S1E44 / Science & Public Health Under Attack / Gary Kasparov, Lori Freeman, Theresa Anselmo

EPIDEMIC with Dr. Celine Gounder

KFF Health News and Just Human Productions

Society & Culture, #Eradication, Medicine, #Covid, Science, Life Sciences, #Sarscov2, Documentary, #Coronavirus, #Covid19, Health & Fitness, #Smallpox

4.6 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 25 September 2020

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“Public health is one of the few agencies locally that you can guarantee is apolitical. They just care about protecting the health of the community. … But these measures and these tactics by health officers are seen as political and an attempt to limit people's rights.” —Lori Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials Public health experts have faced strong backlash for supporting decisions to close businesses and to enforce lockdowns and social distancing measures. How have public health officials balanced these opposing pressures? On today’s episode of EPIDEMIC, we hear from Lori Freeman (CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials) and Theresa Anselmo (executive director of the Colorado Association of Local Public Health Officials), about how public health officials have been affected by this backlash. Then, we speak with Garry Kasparov (chairman of the Human Rights Foundation and the Renew Democracy Initiative) about his first-hand experiences with the fallout from his opposition of the Russian government, and what parallels he sees in present-day America. This podcast was created by Just Human Productions. We're powered and distributed by Simplecast. We're supported, in part, by listeners like you. #SARSCoV2 #COVID19 #COVID #coronavirus

Transcript

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0:00.0	We have already seen what lack of leadership at the highest levels of government has impacted this pandemic,
0:11.0	but at least at the local level at that community level where we need it most
0:16.5	to be losing that is really really concerning. Thank you're listening to Epidemic, the podcast about the social and public health impacts of the coronavirus.
0:34.9	I'm your host, Dr. Saline Gounder. At the start of the pandemic, Ohio got a lot of credit for taking decisive action to stop
0:54.6	spread of the virus.
0:56.4	All bars in the state and all restaurants will close at 9 o'clock tonight.
1:04.0	How long this order will be in effect?
1:07.0	We don't frankly know.
1:09.0	It was one of the first states to close at schools back in March,
1:12.0	cancel major events.
1:13.8	The state even took the dramatic step of delaying its presidential primary.
1:18.4	Public health experts applauded these moves.
1:20.7	They said the lockdowns and social distancing measures saved lives and the person behind many of these
1:26.1	recommendations was Dr Amy Acton the director of the Ohio Public Health Department
1:31.0	Please know everyone this this is the real thing.
1:35.0	This is not a drill.
1:36.7	This is the once in a lifetime pandemic.
1:39.3	And everything each of us does matters. But these decisions were also unpopular. Democrats in the
1:46.6	state suit over the delayed primary. Republican lawmakers tried to strip
1:50.9	Dr Acton of her authority to declare a public health emergency.
1:55.0	And then there were the protests.
1:57.0	Oh, found Ohio!
	...

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