Opioids Episodes

Dr. Cheryl Bettigole, Philadelphia Health Commissioner, discusses a measles outbreak that was detected in the city in early December; Grace DeLeon, ASTHO Senior Analyst for Overdose Preparedness and Response, tells us about an ASTHO report to help...

Dr. Tao Sheng Kwan-Gett, Chief Science Officer for the Washington State Department of Health, says providing doses of naloxone to many schools in the state will save lives; Molly Cotant, Deputy Director, and Laura de la Rambelje, MA, Director, both of the Division of Local Health Services and at...

Andy Baker-White, ASTHO Senior Director for State Health Policy, previews the state of the legislative calendar this year; Omar Khalid, ASTHO Director of Workforce Development, says leaders can support their teams by adopting a trauma-responsive...

Dr. Sameer Vohra, ASTHO member and director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, tells us new laws in Illinois will seek to address the deadly effects of fentanyl; Paul Schramm, health scientist for the CDC, details the far-reaching and...

Dr. Edward Simmer, director of the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, dives deep into a new state health assessment; Melissa Touma, ASTHO’s director of the Public Health Infrastructure Program, tells us how Colorado used...

Dr. Marcus Plescia, ASTHO chief medical officer, is tracking reports of respiratory illness across the U.S.; Carolyn Mullen, ASTHO senior vice president for Government Affairs and Public Relations, discusses a federal funding deadline that is quickly...

Dr. Karen Remley, ASTHO alum and director for the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities at the CDC, says early detection of birth defects is a focus in January; Dr. Anne Zink, ASTHO immediate past president and chief medical...

Tom St. Louis, Director of the Office of Public Health Workforce Development for the Connecticut Department of Public Health, tells us about the new Culture of Care initiative that aims to help staff recover from the pandemic; Amy Ciarlo, ASTHO Senior...

Dr. Cathy Slemp, Former State Health Officer for the WV Department of Health and Human Resources and now Co-Chair of the West Virginia Hope in Action Alliance, says the alliance is a group that builds collaborations focused on substance use concerns...

Dr. Joan Duwve, State Health Officer for the Kansas Department of Health, talks about the need to put equity at the center of all public health work; Dr. Puthiery Va, Director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, explains that...

Dr. Sarah Stoddard, a member of the Community Preventive Services Task Force with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, says the organization reviewed 60 studies to determine what can help prevent substance use among young people; Dr....

Adrianna Evans, ASTHO’s Director of Preparedness and Disability Integration, says cybersecurity is an emerging topic in preparedness planning; Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, Chief Medical Executive for the State of Michigan, explains that suicide...

JoAnne McClure, ASTHO Senior Analyst for State Policy, explains an ASTHO webpage that tracks legislation to authorize overdose centers in some states; Dr. Laura Chisholm, Section Manager for Injury and Violence Prevention with the Oregon Health...

Alex Wheatley, ASTHO Assistant Director of the Island Support Team, says there is an urgent need to approve agreements that continue funding for health programs in several island nations; Carolyn Mullen, ASTHO Senior Vice President for Government...

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...

Richa Ranade, ASTHO's Senior Director for Overdose Prevention, says it's encouraging to hear President Joe Biden prioritize solutions to the opioid epidemic in his State of the Union address; Dr. Christopher King, the first dean of Georgetown...

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...

Julie Wernau, Health and Science Reporter at The Wall Street Journal, says drug use sites face many hurdles even if they have local permission to operate; Dr. Anne Zink, ASTHO President, tells the Associated Press that her members are anxious to...

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...

Dr. Mark Levine, Vermont Department of Health's Commissioner of Health, discusses the opioid crisis in America and the policies his state has employed to save lives; Alicia Justice, ASTHO Senior Director of Programmatic Health Equity Initiatives and...

Dr. Umair Shah, Secretary of Health for the State of Washington, discusses a settlement with three companies the state says played a key role in driving the opioid epidemic; Donna Levin, Director of Act for Public Health, discusses the legal landscape...

Dr. Nabarun Dasgupta, Innovation Fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health, discusses a new way to get more generic Naloxone to people who need it; Colorado works with six counties to respond to...

Dr. Lisa Piercey, Tennessee’s Health Commissioner, says the increased availability of oral antiviral medications doesn’t lessen the need for vaccines to fight COVID-19; Cortney Lovell, co-founder of Our Wellness Collective, says she hopes a new...

Rachael Banks, Oregon’s Director of Public Health, says the focus on immunizations during the pandemic is a perfect opportunity to expand the public health conversation. Immunizations are one of ASTHO’s top 10 policy issues to watch in 2022;...