Aspen Ideas: Health 2021 - Day 3

Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has become a household name during the pandemic, and is considered one of the most trusted sources for reliable covid health information, discusses the progress we’ve made and the challenges we still face with Lester Holt. Between Two Kingdoms author Suleika Jaouad has a heartfelt talk with Kate Bowler about surviving a serious illness and the journey from sickness to health. And Bryant Terry talks with Joe Yonan about what a sustainable food system would look like and his upcoming new book Black Food. Plus much more.

Nearly 14 months into the pandemic, the US has shifted from trying to flatten the curve to the race to herd immunity through mass vaccinations. How will vaccine hesitancy and new variants of the virus impact the return to normalcy? Have therapeutics to treat patients infected with the virus improved? Is eradication of COVID-19 possible, or will the virus continue to circulate like the seasonal flu? Watch Dr. Anthony Fauci talk with Lester Holt of “NBC Nightly News” for a special update on the current state of the pandemic.

Food justice sits at the intersection of health, economics, the environment, geography, and race. Bryant Terry, Chef-in-Residence at San Francisco’s Museum of the Africa Diaspora and editor of the upcoming book Black Food, discussed his vision for a truly sustainable food system and his work to help make healthy and culturally appropriate food choices accessible and affordable for everyone with Joe Yonan, Food and Dining Editor at The Washington Post.

In her memoir, Between Two Kingdoms, Suleika Jaouad writes about her battle with cancer after a devastating diagnosis at the age of 22 and the challenge of navigating the transition back to wellness after four long years of treatments. During Aspen Ideas: Health 2021, Jaouad discussed her experience with Kate Bowler, a professor at Duke University and fellow cancer survivor. In this heartfelt conversation, Joauad and Bowler talk candidly about their journeys from illness to health and the similarities to our current collective journey of overcoming the loss and change brought on by the pandemic.

It’s been a year of mRNA vaccines and health misinformation, of telemedicine and tented hospital sites. As we emerge from the pandemic, most experts agree there will be long-lasting effects on our health care delivery system, and that in many respects that system will not — and should not — return to “normal.” Experts also agree — and the public is with them on this — that the pandemic has provided an unprecedented opportunity to truly build back better, and to address systemic problems that we can no longer ignore. Harvard’s Atul Gawande and Google Health’s Karen DeSalvo discuss all this in a conversation about the future of medicine and health care in a post-COVID world.