Podcast
The CommonHealth
Hosted by CSIS Global Health Policy Center | Center for Strategic and International Studies · EN
The CommonHealth is the podcast of the CSIS Bipartisan Alliance for Global Health Security. On The CommonHealth, hosts J. Stephen Morrison and Katherine Bliss delve deeply into the puzzle that connects pandemic preparedness and response, HIV/AIDS, routine immunization, and primary care, areas of huge import to human and national security. The CommonHealth replaces under a single podcast the Coronavirus Crisis Update, Pandemic Planet and AIDS Existential Moment.
Produced by Marla Hiller.
32episodes
Episodes
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Professor Rebecca Katz, Georgetown University: the Health Security Operations Center during the FIFA World Cup
5d ago00:30:38Tap to summarizeProfessor Rebecca Katz, Georgetown University, explains the Health Security Operations Center, the remarkable initiative she has spearheaded with others to enhance protection against dangerous outbreaks during the FIFA World Cup June 11-July 19 in the US, Mexico and Canada. She speaks to its genesis, mission, and coalition partners. Give it a listen!
Transcribe →Professor Paul Spiegel, Johns Hopkins University: the release of the Lancet Commission report on health, conflict and forced displacement
6d ago00:44:57Tap to summarizeOn May 20, Professor Paul Spiegel presents in Geneva the report of the Lancet Commission on health, conflict and forced displacement, conducted in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health (CHH.) The U.S. rollout will take place June 2 at the JHU Washington Center, 555 PA Ave NW. Paul speaks in this podcast to the genesis and mandate of the Commission, and the innovative and comprehensive way it went about its work over the past two plus years. Most importantly, he presents in detail its compelling recommendations and how they are to be advanced: (i) Invert the Power: put communities in charge: (ii) End Impunity: attacks on civilians, health workers and hospitals must have consequences; (iii) Fix the Money: humanitarian financing must follow need – not politics: and (iv) Uphold Health for All: war does not suspend the right to health – it makes it more urgent. Give it a listen!
Transcribe →Priya Basu, the Pandemic Fund: "Countries are not sitting on the fence. They are lining up."
3w ago00:36:00Tap to summarizePriya Basu, head of the Pandemic Fund (est. 2022, based at the World Bank), reflects on the Fund's origin and evolution. "It exists to solve problems no one else was solving." Its $1.4 B invested over three years in pandemic preparedness and response has attracted seven times that much from partner governments and multilateral development banks. Finances remain fragile and voluntary. The hope is to grow threefold. The Fund, a Biden signature achievement, enjoys continued support from the Trump administration.
Transcribe →A Conversation with Dr. Sania Nishtar, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance | The Futures Summit
3w ago00:47:47Tap to summarizeGavi CEO Sania Nishtar sat down with Katherine E. Bliss, Director and Senior Fellow, Immunizations and Health Systems Resilience, to discuss the Alliance’s ambitious plan of work for the next five years; the ways in which Gavi is reforming to improve efficiencies, promote country ownership and self-sufficiency, overcome resource constraints and meet the geopolitical challenges of the current moment; and how Gavi and other multilateral organizations, including the Global Fund, the World Bank, and CEPI, can better partner with donors, co-financing governments, and the private sector to increase access to lifesaving services, prevent deadly outbreaks, and improve health outcomes for vulnerable populations in low- and lower-middle income countries.
Transcribe →The Lenacapavir Partnership and the Evolution of U.S. Foreign Assistance | The Futures Summit
3w ago01:12:41Tap to summarizeIn September 2025, the U.S. Department of State, Gilead Sciences, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria announced a novel partnership to procure and deliver lenacapavir—a groundbreaking twice-yearly injectable pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention—to up to two million people over next three years. On Tuesday, April 14, the leadership of these three entities convened to discuss the partnership now that doses have begun to arrive in country and have been delivered. Katherine E. Bliss, Director of Immunizations and Health Systems Resilience and Senior Fellow with the CSIS Global Health Policy Center moderated the conversation with Jeremy P. Lewin, Senior Official for the Office of the Under Secretary for Foreign Assistance, Humanitarian Affairs, and Religious Freedom at the U.S. Department of State; Daniel O’Day, Chairman and CEO of Gilead Sciences; and Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Together they examined how this deal fits into a renewed U.S. strategy for foreign assistance focused on big bets and advancing American innovations around the world, what challenges lie on the horizon as implementation unfolds, and what additional innovations may accelerate scaling this effort.
Transcribe →Dr. Eli Cahan: “Human beings are wired for stories.”
3w ago00:40:11Tap to summarizeDr. Eli Cahan explains how he evolved into both a neonatologist and an accomplished, intrepid journalist, inspired by the likes of Atul Gawande and shaped by experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic. It is a balancing act, rushing between fixed medical facilities and airplanes. “We get to bear witness.” His stories have covered anti-microbial resistance (AMR) among war fighters. An upcoming piece will cover the weakening of prevention and control over polio and the possibility of the reemergence of polio in America. With each, a focus is shaping opinion in Congress. Polio has become a major biosecurity issue and does indeed command attention in Congress and within the administration. The Pitt is fearless in exposing the problems people experience with American health care. At the same time, most health communications are frayed–what to do?
Transcribe →Dr. Benjamin Park, CDC: speed is of utmost importance
4w ago00:33:58Tap to summarizeDr. Benjamin Park is Director of the CDC Division of Global Health Protection that protects Americans against dangerous outbreaks by strengthening partner countries’ capabilities to detect and respond. A personal and early professional epiphany was Benjamin’s role in leading the investigation in 2012 of a fungal meningitis outbreak that struck across America, killing dozens and gravely sickening almost 800. Subsequently—accelerating during Ebola and Covid-19—CDC’s Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) has been a powerful instrument in building capabilities of partner countries, through experts based for extended periods in CDC country offices. That has generated many dramatic stories—the core of the CDC outbreaks campaign—of success in ensuring that bad things do not happen. These are stories that many Americans do not know but deserve to know.
Transcribe →Expanding Access to Immunizations in the Americas | The CommonHealth Live!
4w ago00:53:23Tap to summarizeDuring this year’s Vaccination Week in the Americas, which runs from April 25 to May 2, countries across the hemisphere will celebrate the lives saved through immunization programs, carry out special campaigns to increase immunization coverage among vulnerable populations, and conduct educational activities to encourage vaccine uptake, combat misinformation and sustain political will for preventing transmission of costly and deadly infectious diseases, such as measles, pertussis, and diphtheria. Please join the CSIS Bipartisan Alliance for Global Health Security for a broadcast conversation with Katherine E. Bliss, Senior Fellow and Director, Immunizations and Health Systems Resilience, with the CSIS Global Health Policy Center, Daniel Salas-Peraza, Executive Manager, Comprehensive Immunization Special Program, Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Mario Melgar, a pediatric infectious disease physician and Chair of the Global National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (NITAG) Network, and Santiago Cornejo, Executive Manager, Regional Revolving Funds, PAHO, regarding the state of immunization programs in the Americas, what works in terms of closing gaps and expanding access to new vaccines, and the important roles played by schools, civil society organizations, and community groups in building and sustaining momentum for immunization programs.
Transcribe →Dan Diamond, Washington Post: “A big hole that no one knows how to fill.”
Apr 1600:35:28Tap to summarizeDan Diamond, Washington Post reporter on the White House and health care, shares his reflections on President Trump’s swirling passions to reshape Washington’s built environment, with intense controversy surrounding the ballroom. What’s driving this, and where is it headed? On health, Dan reflects on where the Trump administration is heading, 16 months into its second term. Chris Klomp, the new COO at HHS, is emerging as a key figure attempting to bring order. It is not clear the multiple, piecemeal actions on lowering drug prices will deliver results that have meaningful political returns. Casey Means nomination seems doomed, perhaps CDC can escape its quagmire.
Transcribe →Sheryl Gay Stolberg, New York Times: Reflections on HHS Secretary RFK Jr’s tenure
Apr 1000:38:08Tap to summarizeSheryl Gay Stolberg, New York Times, offers her reflections on HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s tenure over the past fifteen months. His vaccine agenda has always been an “outlier”—“an unpopular agenda”—yet it remains at the core of his identity. He has now “hit a wall.” Casey Means’ nomination to be U.S. Surgeon General is stalled; the recruitment of a CDC Director is stalled; Judge Murphy has put a hold on the ACIP and changes in the children’s vaccine regimen. Why did the White House not see the downside? “Fundamentally President Trump does not really care about health.” The MAHA movement, most interested in pesticides and eating healthy foods, “took a leap of faith,” signing on to Trump, yet is now outraged by the White House Executive Order declaring phosphorous—the base of the pesticide glyphosate—as a national security matter. Divorce may follow. “Rumors have been flying” that Secretary Kennedy may be leaving after the midterms. Who will replace him? “Mehmet Oz.”
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