On this special episode, we’ve partnered with the hosts of Flesh ’N Bold, Healthy Homes with The Hippocratic Hosts and What is Black?. Today, we’re talking with Dr. Lauren A. Smith, Chief Health Equity and Strategy Officer for the CDC Foundation and Dr. Letitia Dzirasa, Commissioner of Health for the Baltimore City Health Department. We’re talking with these public health and pediatric health experts to help parents better understand the science behind the  COVID-19 vaccines, address misinformation, strategies to communicate health information about the vaccine to families of color and discuss the impact of the vaccine on children of color. 

Dr. Lauren Smith, MD, MPH, is the chief health equity and strategy officer for the CDC Foundation. As chief health equity and strategy officer, Smith partners with the CDC Foundation’s other senior leaders to develop and drive strategic efforts to embed health equity across the Foundation’s COVID-19 response activities with an explicit focus on addressing systemic racism and its impact on vulnerable populations’ resiliency amidst the pandemic. In addition, she leads activities to build organizational capacity to integrate health equity into the Foundation’s practice, process, action, innovation, and organizational performance to elevate the importance of and deepen the Foundation’s health equity impact. Smith holds a BA with honors in biology from Harvard College, an MD from University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, and an MPH from University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health. She completed her pediatrics residency and chief residency at Children’s Hospital Boston and her general pediatrics fellowship at Boston Medical Center, Department of Pediatrics.

Dr. Letitia Dzirasa, MD, joined Baltimore City government as the Commissioner of Health in March 2019. Dr. Dzirasa, a Hopkins trained pediatrician, believes that equitable care is the basic right for all and will tirelessly advocate for programs that support the overall health and wellbeing of all Baltimore city residents. Dr. Dzirasa’s special interests include obesity management and prevention, trauma informed care in children and adolescents, and expanded use of technology to improve health outcomes. Dr. Dzirasa also has close clinical ties to the Baltimore community, having trained at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in pediatrics and having worked as medical director for school based health and quality at Baltimore Medical System from 2013-2016.  In addition to holding a B.S. from University of Maryland, Baltimore County in biological sciences, Dr. Dzirasa graduated from Meharry Medical College, Summa Cum Laude, in 2007. 

References:

http://info.primarycare.hms.harvard.edu/blog/racial-disparity-mortality-covid-children#:~:text=American%20Indian%2FAlaska%20Native%20

https://www.covkidproject.org/disparities

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/12/12/569910574/native-americans-feel-invisible-in-u-s-health-care-system

https://khn.org/morning-breakout/efforts-to-address-hardest-hit-black-latino-communities-hamstrung-by-generations-of-distrust-in-health-system/

Editing and music by Manni Simon