COVID-19 Episodes

March 8, 2023

372: Pew Polls PH Officials, ASTHO Meets the Administration

Alec Tyson, Associate Director of Research at the PEW Research Center, previews a survey of Americans’ views of public health officials and their handling of the COVID-19 pandemic; Dr. Anne Zink, ASTHO President and Chief Medical Officer for the...
March 7, 2023

371: Tracking COVID Deaths, Building a Justice Movement

Dr. Jonathan Levy, Chair of the Department of Environmental Health with the Boston University School of Public Health, has new research that says white people in Massachusetts now are more likely to die from COVID than black or Hispanic people in the...
Feb. 24, 2023

364: Illinois’ COVID-19 Experience, Khaldun’s Equity Plan for CVS

Dr. Sameer Vorha, Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, is taking note of the disparities laid bare by COVID-19 in a new guest column written for the Chicago Sun-Times; Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, Vice President and Chief Health Equity...
Feb. 23, 2023

363: Live to the Beat Campaign, Pandemic Take-Away

Kinetra Joseph, Campaign Director for the CDC Foundation, says the Foundation’s Live to the Beat initiative has had a successful first year; Dr. Christopher King, Dean of the Georgetown University School of Health, spent much of his career studying...
Feb. 13, 2023

356: New York’s Opioid Partnerships, Arizona’s Mobile Vaccination Clinics

Dr. Jim McDonald, New York State Acting Health Commissioner, says partnerships with people in local communities are key to the state's response to the opioid crisis; Siman Qaasim, Health Equity Administrator for the Arizona Department of Health...
Feb. 10, 2023

355: Healthy Aging Strategies, Helping Make Sense of Public Health

Claire Pendergrast, ASTHO Senior Analyst for Health Improvement and Healthy Aging, has new research outlining five key strategies ASTHO members can use to promote healthy aging in their jurisdictions; Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, an epidemiologist, created...
Feb. 8, 2023

353: Community Vaccination Push, Campaign for Safer Communities

Ernia Hughes, Director of the Office of Health Center Investment Oversight with the Health Resources and Services Administration, says her organization hopes to boost COVID-19 vaccination rates with grants to more than 1,400 community health centers...
Feb. 1, 2023

348: WSJ on Fentanyl Dangers, COVID Emergency Ending

Julie Wernau, Health and Science Reporter at The Wall Street Journal, has been reporting on the opioid crisis for more than a year but says it’s still a difficult story to write; Andy Baker-White, ASTHO Senior Director of State Health Policy, says...
Jan. 30, 2023

346: Federal Budget Partners, Rural Telehealth Strategies

Carolyn Mullen, ASTHO Senior Vice President of Government Affairs and Public Relations, is keeping an eye on the budget wrangling taking place on Capitol Hill; Ashley Cram, with ASTHO, explains how ASTHO members are working to help people in rural...
Jan. 27, 2023

345: Promoting PH Lab Positions, Annual COVID Shots

Dr. Christine Bean, Chief Learning Officer at the Association of Public Health Laboratories, talks about recruiting candidates into laboratory positions on ASTHO’s new jobs website, ; Dr. Nirav Shah, ASTHO Immediate Past President and Director of...
Jan. 26, 2023

344: Maine Loves Dr. Shah, Territories Moving Forward

Dr. Nirav Shah, ASTHO Immediate Past President and Director of the Maine Center for Disease Control, reflects on his work in the state of Maine as he readies for his next job as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's number two in charge;...
Jan. 19, 2023

339: Messonnier’s COVID Reflections, Equity Tops Pandemic Lessons

Dr. Nancy Messonnier, Dean of the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health, reflects on the COVID-19 pandemic with her unique perspective as a top CDC official at the time; Dr. John Wiesman, former Washington State...
Jan. 18, 2023

338: Medicaid Cliff, Global View for Public Health

Carolyn McCoy, ASTHO Senior Director of Federal Government Affairs, shares the good news that Congress has addressed Medicaid funding concerns that have plagued the U.S. territories for years; Dr. Jay Butler, former ASTHO President, is thinking about...
Jan. 10, 2023

333: COVID-19 Booster Strategy, Medicaid Policies

Dr. Marcus Plescia, ASTHO Chief Medical Officer, says public health agencies are increasing the focus on COVID-19 boosters for those living in nursing homes and other care settings; Alex Kearly, ASTHO's Director of Medicaid and Value Based Payment,...
Jan. 9, 2023

332: Public Health Polling, Flu Vaccine Strategies

Dr. Meredith Li-Vollmer, Risk Communication Manager for the Seattle and King County Public Health Department, says polling data helped agencies better understand community attitudes and opinions during the pandemic; Shalini Nair, ASTHO Senior Analyst...