Health Policy Update Episodes

April 27, 2023

408: Childhood Toxic Stress, Encouraging Exercise

Dr. Nathaniel Harnett, Assistant Professor at The Harvard Medical School, discusses findings from his study connecting early childhood stress to mental health problems; Dr. Alison Cuellar, Chair of the Community Preventive Services Task Force and a...
March 27, 2023

385: ASTHO Budget Pitch, Workforce Policy Approaches

Dr. Anne Zink, ASTHO President and Alaska Chief Medical Officer, testifies before a House appropriations subcommittee in Washington D.C. seeking sustainable and flexible public health funding; Maggie Davis, ASTHO’s Director of State Health Policy,...
March 20, 2023

380: Immunization Exemption Strategies, Island Area Funding Pitch

Heather Tomlinson, ASTHO Senior Analyst for Immunizations, reminds us in an ASTHO blog article that there are strategies to reduce the impact of non-medical immunization exemptions; the CDC has added COVID-19 vaccinations to its immunization schedule...
March 6, 2023

370: ASTHO Leaders Convene, Flavored Tobacco Legislation

Amber Williams, ASTHO Senior Vice President for Leadership & Organizational Performance, says ASTHO members have a busy schedule of meetings with Biden Administration and Congressional officials in Washington, D.C. this week; Parker Beene, ASTHO...
Feb. 27, 2023

365: “Unacceptable” Maternal Mortality Rates, Mounting a Vaccination Defense

Dr. Daniel Edney, State Health Officer for the Mississippi State Department of Health, has studied the data in Mississippi’s latest Maternal Mortality Report and says the rates are unacceptable; Heather Tomlinson, ASTHO Senior Analyst for...
Feb. 21, 2023

361: RSV Immunization Considered, Making CPR and AEDs More Common

Dr. Christopher Rizzo, Senior U.S. Medical Director for Sanofi, is working on a passive immunization for RSV that could help protect young infants from the virus; Lana McKinney, ASTHO Senior Policy Analyst for State Health Policy, encourages ASTHO...
Feb. 6, 2023

351: A Reporter’s Drug Strategy, Childcare is Public Health

Julie Wernau, Health and Science Reporter at The Wall Street Journal, has spent the last year reporting on the opioid crisis and offers some advice for public health; Shannon Vance, ASTHO Senior Analyst for Family & Child Health, says the difficulty...
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. 23, 2023

341: Investing in PH, Protecting Children

Dr. Nancy Messonnier, Dean of the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, says there's still a need for sustained investment in public health three years after the pandemic; Beth Giambrone, ASTHO Senior Analyst for State Health Policy, explains...
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...