In this conversation, Major General Paul Friedrichs (ret.), the inaugural director of the White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy, reviews the multiple changes in health security now unfolding in the first 100 days of the second Trump term.

Dr. Tom Frieden, Resolve to Save Lives (CDC Director 2009-2017,) details the dangerous implications of deep changes underway at CDC—on tobacco, environmental toxins, and communications.

Tom Bollyky, CFR, walks us through his recent incisive work on two fronts. First, will China supplant US leadership in global health in the wake of the U.S. retreat? Listen to learn why the answer is a definitive "No!" and the dangers that foretells. Second, what might the U.S. exit mean for Latin America?

Dr. Katelyn Jetelina joins us at the fifth anniversary of the newsletter she has spearheaded,Your Local Epidemiologist (YLE). “An incredibly wild ride,” YLE reaches 370,000 subscribers, while social media accounts reach 700,000.

Dr. Jeffrey Gold, President of the University of Nebraska system, testified recently before the House Committee on Veteran Affairs Health Subcommittee on plans to replace a 1950 VA hospital with a hospital on the university grounds, with projected savings of half a billion dollars.

Politico’s global health correspondent Carmen Paun offers her insights into the White House decision on March 13 to withdraw the nomination of David Weldon to be the next Director of CDC.

In a special crossover episode with CSIS's The Truth of the Matter, Andrew Schwartz and Steve discuss the recent measles outbreak and risks associated with it.

Dr. Elizabeth (Beth) Cameron, Professor, Brown University, and former senior official in global health security and biodefense at the White House and USAID, kindly shares her thoughts on the radical changes unfolding inside the U.S. government surrounding biothreats.

Dr. Vanessa Kerry, founder of Seed Global Health, Associate Professor, Harvard School of Medicine, and since June 2023 the WHO Director-General’s Special Envoy on Climate Change and Health, joined The CommonHealth to unpack her recent article ‘Health is a Cornerstone of Global Security,’ published February 14 in Foreign Policy.

In the eighth episode of the CommonHealth Live! series, J. Stephen Morrison sits down with Loyce Pace, Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Dr. Elizabeth (Betsy) Bradley, President of Vassar College, shares her thoughts on the fusillade of Executive Orders signed by President Trump directed at educational institutions, including the apparent special animus toward elite private institutions.

Apoorva Mandavilli, the award-winning New York Times science and global health reporter, is on the front lines of several fast-breaking stories.

The renowned expert on vaccine confidence, Dr. Heidi Larson, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, explains why there has been a precipitous escalation in the past four years, especially among 18-24 year-olds, of vaccine skepticism and resistance.

Since the start of her tenure in July 2023, Dr. Mandy Cohen, Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has pursued several reforms intended to make CDC a stronger, nimbler agency better able to protect Americans from domestic and global public health threats and rebuild trust.

In the tenth episode of the CommonHealth Live! series, Katherine E. Bliss will sit down with Stacy Aguilera-Peterson, Deputy Director for Research, U.S. Global Climate Change Research Program, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Josh Glasser, Assistant Director for Combatting Antimicrobial Resistance & Integrated Health Innovation (One Health), White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

In the ninth episode of the CommonHealth Live! series, J. Stephen Morrison will sit down with Rahul Gupta, Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Dan Diamond, the national health reporter at the Washington Post, reflects on the shock of both United Health executive Brian Thompson’s tragic murder and the subsequent tsunami of anger and glee on social media.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg, the NYT health correspondent, feels her decades of health and political reporting  prepare her well for understanding this remarkable moment in American history. Anger and alienation against the health sector and science are surging, drawing both on historical roots and current dynamics.

How do we explain the peril that global health faces? Covid and the post-Covid backlash. The Biden years’ “status quo” approach. Less support in Europe. Excessive debt in Africa. The generational shift in Congress and aging of the flagship programs: “Time has passed.”

In the seventh episode of the CommonHealth Live! series, Katherine E. Bliss will sit down with Dr. John Balbus, Director of the Office of Climate Change and Health Equity at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

In the sixth episode of the CommonHealth Live! series, Katherine E. Bliss will sit down with Dr. Hanan Balkhy, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean.

Javier Guzman, Center for Global Development debriefs on the High Level Meeting on Anti-Microbial Resistance held in New York City on September 26. Successes took several forms: significant new data, analyses, and projections; a political declaration committed to the creation of a scientific panel; elevation of equity of access and accountability; a target to reduce deaths by 10% by 2030; and agreement to convene again in 5 years.

Dr. Michael Osterholm unpacks the history of H5N1, as we struggle with the question of whether the current H5N1 outbreak may pose a grave threat of a human-to-human pandemic.

Nidhi Bouri, DAA at USAID Bureau for Global Health, joined us to speak to the U.S. response to the dangerous mpox outbreak (clade 1b) centered in the Democratic Republic of Congo, boosted by President Biden’s commitment at UNGA to $500m in support, including 1 million vaccine doses.

Dr. Jerome Adams authored his 2023 memoire, Crisis and Chaos: Lessons from the Front Lines of the War Against COVID-19. In it, he reflects on his upbringing in southern Maryland and the acute “hurting” among many citizens, rural and poor, dissatisfied with the status quo.