The CommonHealth CSIS Global Health Policy Center | Center for Strategic and International Studies

Sheryl Gay Stolberg, the iconic health policy/politics reporter at the New York Times, helps us inaugurate The CommonHealth podcast, companion to the newly launched CSIS Bipartisan Alliance for Global Health Security. Her recent prodigious output delves deeply into the evolving – and thoroughly confusing – story of the swirling debate over Covid origin in China. The Biden administration will soon declassify what intelligence it has on the Wuhan Institute of Virology: what might that mean? Will it cast light on the Institute’s cooperation with the Chinese military? Is a legitimate civil debate possible in America? Will we ever get the evidence to reach serious conclusions? Yikes! Give it a listen.

Welcome to The CommonHealth, the podcast of the CSIS Bipartisan Alliance for Global Health Security. The CommonHealth replaces the Coronavirus Crisis Update.
In it, we delve deeply into the puzzle, at home and abroad, that connects pandemic preparedness and response, HIV/AIDS, routine immunization, primary care, and the geopolitical impacts these have on human and national security.

Sam Radwan, founder of Enhance International, has worked on health developments inside China for two decades. He shares his insights and raises some difficult questions. Over 80 year olds continue to be highly vulnerable; only 66% have been vaccinated. China’s 400 million rural poor live with starkly different medial support realities, and we have little visibility into what they are experiencing. An increasing number of Chinese will be traveling abroad to seek medical care, as medical literacy rises. Hong Kong is gearing up as a medical center. Can we imagine a radical decoupling in the health sector, between China and the United States? The deterioration of the US-China relationship is pushing in that direction and will have consequences for reform of the health care sector in China. We need to watch the Chinese government’s drive to restore economic growth. His hope: “cooler heads will prevail” as we realize we need one another in health.

In this newest episode in our series on China, Mike Osterholm reflects. There is no easy explanation for why the Chinese government did so little to prepare while knowing Zero-Covid was failing. Even as Omicron reached an R-naught of up to 16, and 8 million elderly above 80 had received no vaccine. We are now seeing progress by the Chinese in data sharing through George Gao’s recently published Lancet paper. Luckily, there Is no evidence of a dangerous new subvariant emerging, though we have to be cautious and humble. China has experienced a massive increase in deaths. After the Omicron surge that swept the United States in 2022, Omicron settled into a “high plains” continued outbreak of 380-550 deaths per day. That pattern may be seen in China. On the Covid origin controversy, we will likely never know the source. Prospects for an informed U.S.-Chinese dialogue on preparing for the next pandemic? “We are back in the 1970s.”

Dr. Scott Rivkees served under Governor DeSantis as Florida’s Surgeon General and Secretary of Health for 27 months during the pandemic, in what became a rocky political experience. Behind the scenes, what was he able to achieve, in serving Florida’s 67 counties, and in particular, in protecting seniors, managing schools, setting early vaccine priorities? What were the hard lessons for public health professionals, as vaccine hesitancy grew, and morphed into refusal? How well did CDC fare in this period? In his current position as a Professor of Practice at the Brown University School of Public Health, how has he used his columns to push against misinformation and conspiracy theories and urge medical professionals to be more vocal?

As part of our series on China post-COVID-19, Chris Murray reflects on where things stand, almost two months after President Xi threw off Zero-Covid controls. 
A huge Covid-19 wave has likely led thus far to a million deaths. It is likely not over. Don’t expect greater Chinese government transparency on numbers. That remains a highly sensitive matter domestically and, no less important, an integral component of China’s foreign policy image and prestige. The Chinese government is driving to get through the outbreak as fast as possible, tough it out, and reopen the economy. China's elderly bear the biggest toll.