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disease

(Re)emerging infectious diseases

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, many people didn’t spend as much time thinking about a news report about an emerging or reemerging disease popping up in another part of the world—or even in our own country. But now, that news feels different, more consequential. In this new era, where global media attention has turned to epidemiology and infectious disease, how do we understand our situation and feel protected when it seems like we’re hearing about so many diseases all the time?

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The ramifications of health care worker burnout

For thousands of health care workers around the world, dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic has been non-stop for two years and counting. From dealing with illness themselves, to experiencing burnout, or even leaving the field altogether, we want to understand the toll on our health care workforce. In this episode, we'll explore the ripple effects of COVID's impact for these workers, and what potential solutions exist.

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Exploring another pandemic: HIV/AIDS

We take a look at the HIV/AIDS pandemic, its history, associated issues like stigma and access to treatment, and what the lives of people with HIV/AIDS look like now.

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Difficult Conversations: Using Motivational Interviewing to Convince People to Get Vaccinated

Generally speaking, giving unsolicited advice to people only tends to annoy them and make them less likely to change any of their behaviors. Real change tends to come when someone sees a discrepancy between their own behavior and what they value as a person. So, how do you talk to a coworker, friend, or family member who is firmly entrenched in anti-vaccine beliefs? Preaching to them that COVID vaccines are safe and effective will most likely fail. But there are some lessons to be gleaned from a counseling style called motivational interviewing, where instead of trying to persuade someone, you subtly reflect back to them their own thoughts and feelings. In other words, you allow the other person to drive the conversation, with the idea that they themselves will see discrepancies between their actions and their beliefs. University of Michigan School of Public Health Professor Ken Resnicow has studied and used motivational interviewing since the early 1990s and has some timely tips for how to engage in these difficult conversations.

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Evolution of a Pandemic: Where Does Delta Leave Us?

Right now, Delta is the dominant COVID-19 variant spreading here in the U.S and in some other areas of the world. It’s one of the handful of variants that have evolved from the original COVID-19 virus. The emergence of the more infectious Delta, and the prospect of new variants on the horizon, has underscored the urgency of widespread vaccination to put an end to the pandemic. In this episode, we're joined by two faculty experts from the University of Michigan who will discuss what is currently known about the Delta variant, how vaccine efforts are holding up through the Delta surge, and how it's spread is impacting our ongoing pandemic response strategies.