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Radio Program: Dealing with the Pandemic

This radio program from The Commonwealth Club draws on two separate events: "Andy Slavitt: Inside the Doomed U.S. Coronavirus Response" and "The New Normal: Emotions as We Emerge from the Pandemic." 

Leading health-care advisor Andy Slavitt describes what went wrong in America’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and puts forth the solutions that could prevent us from repeating the situation. Slavitt describes the fateful decisions that were made in an attempt to curb the spread of the coronavirus and the failures of political leaders to keep Americans healthy. The story he tells is one of a country where bad leadership, political and cultural fractures, and an unwillingness to sustain sacrifice created a complex problem that proved near-impossible to resolve.

After a year of so much hardship and isolation, how do we readjust to a “new normal”? Join Dr. Jessi Gold and Dr. Lucy Kalanithi for a deep dive into the varied emotions many of us are currently feeling as the country reopens post-pandemic. From Zoom fatigue to unprocessed mental health challenges—including grief and trauma—there are countless underlying effects of COVID-19 still left unspoken.

June 5, 2021

United States

Speakers

Andy Slavitt

White House Senior Advisor for COVID Response; Host, “In the Bubble” Podcast;Author, Preventable: The Inside Story of How Leadership Failures, Politics, and Selfishness Doomed the U.S. Coronavirus Response; Twitter @ASlavitt

In Conversation with Dr. Atul Gawande

Endocrine Surgeon, Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Professor, Harvard Medical School and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Twitter @Atul_Gawande

Jessi Gold

M.D., M.S, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Director of Wellness, Engagement, and Outreach, Washington University School of Medicine (St. Louis); Twitter @drjessigold

In Conversation with Lucy Kalanithi

M.D., Host, "Gravity" Podcast; Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine, Stanford University; Widow of Paul Kalanithi M.D.; Author, When Breath Becomes Air, Twitter @rocketgirlmd