The Healthy Edit

A Shot at Hope – What We Know About the Covid-19 Vaccine | Episode 5

HealthCorps

This episode of Healthy Chats originally aired on December 18 as a virtual Town Hall with a full focus on the Covid-19 vaccine.  The Town Hall was made available to anyone interested in attending via HealthCorps’ social media channels.   

The conversation between HealthCorps CEO Amy Braun and the panel of experts was  determined by questions submitted by those attending the virtual Town Hall.  Based on those questions, experts discussed the FDA's approval process and the distribution process; how states plan on providing the vaccine (such as who receives it after healthcare workers); the vaccine's efficacy and the challenges public health officials face to ensure the vaccine is equitably distributed, specifically historic and cultural mistrust within the Black and Brown communities.  

Joining Amy for the conversation are:

Mr. Victor Vandell, a participant in Pfizer’s Covid 19 vaccine trials.

Dr. John Whyte, Chief Medical Officer of WebMD.  Formerly he was the Director of Professional Affairs and Stakeholder Engagement at the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Dr. Josh Sharfstein  Vice Dean for Public Health Practice & Community Engagement at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Previously, he served as Secretary of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, as Principal Deputy Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and as Commissioner of Health for Baltimore City.

Dr. Mena Mirhom Board Certified Psychiatrist at Columbia University is a Board Certified Psychiatrist who specializes in the treatment of Adults and Adolescents. He completed his adult psychiatry training in the Mount Sinai health system in New York City and his fellowship training at Columbia University Medical Center. 

Dr. Marjorie Bessel is the chief clinical officer at Banner Health in Arizona.  Dr. Bessel earned a B.S. in biology, magna cum laude, from Syracuse University and she attended Rush Medical College in Chicago, Illinois, where she was presented with the James B. Herrick award for most outstanding performance in internal medicine.

HealthCorps’ founder and Chairman, Dr. Oz also joined us towards the end of our conversation to share his insights.

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