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A series examining how the U.S. public health front lines have been left understaffed and ill-prepared to save us from the coronavirus pandemic. The project is a collaboration between 麻豆女优 Health News and the AP.
Public health officials are confronting growing pressure 鈥 and threats 鈥 across the country as the backlash to the coronavirus response continues. At least 27 state and local health leaders have resigned, retired or been fired since April across 13 states.
At least 181 public health leaders in 38 states have resigned, retired or been fired amid the turmoil of the pandemic.
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At least 26 states have passed laws to permanently limit public health powers, a KHN investigation has found, weakening the country鈥檚 ability to fight not only the current resurgence of the pandemic but other health crises to come.
Congress has poured tens of billions of dollars into public health since last year. While health officials who have juggled bare-bones budgets for years are grateful for the money, they worry it will soon dry up, just as it has after previous crises such as 9/11, SARS and Ebola. Meanwhile, they continue to cope with an exodus from the field amid political pressure and exhaustion that meant 1 in 6 Americans lost their local health department leader.
Prince George鈥檚 County in Maryland is taking action after a coronavirus outbreak left veteran public health worker Chantee Mack dead and several colleagues with lasting medical problems. But some staffers say more still needs to be done to keep public health workers on the front lines of the COVID fight safe.
Catalyzed by the paltry response to the pandemic and the inequities it is causing, people are flocking to graduate programs in public health to become the next front-line workers.
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom expanded a confidential address program to public health officials in the wake of ongoing threats made against them tied to pandemic safety precautions such as masks and stay-at-home orders.
KHN Midwest editor and correspondent Laura Ungar appeared on Spectrum News and Fox 35 Orlando to discuss cuts to Florida鈥檚 public health system that have hampered its response to the coronavirus pandemic.
As the nation awaits a vaccine to end the pandemic, local health departments say they lack the staff, money, tools 鈥 and a unified plan 鈥 to distribute, administer and track millions of vaccines, most of which will require two doses. Dozens of doctors, nurses and health officials interviewed by KHN and The Associated Press expressed their concern and frustration over federal shortcomings.
As the nation hollowed out its public health infrastructure for decades, staffing and funding fell faster and further in Florida. Then the coronavirus ran roughshod, infecting more than half a million people and killing thousands.
Congress has allocated trillions of dollars to ease the coronavirus crisis. A joint KHN and AP investigation finds that many communities with big outbreaks have spent little of that federal money on local public health departments for work such as testing and contact tracing.
A review by KHN and the Associated Press finds at least 49 state and local public health leaders have resigned, retired or been fired since April across 23 states. One of the latest departures came Sunday, when California鈥檚 public health director was ousted.
The disease intervention specialist at the Prince George鈥檚 County Health Department was among at least 20 department employees infected by the coronavirus, union officials say. The outbreak underscores the stark dangers facing the nation鈥檚 front-line public health army.
We鈥檙e releasing our public health infrastructure data on Github for journalists, researchers and interested readers to use.
KHN Midwest correspondent Lauren Weber joined Texas Public Radio鈥檚 David Martin Davies on 鈥淭he Source鈥 show to talk about the politicization of public health during the COVID pandemic.
As the coronavirus threatens the nation鈥檚 public health army, an outbreak in Maryland reflects the tension between serving the community and protecting workers from a deadly disease.
Health departments and other public agencies tasked with protecting the nation from disease-carrying mosquitoes are overstretched amid the coronavirus pandemic 鈥 even as the nation is told it鈥檚 safest to be outside.
The former West Virginia public health leader forced out by the governor says decades-old computer systems and cuts to staff over a period of years had made a challenging job even harder during a once-in-a-century pandemic.
The U.S. public health system has been starved for decades and lacks the resources necessary to confront the worst health crisis in a century. An investigation by The Associated Press and KHN has found that since 2010, spending for state public health departments has dropped by 16% per capita and for local health departments by 18%. At least 38,000 public health jobs have disappeared, leaving a skeletal workforce for what was once viewed as one of the world鈥檚 top public health systems. That has left the nation unprepared to deal with a virus that has sickened at least 2.6 million people and killed more than 126,000.
To assess the state of the public health system in the United States, KHN and The Associated Press analyzed data on government spending and staffing at national, state and local levels. Here's what data we used and how we did it.
KHN and The Associated Press sought to understand how decades of cuts to public health departments by federal, state and local governments has affected the system meant to protect the nation鈥檚 health. Here are six key takeaways from the KHN-AP investigation.
California Healthline senior correspondent Anna Maria Barry-Jester joined KQED鈥檚 Lily Jamali on 鈥淭he California Report鈥 and Alison St John on KPBS鈥 鈥淢idday Edition鈥 to discuss the threats that public health workers are facing as they enact pandemic protections.
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