COVID-19 Episodes

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…
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, forme…
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 Pr…
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 …
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 …
Jan. 6, 2023

331: Vaccine Hesitancy Study, Diabetes in Palau

Dr. Kimberly Martin, a President’s Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of California San Francisco, says black people likely avoid COVID-19 vaccines because of their distrust of the healthcare system; Antonnette Merur, Ch…
Dec. 20, 2022

327: COVID Impacts Top Issues in 2023

Mike Fraser, ASTHO CEO, discusses the purpose of the organization’s annual legislative series which identifies the top 10 public health issues to watch in the new year; Dr. Dan Edney, State Health Officer for the Mississippi…
Dec. 15, 2022

324: Vaccine Anniversary

Brent Ewig, Chief Policy and Government Relations Officer for the Association of Immunization Managers, marks the second anniversary of COVID-19 vaccines this week; Jamie Pina, ASTHO Vice President of Public Health Data Mode…
Oct. 25, 2022

290: Healthy Aging Policy Trends

Claire Pendergrast, ASTHO Senior Analyst for Health Improvement and Healthy Aging, discusses a survey of healthy aging policy actions enacted across the states and territories; Dr. LeQuandra Nesbitt, former Director of the D…
Oct. 21, 2022

288: ACIP Immunization Decisions Explained

In a special episode of the newscast, Dr. Marcus Plescia, ASTHO’s Chief Medical Officer, explains the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices decision earlier this week. The committee voted Thursday to add pediatr…
Oct. 18, 2022

285: COVID-19 Spending Oversight

Jeffrey Ekoma, ASTHO’s Senior Director of Government Affairs, says oversight of COVID-19 spending might increase if midterm elections lead to change in U.S. House leadership ; Heidi Westermann, ASTHO’s Director of Public Hea…
Oct. 14, 2022

283: New National Children’s Health Survey

Chrissie Juliano, Executive Director of the Big Cities Health Coalition, is joined by local public health directors to discuss public interest in the new COVID-19 booster; ASTHO is working with the National Community Action …
Oct. 11, 2022

280: Promoting the New COVID-19 Booster

Dr. Sameer Vohra, Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, explains how he is working to convince more people to get the new COVID-19 booster shot; ASTHO CEO Mike Fraser attends a White House Summit on Indoor Ai…
Oct. 6, 2022

278: How to Push Back on STDs

Dr. Leandro Mena, Director of the Division of STD Prevention at the CDC, discusses the latest preliminary data that counts 2.5 million reported cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis last year; Reyna Olaguez, Executive …
Sept. 23, 2022

269: Urging COVID-19 Booster Uptake

Dr. Steven Stack, ASTHO President-Elect, discusses the new COVID-19 booster designed to protect against the latest variants; Dr. Anne Zink, ASTHO President, explains the need to bring health care and public health closer tog…