COVID-19 Episodes

March 22, 2023

382: Suicide Rates Climbing, Mental Health Funding Opportunities

Deborah Stone, Behavioral Scientist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, explains that after two consecutive years of declines, U.S. suicide rates increased in 2021, nearly returning to their 2018 peak; Hanna…
March 21, 2023

381: Pandemic Polling, Ending the PH Emergency

Alyssa Boyea, ASTHO Director for Infectious Disease Preparedness, highlights resources to help public health agencies improve their COVID-19 communication and messaging approaches; Dr. Anne Zink, ASTHO President and Chief Me…
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…
March 17, 2023

379: Changes to Emergency Powers, Hill Gives ASTHO Recess Homework

Gregory Sunshine, Public Health Analyst with the Centers for Disease Control, explains how state and territorial emergency powers have shifted during the COVID-19 pandemic; and Carolyn Mullen, ASTHO Senior Vice President of …
March 15, 2023

377: Lingering Pandemic Impacts, Screening for Syphilis

Dr. Scott Harris, State Health Officer for Alabama Public Health, addresses the startling statistic that there have been more deaths in Alabama than births for two straight years; Nada Hassanein, Health Inequities Reporter f…
March 13, 2023

375: PH Communications Poll, Cultivating Gen Z Advocates

Alec Tyson, Associate Director of Research at Pew Research Center, explains the results of a recent poll that confirms the challenges public health agencies had communicating pandemic decisions; Emily Dore, Director of Polic…
March 10, 2023

374: New COVID-19 Dashboard, Biden’s Proposed Budget

Carolyn Mullen, ASTHO Senior Vice President for Government Affairs and Public Relations, works through the numbers of President Biden’s proposed budget to evaluate the impact on public health funding and programs in this wee…
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 Me…
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…
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…
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 muc…
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 …
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, a…
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…
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 St…