Conversation with Julie Raifman, public health expert, about Covid precautions
Omicron is spreading like wildfire. Julia offers advice to policy leaders and to each of us. We all have a role to play. Let's do it!
Today’s post is a special one. Julia Raifman, a public expert and advocate, shares her insights on Covid and advice on what each of us must do immediately to save lives.
Please watch all the videos. If you only have two minutes today, then watch this short one. It’s an action plan for all of us. Let’s do it.
The economy will heal—it’s well on its way—but no amount of effort from the Fed, White House, or Congress can bring loved ones back. Now is the time to fight harder.
Julia is an indefatigable expert, and she is so also damn nice too. Here is our conversation in four videos. Please listen. Above all, please stay safe and help those around you to stay safe. We are all in this together.
Julia is a scholar of health and economic inequities caused by Covid. And creator of data on policy solutions!
Julia Raifman, is an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Health at Boston University. Her current work evaluates how policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis are shaping COVID-19, mental health, and economic precarity. She created and led the COVID-19 U.S. State Policy Database (CUSP), tracking state policy responses to the pandemic.
Her research shows that greater state minimum wages, unemployment insurance, and paid sick leave are associated with reductions in food insufficiency. She has documented how structural racism shaped disparities in susceptibility to severe illness due to COVID-19. Economists, pay attention!
Julia’s journey from scholar to advocate: MASKS MATTER.
May 13, 2021, was Julia’s call to action. It was the day the White House ended the national mask mandate, which her research and expertise had convinced her that was a “historically harmful decision.” Ever since, she has used every public platform whether it’s Twitter, opinion pieces, or media interviews, to advocate with evidence.
Listen as she draws on decades of public health crises like HIV-AIDS and Hurricane Katrina, especially the racial inequities, to form her expert advice during Covid. Time did not begin in 2020. Structural racism is deeply ingrained in our country.
She also channels her anger at the end of the mask mandate to action, emphasizing that we must help the unvaccinated, not abandon them. We must recognize its a collective effort.
Julia calls out researchers who spread misinformation about masks and Covid and who incorrectly suggest there’s a tradeoff between public health and economics. I agree. I will follow her lead and not call out the elite economists by name.
Let’s do it. It’s time to act. Covid must not win.
Here Julia talks about what we must do now. Everyone from the people sitting in the White House and Congress to those at home or on the job. Now is the time.
Be angry. Be sad. Be a part of the solution.
Leaders must lead. Center on all people and communities.
In the last part of our conversation, I ask Julia for the “success stories,” for the local leaders and people doing it right. She offers some successes and failures. And underscores how we must use our platforms and our connections to others to be part of the solution. Many of us will be seeing friends and family in the coming days. Use that love to protect others. Use your voice to create a safe place for everyone.
We know what to do. We are tired, and we will win. Covid must not win.
Wrapping Up
Julia Raifman is a voice of reason and expertise. She is also a voice of compassion and humility. Her most important message to us is one of hope. We know what to do. We all have a responsibility to get it done. It’s not about individual choices; it’s about choices as a country. Please stay safe and ensure that others are too.
I have the utmost respect and admiration for Julia as a scholar, advocate, and mom. Listen to the woman! Follow her advice. Thank you, Julia.