Most states have cut back public health powers amid pandemic
September 15, 2021 GMTRepublican legislators in more than half of U.S. states, spurred on by voters angry about lockdowns and mask mandates, are taking away the powers that state and local officials use to protect the public against infectious diseases.
Pandemic backlash jeopardizes public health powers, leaders
December 11, 2020 GMTTisha Coleman has lived in close-knit Linn County, Kansas, for 42 years and never felt so alone.
As the public health administrator, she’s struggled every day of Public health officials work to keep the nation safe and healthy, overseeing everything from water inspections to childhood immunizations...In their own words: Public health officials on front line
December 15, 2020 GMT
Largest colleges push student vaccines with mandates, prizes
September 15, 2021 GMTSTORRS, Conn. (AP) — As a new semester begins amid a resurgence of the coronavirus, 26 of the 50 largest public university campuses in the U.S.
Public health programs see surge in students amid pandemic
November 17, 2020 GMTPROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — As the novel coronavirus emerged in the news in January, Sarah Keeley was working as a medical scribe and considering what to do with her biology degree...
Politics slows flow of US virus funds to local public health
August 17, 2020 GMTAs the novel coronavirus began to spread through Minneapolis this spring, Health Commissioner Gretchen Musicant tore up her budget to find funds to combat the crisis...
Health officials are quitting or getting fired amid outbreak
August 10, 2020 GMTPROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Vilified, threatened with violence and in some cases suffering from burnout, dozens of state and local public health leaders around the U...
County pledges probe into health worker’s coronavirus death
August 4, 2020 GMTOfficials in a Maryland county say they “will spare no time or expense” investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of a veteran public health worker who died of COVID-19 after relatives and coworkers believe she contracted the virus on the job...
Virus hits frontline workers in taxed public health system
July 21, 2020 GMTAs a veteran public health worker, Chantee Mack knew the coronavirus could kill. She already faced health challenges and didn’t want to take any chances during the pandemic...
Mosquitoes flying free as health departments focus on virus
July 16, 2020 GMTBug spray, swollen welts, citronella. It’s mosquito season.
And in a normal year, the health department serving Ohio’s Delaware County would be setting out more than 90 mosquito traps a week — black tubs of stagnant water with nets designed to ensnare the little buggers...
Exclusive: Ex-WVa health chief says cuts hurt virus response
July 10, 2020 GMTCHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — 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...
Public health workers fighting virus face growing threats
June 12, 2020 GMTEmily Brown was stretched thin.
As the director of the Rio Grande County Public Health Department in rural Colorado, she was working 12- and 14-hour days, struggling to respond to the pandemic with only five full-time employees for more than 11,000 residents...
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