Critically Speaking

The U.S. declared measles eliminated in 2000 — so why are we seeing more cases and deaths than in the last 30 years? Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo reveals the hyper-local vaccination gaps driving the resurgence, and why preparing for the next pandemic starts on your block, not in Washington.
In this episode, Therese Markow and Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo discuss the recurring nature of pandemics that require prevention, preparedness, and coordinated action from global, national, and local organizations, institutions, and communities. They discuss the current preparedness systems, where they are working, and where they could be strengthened, as well as breaking down some vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks and the future risks of pandemics.
 
 Key Takeaways:
Pandemics happen regularly throughout history. We are not going to be able to prevent them from happening, but we can prepare for them in a way that will not put everything on hold and upend lives (or cause deaths). 

Pandemic means a global spread. It does not have to be deadly; it just has to be global. When talking about pandemics, respiratory viruses are the pathogens that are most worried about. 

Transparency in preparedness not only is shown to help the individuals in that one country, but also other countries because decisions can be made based on more complete information.

Immunization works by having the majority of a population covered by the vaccine. When more people are vaccinated, everyone can be protected. This makes the more immediate community, such as your child's school vaccination rate, more important than a larger population, such as the state or national vaccination rate. 

 
"There's a lot of stuff wrong with the world right now, and a lot of it is at the global level or at the national level. But the good news is that preparedness is a bottom-up exercise. It starts in your community, and just like when I talked about, it really matters what the vaccination coverage is in your school, in your kid's school, or what it is in your community. What happens locally absolutely matters." —  Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo
 
Connect with Jennifer Nuzzo:
Professional Bio: https://pandemics.sph.brown.edu/people/jennifer-nuzzo-drph 
Research: https://vivo.brown.edu/display/jnuzzo 
X: https://x.com/JenniferNuzzo   
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jennifernuzzo.bsky.social   
Website: http://thepandemiccenter.org/ 
 
Connect with Therese:
Website:  www.criticallyspeaking.net
Bluesky: @CriticallySpeaking.bsky.social
Instagram: @criticallyspeakingpodcast
Email: theresemarkow@criticallyspeaking.net
 
Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

In this episode, Therese Markow and Dr. Daniel Aaron discuss the inadequate oversight of food additives by the FDA, particularly the agency's GRAS or "Generally Recognized as Safe" process, which allows unsafe additives to reach the market without proper scrutiny. Dr. Aaron highlights industry conflicts of interest, the lack of reporting requirements, the need for stricter regulation to protect public health, and discusses what is needed for the FDA to be better able to make impactful changes. 
 
 Key Takeaways:
The majority of food additives in the US are not vetted by the FDA. Since 1958, food additives have been presumed safe until proven otherwise. 

The Clean Eating movement in the US is indicative of the skepticism of the American food supply. 

While the FDA used to maintain a list of GRAS substances, today, reporting to the FDA is not required. 

Europe uses a more precautionary approach to food additives. The EFSA must approve all chemical substances prior to their use in foods. 

Food additives are known to cause synergistic harm. However, the FDA poorly regulates single additives, so it is not surprising that its consideration of interacting chemicals is insufficient.

 
"The FDA is the most accountable to corporate power. The largest impediment, in my view, to food regulation is funding. FDA's Food Center has been underfunded for decades. Further funding from Congress is needed, but our legislators often are supported by industry that doesn't necessarily want a more robust review of food additives." —  Daniel Aaron, M.D., J.D.
 
Episode References: 
Bystanders to a Public Health Crisis: The Failures of the U.S. Multi-Agency Regulatory Approach to Food Safety in the Face of Persistent Organic Pollutants by Katya S. Cronin: https://scholarship.law.gwu.edu/faculty_publications/1725/ 

EFSA: https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en 

FDA Food Center: https://www.fda.gov/food 

 
Connect with Daniel Aaron, M.D., J.D.:
Professional Bio: https://faculty.utah.edu/u6052921-DANIEL_G_AARON/hm/index.hml 
Email: Daniel.Aaron@law.utah.edu 
 
Connect with Therese:
Website:  www.criticallyspeaking.net
Bluesky: @CriticallySpeaking.bsky.social
Instagram: @criticallyspeakingpodcast
Email: theresemarkow@criticallyspeaking.net 
 
Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

Have you ever wondered what the purpose of staying up to date on your vaccines is? Well, new research is showing that not only does it help to prevent the disease the vaccine is protecting you from, but it may also reduce your risk of Alzheimer's and other dementia related diseases. 
In this episode, Therese Markow and Dr. Paul Schulz discuss the exciting discovery that influenza vaccines may reduce the risk of Alzheimer's by up to 40%. Dr. Schulz's research suggests that high-dose vaccines (offered to those over the age of 65) are more effective, particularly in women. Additionally, other vaccines like shingles, pneumococcus, and Tdap also showed protective effects.
 
 Key Takeaways:
Every neurologist knows that when your Alzheimer's patient gets pneumonia, a UTI, bronchitis, a hip fracture, a hip replacement, or any inflammatory process in the body, it makes their Alzheimer's a lot worse.

Over the age of 65, patients are typically given a 4x dose of the influenza vaccine for as long as it is available. Evidence shows that the regular dose reduces Alzheimer's by about 40%, while the high dose reduces it by about 15% more. 

Other types of vaccines, including for shingles, pneumococcus, and Tdap, also show effectiveness in the reduction of Alzheimer's and related dementias. 

 
"The conclusion was that compared to people with no influenza vaccines, which turns out to be very common, unfortunately, in the United States, three annual vaccines out of six years is associated with a 20% reduction in Alzheimer's risk for up to eight years that we know of so far." —  Dr. Paul Schulz
 
Connect with Dr. Paul Schulz:
Professional Bio: https://med.uth.edu/neurosciences/dr-paul-e-schulz-md-2/ 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-schulz-199a9944/ 
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MoJcqd4AAAAJ&hl=en 
 
Connect with Therese:
Website:  www.criticallyspeaking.net
Bluesky: @CriticallySpeaking.bsky.social
Instagram: @criticallyspeakingpodcast
Email: theresemarkow@criticallyspeaking.net
 
Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

Worried about what your forgetfulness really means and whether it's just aging or the start of something more serious? Listen in as memory expert Dr. Zaldy Tan breaks down the different types of dementia, how early detection really works, and what you can do now to protect your brain and plan for the future.
 
In this episode, Therese Markow and Dr. Zaldy Tan discuss his new book, "What to Remember When You Are Forgetting," which addresses cognitive decline and dementia. Dr. Tan discusses the main types of dementia, the importance of early diagnosis, and how dementia varies from age-related cognitive decline. They also dive into the steps that people can take now to help strengthen their minds and things to do to help assist those you love who you may suspect have dementia or have been diagnosed.  
 
 Key Takeaways:
Currently, about 7.5 million people are diagnosed with dementia. That number is likely twice that, as about 50% with dementia are living with it unaware of the diagnosis until the late stages. 

There are around 100 types of dementia - the most common ones are Alzheimer's Disease, vascular dementia, Lewy Body Dementia, and frontotemporal dementia. 

Memory and other cognitive functions do change as we get older. Divided attention and working memory do decline as we age, and that is a normal part of aging. 

Different types of dementia are caused by different pathologies. As such, the treatment and prognosis will be different. 

A dementia diagnosis does not always mean that you have to quit your job. It may mean that you have to talk to your employer about reasonable accommodations to make sure you are safe and able to complete your tasks. 

 
"We shouldn't think of dementia as monolithic. Those days are gone. A precise and accurate diagnosis is really important." —  Dr. Zaldy Tan
 
Connect with Dr. Zaldy Tan:
Professional Bio: https://researchers.cedars-sinai.edu/Zaldy.Tan 
LinkedIn:  linkedin.com/in/zaldy-tan-5426a639b 
Book: What to Remember When You Are Forgetting: https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Zaldy-Tan/232701319 
 
Connect with Therese:
Website:  www.criticallyspeaking.net
Bluesky: @CriticallySpeaking.bsky.social
Instagram: @criticallyspeakingpodcast
Email: theresemarkow@criticallyspeaking.net
 
Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

Have you ever wondered how trolls, bots, and paid influencers are quietly manipulating what you see online and why even smart, skeptical people fall for it? Today, disinformation expert Dr. Darren Linvill pulls back the curtain on the tactics that bad actors are using to try and shape our beliefs. 
 
In this episode, Therese Markow and Dr. Darren Linvill discuss the various forms of digital deception and the strategies used by state actors to manipulate global discourse. Dr. Linvill distinguishes between misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation and gives examples of each, including tactics used by different international organizations from Iran, China, Israel, North Korea, and others. He also discusses the psychological impact that this disinformation has on humanity. 
 
 Key Takeaways:
Fraud is the oldest form of disinformation, and it's rampant across social media. It's a multi-billion-dollar industry. 

The main way that AI is being used right now to disseminate false information, disinformation, whether it's fraud or political disinformation, is the scale at which this content is created. 

Sometimes there is not enough information to attribute disinformation accounts to a specific person or group. Sometimes it can be traced either through the content being posted or similar information on other websites. 

At the end of the day, people will believe what they want to believe, regardless of whether it is true or has been fact-checked as false. 

 
"At the end of the day, all of us humans are emotional animals. And we are interpreting the world around us, including the information we find on social media, through an emotional lens, especially when it comes to the communities that we're a part of, and our emotional attachments to those communities and our emotional needs that we derive from those communities, that absolutely affects the lens through which we interpret information." —  Dr. Darren Linvill
 
Episode References: 
Clemson University Media Forensics Hub: Spot the Troll - https://spotthetroll.org/ 

 
Connect with Dr. Darren Linvill:
Professional Bio: https://www.clemson.edu/cbshs/about/profiles/darrenl 
Twitter: https://x.com/DarrenLinvill?lang=en  
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darren-linvill-6673655b 
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=gQl4PlQAAAAJ&hl=en 
 
Connect with Therese:
Website:  www.criticallyspeaking.net
Bluesky: @CriticallySpeaking.bsky.social
Instagram: @criticallyspeakingpodcast
Email: theresemarkow@criticallyspeaking.net
 
Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.