The President Who Cried Swine Flu (1976) w/ Jim Hamblin

It’s October 14th. This day in 1976, President Ford invited cameras into the White House as he got his vaccination for the influenza strain that was commonly referred to as “swine flu.” It was part of a big effort from the White House to avoid a health disaster — a pandemic that never actually came to pass.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Dr. James Hamblin to talk about the swine flu response, whether political factors played into the administration’s response, and the parallels to the current pandemic.

Check out Jim’s new free newsletter “The Body,” and his books “Clean” and “If Our Bodies Could Talk.”

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Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Brittani Brown, Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Julie Shapiro, Executive Producer at Radiotopia