Improving Your COVID IQ with Dr. Mohammed Reza
05/26/21 • 37 min
This week we spoke with Dr. Mohammed Reza, a Bangladeshi-American infectious disease doctor in north Florida, where COVID variants and vaccine reluctance both run rampant.
During this pandemic, Dr. Mo (as his patients call him) has been thrust into the local limelight as an unwitting community educator. Despite his schooling, credibility, and experience, he was a bit surprised to become the trusted face of coronavirus intel in his hometown, performing over 100 interviews. Perhaps because the day after Trump took office he was ordered to go back to his country while buying his staff donuts.
Regardless, an authority he is, and he breaks down mutations of the virus, the reason India is currently in crisis, and what we know we don’t know. Myths about vaccines are dispelled. Our government is given a letter grade for their COVID response.
Along with a psychologist and a tech friend, Dr. Mo co-founded CovidIQ early last year—a free tracking system that identified potential hot spots quicker than tests could. Despite the number of physicians involved and time and money they volunteered, politics and cost curtailed the project. Many states didn’t want to know the rate of infection or be told when to wear (or not wear) masks, it turns out.
We speak about minorities having the highest rates of disease and the worst access to care in this country, along with some appalling stats. On the flip side, Dr. Mo shares his approach to patients and bedside manner (will you be our doctor?). Furthermore, we cover poignant anecdotes of his family’s humble beginnings and the reason he decided to go into medicine: a harrowing story about traveling from Bangladesh to Singapore at 18 to try to save his father’s life, which dwarves every challenge we’ve ever faced. Finally, we offer you the lessons his multicultural family preaches: Be good to others, regardless of their background. And celebrate every holiday.
American Muslim Project is a production of Rifelion, LLC.
Writer and Researcher: Lindsy Gamble
Show Edited by Mark Annotto and Asad Butt
Music by Simon Hutchinson
Hosted by Asad Butt
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
This week we spoke with Dr. Mohammed Reza, a Bangladeshi-American infectious disease doctor in north Florida, where COVID variants and vaccine reluctance both run rampant.
During this pandemic, Dr. Mo (as his patients call him) has been thrust into the local limelight as an unwitting community educator. Despite his schooling, credibility, and experience, he was a bit surprised to become the trusted face of coronavirus intel in his hometown, performing over 100 interviews. Perhaps because the day after Trump took office he was ordered to go back to his country while buying his staff donuts.
Regardless, an authority he is, and he breaks down mutations of the virus, the reason India is currently in crisis, and what we know we don’t know. Myths about vaccines are dispelled. Our government is given a letter grade for their COVID response.
Along with a psychologist and a tech friend, Dr. Mo co-founded CovidIQ early last year—a free tracking system that identified potential hot spots quicker than tests could. Despite the number of physicians involved and time and money they volunteered, politics and cost curtailed the project. Many states didn’t want to know the rate of infection or be told when to wear (or not wear) masks, it turns out.
We speak about minorities having the highest rates of disease and the worst access to care in this country, along with some appalling stats. On the flip side, Dr. Mo shares his approach to patients and bedside manner (will you be our doctor?). Furthermore, we cover poignant anecdotes of his family’s humble beginnings and the reason he decided to go into medicine: a harrowing story about traveling from Bangladesh to Singapore at 18 to try to save his father’s life, which dwarves every challenge we’ve ever faced. Finally, we offer you the lessons his multicultural family preaches: Be good to others, regardless of their background. And celebrate every holiday.
American Muslim Project is a production of Rifelion, LLC.
Writer and Researcher: Lindsy Gamble
Show Edited by Mark Annotto and Asad Butt
Music by Simon Hutchinson
Hosted by Asad Butt
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Previous Episode
Telling Our Own Story with Qasim Rashid
Qasim Rashid has held many roles—human rights lawyer, prolific writer, media consultant, political candidate, volunteer prison chaplain, avid Tweeter—one of which his wife convinced him to pursue. He joins us on American Muslim Project to discuss his newest book, how he got to where he is today, and advocating for a more compassionate tomorrow.
We dive in with Ramadan 2021, a remarkable one given COVID and the current state of Palestinians and Uyghurs. Shared IHOP reminiscences make an appearance. Qasim outlines the theology behind Ahmadi Muslims, the minority faith he is an active member of. We discuss the motivations behind his long-rejected debut children's book, Hannah and the Ramadan Gift, and the moment his four-year-old daughter saw herself on the cover. Are we any closer to normalizing Islam in the United States?
Qasim touches on other varied topics he’s well-informed on, all with eloquence and humility. How the reality of American Muslims building this country and fighting in every war needs to be more deliberately communicated; the potential positives of being trolled, which he calls collateral education; helping our nation become a more perfect union and making the American Dream accessible to all; the number of times he was pulled over by police post-9/11.... We’re moved by his embodiment of humanity, present in his many, many actions, constantly asserted beliefs, and showing compassion just for compassion’s sake.
Follow Qasim on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook @qasimrashid. Pick up his recent children’s book, Hannah and the Ramadan Gift, illustrated by Aaliya Jaleel. Or check out his numerous articles on https://qasimrashid.com and nonfiction books, The Wrong Kind of Muslim: An Untold Story of Persecution & Perseverance, EXTREMIST: A Response to Geert Wilders & Terrorists Everywhere, and Talk To Me: Changing the Narrative on Race, Religion, & Education.
American Muslim Project is a production of Rifelion, LLC.
Writer and Researcher: Lindsy Gamble
Show Edited by Mark Annotto and Asad Butt
Music by Simon Hutchinson
Hosted by Asad Butt
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Next Episode
A Focus on Palestinians with Dr. Maha Nassar
Dr. Maha Nassar, a Palestinian American professor and expert on Arab cultural and intellectual history, shares her insights on Palestinians.
Naturally, we ask her to address the horrific situation in Israel and the Gaza Strip over the past few weeks. She enlightens us on several key points, including how the conflict is truly an anti-colonialist struggle, how the youngest Palestinians in Israel identify themselves, and how Palestinians have been covered by major U.S. news outlets the last several decades. [Spoiler alert: Very few articles written about Palestinians are actually by a Palestinian.] Find out why bias in major news outlets may matter less now.
Maha shares the impetus behind her award-winning book, Brothers Apart: Palestinian Citizens of Israel and the Arab World, as well as details from her 2007 trip to Palestine that turned “really icky.” After learning of the de facto segregation in neighborhoods and schools in Israel, we dive into a fascinating if not disturbing comparison to Jim Crow laws. You may also be surprised to hear about Black Lives Matter leaders studying structural suppression and institutional violence in Palestine, and American police forces attending trainings in Israel. How murals of George Floyd can be found across Palestine, where they too hope to translate the present online momentum into real change. Naturally, we finish with Maha’s predictions on how this all ends.
Follow Maha on Twitter @mtnassar and read her unsettling article documenting how opinion pieces about Palestinians in the US mainstream media are overwhelmingly written by non-Palestinians. Check out her first book, Brothers Apart, and upcoming book, The Palestinians: A Global History, on the construction of Palestinian identity under statelessness and transnational dispersal.
American Muslim Project is a production of Rifelion, LLC.
Writer and Researcher: Lindsy Gamble
Show Edited by Mark Annotto and Asad Butt
Music by Simon Hutchinson
Hosted by Asad Butt
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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