On Thursday, the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) announced its 2021 Innovative Practice Award Winners. The award recognizes programs developed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrating effective community partnerships and collaboration, adaptability and program resilience, and innovation. 33 local health departments received this recognition with eight Gold Awardees, five Silver…
Read More »On Wednesday, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. directed the U.S. Intelligence Community to “redouble” their efforts to collect and analyze information on the origins of the COVID-19 virus. President Biden indicated the Intelligence Community earlier this month provided him with a preliminary report in which the Intelligence Community coalesced around two likely scenarios of how…
Read More »This week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), announced the issuance of $4.8 billion from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to support the HRSA COVID-19 Uninsured Program. The funding will allow the program to continue reimbursing health providers for testing uninsured individuals for…
Read More »Earlier this week, the U.S. Senate confirmed Chiquita Brooks-LaSure as Administrator of the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on a bipartisan 55-44 vote. Ms. Brooks-LaSure was then sworn into her new role by U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra on Thursday. Brooks-LaSure becomes the first Black woman to lead the…
Read More »According to a poll conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, a large majority of the public favors substantially increasing federal spending on improving the nation’s public health programs. A similar majority believes the activities of public health agencies in the…
Read More »The Big Cities Health Coalition (BCHC) and the Prevention Institute recently issued a reported entitled, “Community Safety Realized: Public Health Pathways to Preventing Violence.” The report is designed to support health departments and other organizations in work to prevent and address violence in communities. According to BCHC and the Prevention Institute, risk factors for violence,…
Read More »The Office of the California Surgeon General and California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) will host a webinar on Wednesday, June 2, at 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm to share information about the Science of Adverse Childhood Experiences and Toxic Stress. The webinar will feature how ACEs and toxic stress can impact our biology,…
Read More »The Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative, a joint effort between the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), Injury and Violence Prevention Branch (IVPB) and the California Department of Social Services (CDSS), Office of Child Abuse Prevention (OCAP) recently released a new resource entitled, “Creating Safe, Stable, and Nurturing Relationships and Environments for Children.” The resource…
Read More »The Healthy Aging Initiative of the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) is hosting a virtual event on Thursday, June 24 from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm. The convening will feature keynote speaker Dr. Reginald Tucker-Seeley, ScD, Assistant Professor of Gerontology at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, to discuss an organizational framework for…
Read More »Governor Gavin Newsom’s May Revise Budget, released last week, did not include any new, ongoing funding for investments in public health infrastructure and workforce, despite the state’s record-breaking surplus of $75.75 billion. The California Can’t Wait Coalition, comprising local health officials, local leaders, frontline workers, and health equity advocates, this week continued its budget advocacy…
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