172 - COVID-19, the Flu, and Johns Hopkins Hospital with Infection Prevention Director Dr. Lisa Maragakis
Public Health On Call
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
4.6 • 644 Ratings
🗓️ 5 October 2020
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Six months ago, Dr. Lisa Maragakis was one of the podcast's very first guests and she talked about how Johns Hopkins was preparing for an influx of COVID-19 patients. Things have calmed down a bit since then, but cases have plateaued at a concerning level at the same time we're entering respiratory virus season. Dr. Maragakis talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about ongoing challenges in the hospital with having to conserve PPE and testing, pandemic fatigue, and the importance of getting a flu shot. They also discuss the possibility that vigilant social distancing, masks, and widespread vaccination and masks could help curb flu infections this year, reducing the risks of coinfection and diagnostic complications.
KEYWORDS: co-infection; testing methods; pandemic response
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Season 2 of Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. |
| 0:13.6 | I'm Joshua Sharfstein, Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement, |
| 0:18.7 | and a former secretary of Maryland's Health Department. |
| 0:21.9 | Our goal is to bring scientific evidence and experience to the public health news of the day |
| 0:27.3 | through informative interviews with scientists, community leaders, policy experts, public health |
| 0:32.7 | officials, clinicians, and more. If you have ideas or questions for us to cover, please email us at |
| 0:39.8 | Public Health Question at jhhhu.edu. That's public health question at jhhu.edu for future podcast |
| 0:47.8 | episodes. Today I'm speaking with Dr. Lisa Maragakis, the director of infection prevention at the Johns Hopkins |
| 0:56.0 | Health System. |
| 0:57.0 | You may remember her first podcast interview with us in the early days of March, when Dr. |
| 1:03.0 | Maragocas explained calmly how Johns Hopkins was preparing for COVID-19. |
| 1:08.0 | We talk about the hospital's experience since then and what lies ahead with a new |
| 1:13.1 | season of flu and other respiratory viruses here again. Let's listen. Dr. Marigakis, thank you so |
| 1:21.3 | much for joining me again. And I say again because you were one of the very first guests we had on |
| 1:26.5 | the podcast six months ago. |
| 1:28.6 | People who are listening can find that on the podcast website. But at that time, we didn't know |
| 1:33.7 | what was going to hit Baltimore, how many patients would be coming to Johns Hopkins. And you were |
| 1:40.5 | responsible for infection control at the hospital. Well, thank you so much for having me, and you're right. |
| 1:48.0 | This has been quite a journey, a real challenge for everyone, of course, |
| 1:52.4 | but particularly in the hospital and health care. |
| 1:56.6 | I'm pleased to say that everyone has really pulled together. |
| 2:00.8 | So grateful to all of my colleagues for the response to this situation. |
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