1050 - A Doctor Uses Social Media to Advocate for Children in Immigration Detention — Public Health On Call

About this episode:

Dr. Anita K. Patel emerged as a prominent online educator during the pandemic. Today, she's leveraging social media to advocate for the humane treatment of children in ICE detention. In this episode: her work to help detained children obtain much-needed medical attention and her advice for doctors on using social media to make a wider impact.

Guest:

Dr. Anita K. Patel is an attending physician at Children's National Medical Center and associate professor of pediatrics at George Washington University School of Medicine.

Host:

Lindsay Smith Rogers, MA, is the producer of the Public Health On Call podcast, an editor for Expert Insights, and the director of content strategy for the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Show links and related content:

The Children of Dilley—ProPublica
Pediatricians send letter to DHS demanding release of children in ICE detention—Texas Public Radio
Medical Care in Immigration Detention—Public Health On Call (October 2025)
How Social Media is Changing the Way We Talk About Health—Public Health On Call (March 2026)

Transcript information:

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