Podcast

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: We May Be Done With Covid, But Covid’s Not Done With Us


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Logistics expert Jeff Zients, who has headed the White House covid-19 response team since the start of the Biden administration, is stepping down and will be replaced by popular public health expert Dr. Ashish Jha, who will take a leave from his post as dean of the School of Public Health at Brown University. Meanwhile, White House officials are scrambling to figure out how to get the funding they need to continue their covid control efforts now that the president has signed the big spending bill for the remainder of the federal fiscal year.

In the states, the Texas Supreme Court closed off the latest effort to stop a law that has all but ended legal abortion in the nation’s second-largest state since September. Other states are scrambling to copy Texas’ novel law, even before the Supreme Court formally moves to weaken or reverse Roe v. Wade, the 1973 precedent that guaranteed the right to legal abortion nationwide.

This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KHN, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico, Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call, and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico.

Among the takeaways from this week’s episode:

Plus, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read, too:

Julie Rovner: KHN’s “‘American Diagnosis’: A Fuller Moon Rising — Revised ‘Violence Against Women Act’ Offers Hope,” hosted by Dr. Céline Gounder

Joanne Kenen: The Washington Post’s “Disease Took My Brother. Our Health-Care System Added to His Ordeal,” by Karen Tumulty

Sandhya Raman: The New York Times’ “As a Crisis Hotline Grows, So Do Fears It Won’t Be Ready,” by Steve Eder

Alice Miranda Ollstein: Politico’s “Covid Chaos Fueled Another Public Health Crisis: STDs,” by Alice Miranda Ollstein

Also discussed on this week’s podcast:

New White House covid-19 response coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha on “What the Health?,” Sept. 9, 2021

Freakonomics M.D.’s “Is Daylight Saving Time Hazardous to Your Health?” by Bapu Jena

WUSF’s “Orange County’s Health Director Has Been Reinstated. He Was on Leave After Vaccine Email to Staff,” by Joe Byrnes


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This story was produced by KHN (Kaiser Health News), a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

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