722: NM Heat Dashboard, Vaccination Misinformation Continues

JANSON SILVERS: 

This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Tuesday, August 6, 2024. I'm Janson Silvers. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

CHELSEA LANGER 

The Heat Dashboard came about because last year, especially with it being so hot here, we realized there was really a need for and want for near real time data.

SILVERS: 

Dr. Chelsea Langer, program manager for the Environmental Health Program at the New Mexico Department of Health, explains the capabilities of the department's heat dashboard.

LANGER 

So you can look at statewide. You can look at it by region. It also has the maximum and minimum temperatures, so either statewide or also by region. And then if you click through, you can see the year over year incidents. So, you can see how we're comparing this year to last year, and it goes back to 2019, which is when this particular data source really became stable for our state.

SILVERS: 

Langer says the dashboard is a great resource for people across the state, but only if they know it exists honestly.

LANGER 

I think our best effort at getting it out to the general public has been through the media. It's been mentioned in a few news articles in both Santa Fe and Albuquerque papers, as well as NPR Albuquerque station mentioned it last week after there was an extreme heat summit.

SILVERS: 

The New Mexico Department of Health is also taking other steps to make sure everyone is safe.

LANGER 

So we have urban heat maps for 26 cities and towns around the state, and they are publicly available on the tracking portal, with the idea that, like city planners and emergency planners can use these when thinking about like cooling shelters and thinking about where in the city or town people would be more impacted by heat.

SILVERS: 

You can take a look at the dashboard for yourself by using the link in the show notes.

As measles continues to pop up in headlines. Amy Maxmen, a public health correspondent with KFF News, wanted to take a deeper look at vaccinations.

AMY MAXMEN 

Why are people declining to get vaccination and just sort of looking at this world of misinformation? And at first it was like, Okay, let's look at measles vaccination. But when I was looking, I was immediately just struck. I was reminded so much of Covid misinformation.

SILVERS: 

Maxmen says the talking points of misinformation now are very similar to the talking points of misinformation that have been used for years.

MAXMEN 

The details might change slightly, but the kind of things that you know, those sort of spreading misinformation, or arguing against vaccines, the things they were saying actually fell along the same exact lines that they did for Covid, but also that they had for decades prior.

SILVERS: 

Maximen advises public health leaders to continue speaking to people face to face to make a real difference.

MAXMEN 

I feel like sometimes we underestimate the power of conversations with people. They're a lot more time consuming and difficult. It's a lot easier to say, like, post something on a website, or, you know, post something on Twitter. I feel like, if we think about the person who really is just concerned for their kid, you know, you kind of think about what you might do in any other circumstance, in trying to talk with anyone about anything you might disagree about.

SILVERS: 

Maxmen's article is online now. You can find it by using the link in the show notes.

There are numerous health drivers for public health and healthcare, and a new ASTHO resource dives into them. O'Keyla Cooper has more.

O'KEYLA COOPER: 

A new ASTHO report outlines the development of cross-sector, or health in all policies working groups, to address health drivers from both within and outside public health and healthcare. The document details components, partners, and roles of these groups to facilitate replication across the nation, tackling complex health challenges at state and local levels. Download the PDF from the link in the show notes.

SILVERS: 

Finally, today, make sure you stay up to date with the latest happening in your jurisdictions and in Washington, D.C. by signing up for ASTHO's legislative alerts. There's a link to get in the know in the show notes.

That'll do it for today. We're back tomorrow morning with more ASTHO news and information.

I'm Janson Silvers. You're listening to the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition.

Have a great day.