<description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The CDC issued six health alerts in all of 2025, down from dozens in a normal year, whatever that means anymore. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Measles, a disease we basically eliminated 26 years ago, is closing in on 1000 cases, with children hospitalized for brain swelling. And the people now running our top health agencies are the same people who spent years questioning the science those agencies existed to defend.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But the good news is people are building new things. States are forming their own health alliances. Scientists are organizing to fight misinformation where it lives. And one epidemiologist in Texas turned a six-week email experiment in March, 2020 into one of the most trusted public health resources on the planet.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So what can I do about the collapse of trusted public health communication? &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Today's guest is&lt;strong&gt; Dr. Katelyn Jetelina&lt;/strong&gt;. Katelyn is an epidemiologist, a mom, a wife, a data scientist, and the founder of the incredibly popular &lt;strong&gt;Your Local Epidemiologist &lt;/strong&gt;newsletter. It is free. She started it from our kitchen table, and it now reaches something like &lt;strong&gt;310,000 &lt;/strong&gt;subscribers in&lt;strong&gt; 130 plus &lt;/strong&gt;countries. She's one of the &lt;strong&gt;Time 100 most influential people in health&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;former advisor to the White House and the CDC&lt;/strong&gt;, and she now leads&lt;strong&gt; Project Stethoscope&lt;/strong&gt; as well.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We're gonna talk about how Katelyn built YLE, why the old model of top-down public health communication was always broken and is now definitely broken, and what Project Stethoscope and Phoenix are actually doing about it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;-----------&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Have feedback?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href="http://www.twitter.com/importantnotimp" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;Tweet us&lt;/a&gt;, or send a message to &lt;a href="mailto:questions@importantnotimportant.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;questions@importantnotimportant.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;New here? &lt;/strong&gt;Get started with our fan favorite episodes at &lt;a href="https://podcast.importantnotimportant.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;podcast.importantnotimportant.com&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Find every action recommended in The Most Important Question here: &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.whatcanido.earth/results/?tags=the-most-important-question" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;www.whatcanido.earth&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;-----------&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;INI Book Club:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://bookshop.org/a/8952/9780470185490" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;All The Shah's Men&lt;/a&gt; by &lt;strong&gt;Stephen Kinzer&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: &lt;a href="https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Links:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Subscribe to Your Local Epidemiologist &lt;a href="https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Follow us:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Subscribe to our newsletters at &lt;a href="https://www.importantnotimportant.com/subscribe" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;importantnotimportant.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Join us at &lt;a href="https://www.importantnotimportant.com/upgrade" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;importantnotimportant.com/upgrade&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Get our &lt;a href="https://important-not-important.myshopify.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;merch&lt;/a&gt;!&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Follow us on Threads: &lt;a href="https://www.threads.net/@importantnotimportant" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;www.threads.net/@importantnotimportant&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Subscribe to our &lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkUwIVGwYxsZHEgL2fstz9Q" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;YouTube channel&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Follow Quinn: on Twitter - &lt;a href="http://twitter.com/quinnemmett" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;twitter.com/quinnemmett&lt;/a&gt;; Bluesky - &lt;a href="https://bsky.app/profile/quinnemmett.bsky.social" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;bsky.app/profile/quinnemmett.bsky.social&lt;/a&gt;; Threads - &lt;a href="https://www.threads.net/@quinnemmett" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;www.threads.net/@quinnemmett&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Produced by &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/willowbeck_" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;Willow Beck&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Intro/outro by Tim Blane: &lt;a href="http://timblane.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;timblane.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Advertise with us: &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mentioned in this episode:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://the-most-important-question.captivate.fm/whatcanido"&gt;What Can I Do?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://the-most-important-question.captivate.fm/beehiiv"&gt;Get beehiiv&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://the-most-important-question.captivate.fm/reader"&gt;Get Reader&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>

The Most Important Question

Important, Not Important

Public Health Just Got Personal

MAR 30, 202647 MIN
The Most Important Question

Public Health Just Got Personal

MAR 30, 202647 MIN

Description

The CDC issued six health alerts in all of 2025, down from dozens in a normal year, whatever that means anymore. Measles, a disease we basically eliminated 26 years ago, is closing in on 1000 cases, with children hospitalized for brain swelling. And the people now running our top health agencies are the same people who spent years questioning the science those agencies existed to defend.But the good news is people are building new things. States are forming their own health alliances. Scientists are organizing to fight misinformation where it lives. And one epidemiologist in Texas turned a six-week email experiment in March, 2020 into one of the most trusted public health resources on the planet.So what can I do about the collapse of trusted public health communication? Today's guest is Dr. Katelyn Jetelina. Katelyn is an epidemiologist, a mom, a wife, a data scientist, and the founder of the incredibly popular Your Local Epidemiologist newsletter. It is free. She started it from our kitchen table, and it now reaches something like 310,000 subscribers in 130 plus countries. She's one of the Time 100 most influential people in health, former advisor to the White House and the CDC, and she now leads Project Stethoscope as well.We're gonna talk about how Katelyn built YLE, why the old model of top-down public health communication was always broken and is now definitely broken, and what Project Stethoscope and Phoenix are actually doing about it.-----------Have feedback? Tweet us, or send a message to [email protected] here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at podcast.importantnotimportant.com.Find every action recommended in The Most Important Question here: www.whatcanido.earth-----------INI Book Club:All The Shah's Men by Stephen KinzerFind all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-clubLinks:Subscribe to Your Local Epidemiologist https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/Follow us:Subscribe to our newsletters at importantnotimportant.comJoin us at importantnotimportant.com/upgradeGet our merch!Follow us on Threads: www.threads.net/@importantnotimportantSubscribe to our YouTube channelFollow Quinn: on Twitter - twitter.com/quinnemmett; Bluesky - bsky.app/profile/quinnemmett.bsky.social; Threads - www.threads.net/@quinnemmettProduced by Willow BeckIntro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.comAdvertise with us: importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors Mentioned in this episode:What Can I Do?Get beehiivGet Reader