Who’s at Risk?

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:05 — 1.5MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Anchor lead: The pandemic brings to light health burdens that have been around for some time, Elizabeth Tracey reports

Deaths from Covid-19 continue to rise, and people with existing cardiovascular disease remain in a heightened risk group. Garima Sharma, a cardiologist at Johns Hopkins, says this fact points to cardiovascular disease as an ongoing problem.

Sharma: It puts into context the overall burden of cardiovascular disease that we’re dealing with in our country. I mean let’s not forget that. Even during Covid the largest killer still is cardiovascular disease. Trials like this ground us in some ways to the reality of working in a post-pandemic world, where you’ll have Covid, and that will kind of just hang out in the background, and you’re still dealing with cardiovascular deaths, day to day cardiovascular issues. Because of this controversy it helps us not lose sight of what has been an underlying problem for decades.  :33

Sharma says the best strategy remains prevention, and notes that reducing one’s risk for cardiovascular disease is largely within an individual’s control. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.