A Better Pandemic Playbook (w/Dr. Monica Gandhi)

The ever-amazing Dr. Monica Gandhi returns to talk Flu/RSV/COVID, viral interference, China's zero-COVID response, MPox, and public health lessons from HIV for the next pandemic—while searching for true meaning beyond our apparent divisions. Watch the video here. Here's the paper summarizing Monica's proposed pandemic playbook. Find all our episodes with Dr. Gandhi here. Transcript & links here. Topics & Timecodes: 00:00 Intro 03:27 Influenza, RSV & COVID, "immune debt," viral interference, population immunity, targeted boosting, pregnancy & immunity 12:30 Bivalent boosters, age stratified risk, flu shot uptake, public health’s vaccine messaging failures, China’s zero-COVID policy, mRNA vaccines & the immunocompromised 22:53 Mpox (formerly monkeypox) messaging, why at-risk population targeting is so important 28:17 Monica’s new book Endemic: A Post-Pandemic Playbook, HIV lessons learned but not applied to the COVID pandemic, harm reduction, school closures, global vaccine equity, planning for future pandemics 37:42 Social divisiveness & the moral matrix, societal harms due to the pandemic response, mental health, substance abuse & suicide, the Alt-Middle 44:15 Burnout, healing divisiveness, fostering compassion, searching for meaning through connection, waking up to what “is” 57:46 Final thoughts Video show archive, audio podcasts, music parodies, Supporter Tribe membership options, merch, social media, and email contact form: https://lnk.bio/zdoggmd Support us with a 1-time donation and get a personal email response from me: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/zdoggmd More about Dr. Z: https://zdoggmd.com/about-z/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices