Monica finds these parasites so cool to study because they break all of the rules (read: they don’t follow any of the classic biology rules that she learned in class). Lots of mystery and discovery! Monica and I have a great conversation on how to make a great science presentation (and how difficult it can be to strike th

Our latest guest, Dean Mike Klag, has served at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health for the past decade and has worked to keep the School at the forefront of both international and community health. Dean Klag describes the roots of our school, the largest and oldest school of public health and how, owing to its biomedical roots, it is unique in that it hosts three basic science departments as well as more classic public health fields like international health, epidemiology, policy, biotstats, and mental health. We also learn about how he got into public health and his major goals and accomplishments as dean. Dean Klag will be stepping down in June 2017. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.

From his earliest days, Dr. Rush Holt has been interested in "how the world works (that's science) and how people get along (that's politics)." There are few who want to do both. Rush is one of the rare scientists who has served in Congress and has integrated 'science and society' into everything he's done. Hear about what it was like to be a scientist in Congress and how scientists should be communicating. Rush is currently the CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and was the U.S. Representative for New Jersey's 12 congressional district from 1999 to 2015. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.

Ellis Rubinstein always knew that he wanted to combine his seemingly distinct passions for reporting news and science. Before stepping into his current role as New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS)' President, he served as Editor of Science Magazine, the scientific journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). In our latest podcast, he discusses how important it is for young scientists to be involved in AAAS and NYAS, and to not limit membership and activism to just those in their later careers as some other scientific societies do. Under his watch, the NYAS has the highest number of young scientists (including graduate and more junior students), thanks to the tremendous amount of work Ellis has done to promote career development, networking, and mentoring opportunities. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.

Nina teams up with her Communicating Science student, Arvin Saleh, and his advisor Dr. Emily Fisher to talk about the wave that's hitting undergraduate campus with the aim of improving science education and the way students learn. The latest methods employ active learning--strategies that put learning in the hands of the student. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.

Our latest guest, Dr. Meghan Moran, researches how the tobacco industry uses persuasive messaging on youths and teens--and how public health policy makers can use that knowledge to implement prevention campaigns. She also uses her expertise in persuasive communication to analyze why people are swayed by anti-vaccine messaging, and that it is not for the reasons we typically consider! Meghan is an Assistant Professor in Health, Behavior and Society Department at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.

Nina gets to do her favorite thing on the latest episode: talk about vaccines! Nina is back over at the International Vaccine Access Center with Director of Policy and Advocacy Communications Lois Privor-Dumm. Lois has been working on vaccine advocacy to bring life saving vaccines (like the one to prevent meningitis) to countries all over the world. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.

Special World Aids Day podcast! Our latest guest, Dr. Tom Quinn, was one of the first doctors working on HIV/AIDS here in the US in 1981 and still in the frontlines of combatting this global epidemic as Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health, Associate Director for International Research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a researcher at Johns Hopkins University, and a consultant at a long list of places like The U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), World Health Organization (WHO). Truly a champion for public health. Check out our show links at www.publichealthunited.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at PHUpodcast.