A Fireside Chat with Renowned Pandemic Expert Michael Osterholm

COVID-19 Grand Rounds for the 2022-23 academic year begins with a fireside chat with Professor Michael Osterholm, one of the world’s leading experts on COVID and pandemics more generally. Among other things, we discuss the current state of the pandemic, the new boosters, the “one shot a year” strategy, masking, Paxlovid rebound, long COVID, and how COVID has influenced our pandemic preparedness.

Speaker:
Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH is Regents Professor, McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair in Public Health, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, a professor in the Technological Leadership Institute, College of Science and Engineering, and an adjunct professor in the Medical School, all at the University of Minnesota. In 2020-21, Dr. Osterholm served on President-elect Biden's COVID-19 Transition Advisory Board.

Note: Closed captions will be available within 48-72 hours after posting.

Program
Bob Wachter: Introduction
00:02:44-00:59:17 - Conversation with Michael Osterholm, MD, MPH (University of Minnesota)

See previous Medical Grand Rounds:
• June 30: America's Epidemic of Gun Violence: The State of the Science
• June 23: Clinical Problem Solving with Sarah Goglin
June 16: The Science Behind Real-World Data: Answering Today’s Questions Today
• June 9: Liver Transplantation: Where Are We Now and Where Are We Going?

[ahtan]

Thank you to Dr. Osterholm for his leadership and steadfast commitment to our health and thank you to Dr. Wachter for making the UCSF MGRs available to the public.

[DanK]

Absolutely amazing. This is one of the best talks I've ever seen. Mike is the absolute best and Bob is pretty darn good. Loved this. Thank you for this. I listen to Mike's podcast, but it does tend to be a lot of Mike reading what he wrote....I much prefer his live/real conversation with somebody else...especially somebody as well educated about this at Bob. Thank you again.

[jonw]

This is a great discussion. I really appreciate it. I only wish more people still cared enough to understand the science and risks associated with Covid.

[markgivens]

Two of my favorite ‘talking heads’ for the recent years on the topic of infectious diseases, discussing together. Wonderful! Keep up the good work and glad to see UCSF Grand Rounds again.

[Turtledove]

I really appreciated this discussion by these two fine gentlemen, both of whom I greatly respect.

[physics]

I got the flu 10/12/2013 and chose to get the flu shot in early September ever since. I had a breakthrough of mild flu symptoms in Feb 2019 (vaccinated Sept 2018), but that was easy to tolerate. The full-on flu I got when I was unvaccinated in Oct 2013 is not something I ever want to repeat.

[briancase]

"is this going to get a lot worse or will it get better?" Uh, both. Duh. Sometimes people just don't think. Great discussion. A LOT of people need to listen to this! Thanks!

[artiem]

thank you, thank you -- one of the clear indications of a subject matter expert -- "I don't know!"

[Cathy-xicb]

If you don't understand how non-medical people respond to risk and contracting illness/developing disability, you cannot possibly address pandemics. The loss of confidence in public health, combined with social media's effects, require a different response in the future. I have been unable to successfully communicate risk and response to friends and family, even with my training and ability to maintain my health and sanity during this disaster. It is bigger than any individual provider's response.

[SineEyed]

Everything we were told to do by the authorities and by the "experts" was exactly opposite of what should have actually happened. We were told to do exactly the wrong thing to keep us safe. We were lied to about everything, and those of us who took notice of the inconsistencies in the official narrative were treated as heartless monsters and as actual hazards to public health. Meanwhile, our doctors were telling people who were sick with covid to go home and wait until they were dying before coming back; they were sent home with nothing--no advice, no medicines to treat their illness. People did as they were told, for all those reasons and more, people obeyed their authorities, people listened to the experts, and in doing so lost their lives. The experts and authoriries and even doctors, are directly responsible for the deaths of untold thousands. There MUST be accountability for this. If there is not, it should be taken as a strong indication that we are not free people, that we are in fact slaves to those we foolishly places in seats of power..

[goldenbelly]

Deep sanity yes thank you for the truth of things…

[annjuurinen]

Great conversation. Especially the last part about humility. Knowing that it could get worse is also useful . Experts saying that they really don't know, the answer is between 1 -10 is incredibly useful.

[KM-pmqe]

Public health recommendations for individuals should be the best medical recommendations possible, not a watered-down end product of a negotiation with government and the public. People can choose to follow the advice or not, but the advice should be reliable and truthful, not just what the public health agency thinks people want to hear.

[samtan]

Wish that many more Americans would appreciate Dr. Osterholm's views of pandemic management.

[bethchacon]

Five shots seems a lot for a healthy guy. The previous four dont protect against long covid? Doesnt the risk of side effects increase with each additional shot?

[theresacroghan]

Thanks for a good discussion. I’m a faithful listener of Dr O on his podcast. Thanks!!!

[kathyirwin]

How about some basic good health practices and utilizing the known early treatments?

[notnow]

If you create all of the viruses, you can make pretty accurate proclamations. Wake up people.

[vgfalcao]

I learn so much from these videos, but the outstanding takeaway from this particular video is that these are two of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet. How lucky are we that they're working for the public good!

[LoveABun]

“I don’t think this is the big one.” What an incredibly frightening statement. It’s really, really difficult for me to fight off depression over this whole mess. My anxiety level is very high.