In Conversation with Noam Chomsky | BUSPH Public Health Conversation Starter

This Public Health Conversation Starter features Noam Chomsky, “the father of modern linguistics” in discussion with BUSPH Dean Sandro Galea. Dr. Chomsky shares what it was like growing up during the Great Depression, discusses the interplay of power, politics, and public health, and reflects on what gives him hope.

Conversation Starters engage leading thinkers in conversation around issues of consequence in public health.

More information here

Learning from 1 Million COVID Deaths and Preparing for "The Contagion Next Time" | Public Health On Call

Dr. Sandro Galea, Dean of the Boston University School of Public Health and author of the book “The Contagion Next Time” talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about why the US was a “sitting duck” at the onset of the pandemic. They also discuss what needs to change in public health—and society—to be better prepared for day-to-day challenges and the next emergency.

Moving the Conversation Towards Health Equity: A High-Income Country Perspective | UCB Imagine Webinar

Reflecting on our experiences over the last months marked by the COVID pandemic, our purpose to create value for patients now and into the future and our commitments to society are more than ever raising an essential question: how can we contribute to building a brighter and more sustainable society?

At UCB we believe that by exploring complex issues in the most diverse areas (philosophy, sociology, economics, science and medicine, anthropology - and many more) and connecting the dots between sectors and domains, we will be in a better position to drive positive business and societal impact.

The objective of the #imagine webinars is to make all of us reflect about societal questions that are impacting our life as individuals and professionals, connect with experts outside UCB and broaden our perspective on the evolution of society.

Watch the webinar here.

Pandemic Resiliency & Health Equity: Reflections w/ Dr. Sandro Galea | The Institute for Science & Policy

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed fundamental weaknesses in American healthcare. Systemic racism, socioeconomic inequities, and disjointed processes have contributed to increased mortality from the disease over the past 18 months. But those underlying forces did not take root overnight, and COVID likely won't be the last pandemic we ever face. What would it mean to truly address these challenges? What would it take to build a more inclusive and resilient healthcare future for the U.S.?

In the next episode of our recurring COVID-19 webinar series, we'll sit down with Dr. Sandro Galea, Dean and Robert A. Knox Professor at the Boston University School of Public Health. As a physician, epidemiologist, and author of The Contagion Next Time, he'll discuss the social determinants of health and reflect on lessons learned about the societal consequences of an epidemic that has changed life as we know it. Plus: We'll begin the session with an update from state epidemiologist Dr. Rachel Herlihy on the latest Colorado coronavirus data and what we know so far about the Omicron variant.

This series is presented by the Colorado School of Public Health, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, and the Institute for Science & Policy.

Our Failed Public Health System Dared COVID to Attack Us | WhoWhatWhy Podcast

If we had a better public health system in America, would the pandemic have been as bad? Would as many people have died? Was the real point of entry for the virus not just our bodies — but a system of public health that in a sense dared the pathogen to attack us? 

With the omicron variant coming at us, this week on the WhoWhatWhy podcast we talk with Dr. Sandro Galea. He is the Robert A. Knox professor and dean of the Boston University School of Public Health, and has been named an “epidemiology innovator” and one of the “world’s most influential scientific minds.”

At the core of our problem, according to Galea, is that we don’t focus on real health care in America. Instead we have sick care. We spend more, almost 40 percent more, on medical care, and get less for it than any other industrial nation, with a lower life expectancy. This explains, says Galea, why we were sitting ducks for the COVID-19 virus.

If we had been a healthier nation to start with, he says, we would have had a very different pandemic. We are overinvested in treating conditions of aging in those over 70, and underinvested in the forces that keep us healthy from a young age.

Galea reminds us that the pandemic is not a singular event that exists in a vacuum. It has exploded, in part, because of 40-plus years of bad public health policy. Still, he thinks this could be a teachable moment. 

The Roots of Covid Vulnerability | Against the Grain

Covid has laid bare the inequities of our society and the dysfunction of our medical system, which focuses at great cost on disease-treatment rather than fostering health. So contends epidemiologist Sandro Galea. He argues that the pandemic provides an opening to rethink medicine, along with housing, wages, and racial and social inequality, and to treat health as a public good.

For more, visit https://kpfa.org/episode/against-the-grain-december-1-2021/.

How social determinants of health play a role in pandemics | The Ohio State University College of Public Health

Health outcomes are shaped by myriad intertwining factors that begin the moment a person is born. 

To illustrate this concept, Dr. Sandro Galea uses the example of Blind Willie Johnson, a Black American blues singer prominent in the 1920s and 30s who died of malaria in 1945. Born in Texas, Johnson is purported to have become blinded in a domestic violence incident at age 7, explained Galea, the dean of Boston University School of Public Health, who virtually visited the College of Public Health on Nov. 15. 

Johnson grew up poor and made a living playing his guitar on the street, eventually settling into a small home with his wife before a fire rendered them homeless. With no alternative shelter, the couple continued living in the burnt shell of the house, shortly after which Johnson contracted malarial fever. The hospital turned him away, likely due to his disability or the color of his skin.  

“What killed Blind Willie Johnson?” posed Galea, author of The Contagion Next Time, during the Nov. 15 event. “I tell this story to illustrate that it wasn’t just malaria that killed Willie Johnson, it was also poverty, racism, domestic violence, homelessness, poor access to care.”

Many parallels can be drawn between the story of Blind Willie Johnson and the inequities the U.S. has experienced in COVID-19-related deaths, Galea said, such as the fact that Black, Indigenous and Latinx Americans were all significantly more likely to die from COVID-19 than white Americans. These populations also have disproportionate rates of diseases including diabetes and high blood pressure, are less likely to be employed in high-income jobs with paid sick leave or the option to work remotely, and are less likely to have access to affordable medical care.

“Our understanding of Blind Willie Johnson in this country is that his cause of death was malaria … when the other conditions that shaped his life were just as important and more important in what caused his death than the pathogen itself,” Galea said. 

In addition to exploring the striking health inequities of the pandemic, Galea’s talk also considered what went right in the U.S. response to COVID-19 — such as clinical care and rapid, effective vaccine development. He speculated why America spends more on health care than other high-income countries yet experiences worse health outcomes, how public health can move toward meeting communities where they are and the role of science in spreading information and informing societal values.  

“All of this is inseparable from the history of marginalization and disadvantage that particular groups have been subjected to in this country,” Galea said.

This event was part of Dean Amy Fairchild’s Changing the Conversation: Dean’s Public Health Thought Leader Lecture Series. 

This is the personal website of Sandro Galea. All photos are taken by Sandro Galea.