Overdose Prevention Episodes

Aug. 8, 2023

477: PH-HERO Set to Grow, Dialysis Patient Voices

Omar Khalid, ASTHO’s Director of Workforce Development, explains the expansion of ASTHO’s Public Health – Hope, Equity, Resilience, and Opportunity (PH-HERO) initiative; Erin Laird, ASTHO’s Director of Emerging Infections, says preventing...
Aug. 3, 2023

474: Overdose Strategies, Pregnancy Risk Data

Victoria Pless, ASTHO’s Assistant Director of Social and Behavioral Health, explains recommendations states can use to reduce overdoses; Stephany Strahle, with ASTHO’s Family and Child Health team, says updating public health surveillance systems...
July 5, 2023

453: REPLAY: Dealing with Xylazine, Island Care for Veterans

This special edition revisits Episode 386 of Public Health Review Morning Edition from March 28th.   Dr. Daniel Edney, State Health Officer for the Mississippi State Department of Health, discusses the dangers of Xylazine, a strong tranquilizer,...
April 26, 2023

407: Disaster Response Getting Better, Leadership Diversity

Maggie Nilz, ASTHO’s Senior Analyst of Preparedness and Disability Integration, says preparedness is important to public health; the annual Preparedness Summit is ongoing in Atlanta; Dr. Kandi Fredere, Upstate Regional Health Director for the South...
March 2, 2023

368: Island Health Push, Ending the X Waiver

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...
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. 9, 2023

354: Biden’s Opioid Message, Georgetown’s New Health Dean

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...
Feb. 2, 2023

349: Safe Drug Use Sites, Toxic Pandemic Stress

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...
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...
Dec. 21, 2022

328: Opioids, Equity, and the Medicaid Cliff

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...
Nov. 8, 2022

300: New Tool for Suicide, Overdose, ACEs

Caitlin Langhorne Griffith, ASTHO’s Director of Behavioral Health, unveils a new public health tool known as SPACECAT, or Suicide, Overdose and Adverse Childhood Experiences Prevention Capacity Assessment Tool; Talyah Sands, ASTHO Director of Health...
Nov. 7, 2022

299: Pediatric Respiratory Cases Cause Concern

Dr. Anne Zink, ASTHO President, releases a statement addressing the response to a spike in respiratory infections; Dr. Jose Romero, Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC, addresses the latest concerns...
Sept. 2, 2022

255: New Naloxone Strategy

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...
Aug. 31, 2022

253: Breastfeeding Policies

Deborah Backman, ASTHO’s Senior Analyst for Maternal and Infant Health, calls attention to policies in place to protect breastfeeding during National Breastfeeding Month; Dr. Gary Anthone, Chief Medical Officer and Director of Public Health for the...
Aug. 9, 2022

237: New School Year, New COVID-19 Strategy

Dr. Manisha Juthani, Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Public Health, discusses the state’s plan to help schools deal with COVID-19 this fall and how it is different than past years; the CDC has a website for back-to-school public health...
Nov. 2, 2021

59: Today’s Vaccine Vote

Dr. LaQuandra Nesbitt, Director of the Washington D.C. Department of Health, addresses the importance of answering parents’ questions about COVID-19 vaccines for children; Dr. Lee Norman, Secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment,...
Oct. 26, 2021

54: PH Workforce Crisis

Dr. Brian Castrucci, President and CEO of the non-profit de Beaumont Foundation, considers the public health workforce crisis; Dr. Kristina Box, Indiana’s State Health Commissioner, says public health departments can help reduce stigma for pregnant...
Oct. 25, 2021

53: Grassroots Vaccination Strategy

Judith Persichilli, New Jersey’s Commissioner of Health, explains a data driven grassroots COVID-19 vaccination strategy that saved lives; New York Times journalist Danielle Ivory tells us how she would use the information in her story about public...
Aug. 31, 2021

16: Overdose Awareness and Action

Dr. Mark Levine, Vermont’s Commissioner of Health, outlines steps states and territories can take to address the alarming rise in the number of overdose deaths in the United States; Luke Tomsha, founder of The Perfectly Flawed Foundation, tells...