Conversations On Health Care

Hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome U.S. Education Secretary Dr. Miguel Cardona, who discusses the Biden administration’s efforts to contain the pandemic’s impact while keeping students and teachers safe in school. He laments the influence of politics on the proven public health practices meant to prevent spread of COVID-19, which includes mask wearing and widespread vaccinations. He says this pandemic has revealed the importance of providing medical and behavioral care in school-based health clinics, and also applauds First Lady Jill Biden’s thoughtful advice on education policy as a veteran of the education system.

Renowned epidemiologist Dr. Michael Osterholm, Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota, who has served 5 presidential administrations in preparing for pandemics and bio-terror threats. Dr. Osterholm says the highly infectious omicron variant will continue to threaten hospital systems, schools and supply chains, warning the threat of future variants that may evade immunity is still a very real concern. He predicts that a combination of improved vaccines and new therapeutics will render COVID more manageable in the future, but that we will have to learn to 'live with it'.