Salma M Abdalla

Welcome to Complicating the Narrative.

I'm your host, Salma Abdallah.

Right now, there is an Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo that has led to the largest number of cases and deaths in the shortest period of any Ebola outbreak on the record.

There was a stretch of news coverage in the spring, and then it mostly disappeared from the headlines, even as the situation on the ground kept getting worse.

So today, we talk about the outbreak in Congo, What he learned about the values people are weighing when they take decisions we don't expect.

And what he thinks that means for public health in the U.S. Craig, welcome to the podcast.

Salma, thanks so much for having me on.

So just a bit of a disclaimer.

Welcome to Complicating the Narrative, a podcast that takes on the challenging questions in public health by embracing complexity rather than avoiding it.

I'm your host, Salma Abdullah.

Most of what we know about health systems, we know from the supply side.

We count the number of clinics, healthcare providers, drugs, and beds a certain area needs, and then we build health system strategies around those numbers.

They don't necessarily have a positive view of the system.

Yeah, 100%.

It's almost like you've read some of our work, Salma, but absolutely.

Yeah, this is actually a truism in the health systems research space that when you start to ask people, their level of support and satisfaction declines the farther the kid away from their own provider.