987 - The Disturbing War Strategy of Attacking Health Care
Public Health On Call
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
4.6 • 644 Ratings
🗓️ 15 December 2025
⏱️ 15 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
About this episode:
Attacking health care facilities and providers is becoming a standard strategy of war in places like Colombia, Lebanon, Ukraine, and Gaza, and it is increasingly being perpetrated by state actors. In this episode: Health and human rights lawyer Leonard Rubenstein discusses these disturbing trends, why there's so little accountability for attacks on health care, and what it would take to see meaningful progress.
Guests:
Leonard Rubenstein, JD, LLM, is a lawyer who has spent his career in health and human rights in armed conflict. He is core faculty of the Johns Hopkins Center for Public Health and Human Rights and the Berman Institute of Bioethics.
Host:
Dr. Josh Sharfstein is distinguished professor of the practice in Health Policy and Management, a pediatrician, and former secretary of Maryland's Health Department.
Show links and related content:
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How attacking healthcare has become a strategy of war—British Medical Journal
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Violence Against Health Care in Conflict: 2024 Report—Public Health On Call (June 2025)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's Lindsay Smith Rogers, producer of public health on call. As 2025 winds down, we want to say |
| 0:06.0 | thank you for listening, contributing, and sticking with us through another year of massive |
| 0:11.6 | change and breakthroughs in public health. This season, we've explored how uncertainty can also |
| 0:17.7 | mean opportunity and how science, policy, and community continue to shape the |
| 0:22.8 | world we live in. We've also launched a brand new Instagram account at Public HealthPod, |
| 0:28.4 | where you'll find highlights, quotes, and behind-the-scenes moments, as well as ways to tell us about |
| 0:33.1 | what topics you want to hear next. You can also send us your questions and voice memos anytime at |
| 0:38.8 | Public Health Question at jhsu.edu. We're taking a short break for the holidays and then we'll be |
| 0:44.0 | back on January 5th with season 13 of the show. Until then, thank you for being part of this |
| 0:49.5 | growing community. Stay curious, stay connected, and we'll see you in the new year. And now, on to today's |
| 0:56.1 | episode. Welcome to Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of |
| 1:02.2 | Public Health, where we bring evidence, experience, and perspective to make sense of today's |
| 1:08.1 | leading health challenges. |
| 1:11.6 | If you have questions or ideas for us, |
| 1:16.1 | please send an email to Public Health Question at jh.edu. |
| 1:21.2 | That's Public Health Question at jhu.edu |
| 1:25.0 | for future podcast episodes. |
| 1:27.1 | It's Lindsay Smith Rogers. for future podcast episodes. |
| 1:30.0 | It's Lindsay Smith, Rogers. |
| 1:35.0 | Today, a look back on attacks on health care workers in 2025. |
| 1:40.5 | Len Rubinstein is the author of the book, Periless Medicine, the struggle to protect health care from the violence of war, and an emeritus distinguished professor of the practice |
| 1:44.8 | at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He joins Dr. Josh Sharfstein to talk about |
... |
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