| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
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For example, played a huge, huge role for President Trump. | |
| He took a lot of advantage of getting in there, relying on his son, Baron Trump, which we report for the first time, you know, asking his youngest son to help with podcasting and setting up podcasts. | ||
| So he was willing to kind of, you know, do things that were different from his last campaign. | ||
| And I think in certain ways, Democrats had been running the same playbook and didn't really learn their message from or their lesson from 2020 when they did win and certainly from 2016. | ||
| But yeah, I do think that they are certainly trying to piece together what happened. | ||
| And I do think that we'll see Kamala Harris, Greta, in the future. | ||
| She's trying to decide right now if she's going to run for governor of California. | ||
| A lot of people think she might. | ||
| I think Tim Walz, we're seeing him out there a little more now. | ||
| I think that he wants to play a role in the Democratic Party. | ||
| So I think we're going to be hearing from them in the days and months to come. | ||
| Amy Parnes, a senior political correspondent at The Hill. | ||
| You can find her reporting at thehill.com and she's co-author with NBC News political reporter Jonathan Allen of the new book, Fight Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House. | ||
|
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Amy Parnes, thank you as always for talking to our audience this morning. | |
| We appreciate it. | ||
| Thanks, Greta. | ||
| We want to welcome to our table this morning Dr. Jay Nadine Gracia, who is President and CEO of Trust for America's Health, here to talk about states and public health emergency preparedness. | ||
|
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First, let's begin with your group, Trust for America's Health. | |
| What is it? | ||
| Yes, Trust for well, good morning, Greta. | ||
| It's great to be with you. | ||
| Trust for America's Health is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization based here in Washington, D.C., and we work to promote health for the American people. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
| You know, in particular, we focus on strengthening and supporting the public health system as well as advancing policies that help to promote health and well-being for every person and community. | ||
| And we're an independent organization. | ||
| We don't take government money, corporate money. | ||
| We're actually fully supported by foundations. | ||
| And so that allows us to have independence in our voice. | ||
| Nonprofit foundations, give us an example. | ||
| Yes, so we have foundations that support us, like the California Endowment, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, over the years that have supported us the Johnny Hartford Foundation as well. | ||
| Are you working with government agencies? | ||
| Yes, we do, because our role is one to really help inform policymakers, in particular federal policymakers, Congress, the White House, the executive federal agencies, to be able to advance policies that we have evidence for that show that they actually help to promote health and well-being. | ||
| You recently released your annual Ready or Not report that evaluates states' preparedness for public health emergencies. | ||
|
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21 states and the DC are in a high performance tier. | |
| 16 states, though, in a middle performance tier, and 13 states in a low performance tier. | ||
| What does that mean? | ||
| So, this ready or not reports, what it is, is it's an annual assessment of our nation's and states' preparedness for emergencies and disasters. | ||
| This is actually the 22nd edition of this annual report that we have produced that not only assesses the preparedness levels, it also provides recommendations to policymakers on how they can be able to actually strengthen emergency preparedness across the country and in their states. | ||
| The report tiers states with regards to their performance based on a set of 10 indicators, emergency preparedness indicators, things like being able to expand your health care capacity during times of emergency or expanding your public health laboratory capacity during times of emergency, vaccination, for example, flu vaccination and patient safety in hospitals, as well as issues like water security. | ||
| Every state, regardless of their performance tier, has areas that they can improve upon when we speak about emergency preparedness. | ||
| And so, as you noted, 21 states and DC placed in that high performance tier with 16 in the middle performance tier and 13 in the low performance tier. | ||
| I want to show our viewers some may be interested. | ||
| Well, where's my state? | ||
| So, let me just show you while it breaks down. | ||
| These are the 21 states in the high performance tier. | ||
| In the middle performance tier, you can see the states here by their postal code and then low performance tier. | ||
| We're talking about Alaska, Hawaii, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, South Dakota, West Virginia, and Wyoming, all in that low performance tier. | ||
| What type of emergencies do you focus on? | ||
| So, really, what this report is focusing on is what we call mostly all hazards type of approach when we speak about emergency preparedness. | ||
| There are numerous types of health threats and emergencies that we know happen every day. | ||
| That's infectious disease outbreaks, that's weather-related emergencies and other types of natural disasters, as well as bioterrorism. | ||
| And what this report is providing is really actionable data that the nation and states can be using in order to strengthen our emergency preparedness so that we're better prepared when those types of emergencies arise. | ||
| What do you look at to evaluate a state's preparedness? | ||
| So, we look at a set of 10 indicators that are associated with emergency preparedness. | ||
| Things like whether states have entered into what's called the Nurse Licensure Compact, which allows nurses to have a multi-state license so that you can expand your health care capacity. | ||
| If you're in an emergency, we often see health care systems can get quickly strained. | ||
| Being able to have quickly an ability to actually increase your health care capacity during a time of an emergency can help support your health care capacity. | ||
| Whether states have plans in place to surge their public health laboratory capacity so that they can increase the amount of testing that they do during times of emergency. | ||
| It also looks at issues like water security, you know, the percent of residents, for example, who use community water systems that are in violation of health standards. | ||
| We see in our report that the vast majority of people who have community water systems that meet the health-based standards. | ||
| It also looks at factors like use of paid time off. | ||
| We know, for example, that having access to paid time off is an important way, one, to be able to control infections, where workers can be able to stay home if they're sick. | ||
| And it's also good for businesses because then you avoid having an outbreak, for example, within your company, avoid those costs and decrease productivity that may happen in your business. | ||
| Why do you focus on water specifically? | ||
| What is it about disease and outbreaks and water? | ||
| Well, you want to assure, for example, that there aren't any contaminants in water that could lead to the type of illnesses that lead to further outbreaks and injury for individuals. | ||
| So, water security is actually really critically important. | ||
| It's also important in terms of when we think about issues around bioterrorism and other things to ensure that water supplies are safe. | ||
| That's a core element of public health and preparedness, is assuring our water is safe, our air is clean, and safe to breathe. | ||
| These are part of the core elements that public health provides in its functions. | ||
| We're talking about emergency preparedness here this morning. | ||
| Here's how you can join the conversation. | ||
| If you live in the eastern central part of the country, dial in at 202-748-8000. | ||
| Mountain Pacific area, your line this morning, 202-748-8001. | ||
| We'll take your questions and your comments this morning. | ||
| So, what do states need to do to improve? | ||
| Well, some of our key recommendations is we have seen over the years how important it is to strengthen and bolster our emergency preparedness system. | ||
| But it's critically important that that system actually has the funding and resources to be able to have a strong emergency preparedness system. | ||
| We are not as prepared as we need to be, and we need to strengthen that emergency system. | ||
| So that means funding Congress, for example, to bolster the funding for public health, to have the resources in terms of the workforce, the disease detection capabilities to identify and contain these types of health threats quickly, to modernize our data detection systems. | ||
| We've actually been making progress, but that progress is at risk because the funding for public health as well as funding for emergency preparedness specifically, we often see that the funding comes in the times of emergency. | ||
| Once that emergency ends, the funding no longer is there. | ||
| And that's a very difficult way to have a strong and robust public health system overall as well as our emergency preparedness. | ||
| What was the status of state preparedness before COVID-19 and what is it now? | ||
| So what we've seen is we've made progress over the years in terms of our emergency preparedness. | ||
| You know, we began doing this report after 9-11, recognizing the importance of public health and its role with regards to emergency preparedness. | ||
| And what we've seen over the years is a strengthening, for example, of our public health laboratory capacity, a strengthening, for example, of the ability to have the health care expansion in times of emergencies. | ||
| But what we also know is that even before the COVID-19 pandemic, we had a chronically underfunded public health system. | ||
| We had workforce shortages in terms of public health, where state and local health departments don't have the full capacity of the workforce that they need to be able to respond to all of these health threats. | ||
| We had outdated data systems. | ||
| And why are those data and disease detection systems important? | ||
| They're important because it's how you identify those health threats very quickly. | ||
| You know, if it's an infectious disease outbreak like the measles outbreak or seasonal flu, to be able to identify that quickly and then have disease detectives that are able to then identify where those outbreaks are happening and being able to contain those outbreaks quickly. | ||
| We had systems where health departments are having to manually enter that data and even fax data, for example, into the federal agencies like CDC, and that there wasn't really great strong systems between the communications of public health and health care facilities. | ||
| Now with modernizing those data systems by investing in electronic data systems, it's automating those systems so that it happens faster and you can make decisions more real time and more efficiently. | ||
| Let's go to Greg, who's in Whitewater, Wisconsin, Independent, joining us this morning for this conversation. | ||
| Hi, Greg. | ||
| Hi. | ||
| Thank you for the show and thank you for coming on. | ||
| Quick question in regards to a situation that took place in Milwaukee. | ||
| A few months ago, there was a student where they found lead poisoning in the water. | ||
| And they've been trying to work to deal with this situation, but due to recent federal budget cuts of what had happened, all the people who are dealing with that issue are not helping us out anymore because of the cuts. | ||
| Are you talking Greg? | ||
| Are you talking about agents? | ||
| Greg, are you talking about doge cuts? | ||
| Cuts by this administration? | ||
| Correct. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| And go ahead with your question. | ||
| When the Doge cuts hit, we lost our federal support in dealing with this lead contamination issue. | ||
| And so basically, kids have been out of school for three weeks so far because they are trying to deal with this. | ||
| Dr. Gracia. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| Well, thank you for that question and really raising this issue. | ||
| It's a critical issue that you're sharing with us. | ||
| And indeed, this is an example of why funding public health is so important. | ||
| When we have a chronically underfunded public health system and you see budget cuts to public health, it means that programs and services in communities can suffer. | ||
| You know, when we talk about federal budget cuts, these aren't budget cuts such as sit in Washington, D.C. or with the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. | ||
| It impacts states and communities. | ||
| And in this example, this is an important service, for example, that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides. | ||
| When a local agency identifies that there's this type of a crisis in terms of lead, it can then coordinate with the state to make the request to have the federal government support its efforts, help with the disease detection, help with guidance that it should be doing in those communities. | ||
| That's why it's so critically important that Congress works to increase and sustain funding for public health so that we have the resources in communities to be able to do this effort and so that our children are safe, that our children can go to school and not have to deal with these types of crises such as the concerns around lead. | ||
| Here is the Hill newspaper with an article this morning, a headline, measles vaccination clinics hit by funding cuts. | ||
| What is your concern with the measles outbreak that we've seen in Texas? | ||
| Well, first and foremost, you know, when we talk about an infectious disease like measles, measles is a preventable disease. | ||
| We know that there's a safe and effective vaccine and that vaccination is actually the best line of defense to prevent measles. | ||
| So seeing these measles outbreaks and the U.S. had eliminated measles, elimination status of measles 25 years ago, that we haven't seen these level of cases in many years. | ||
| It's so important that we have these public health tools in place like vaccination, the support and work that health departments are doing in states and local communities. | ||
| But this is the impact of when you have these types of funding cuts. | ||
| That if you have these funding cuts, what we know, for example, is that we've heard from local health officials, for example, that they've had to actually stop health vaccination clinics to be able to actually administer the measles vaccine. | ||
| They've had to lay off workers in Dallas, for example, that they were going to be providing the measles vaccines, doing that vaccine outreach, as well as doing the detection to see how much of a spread there is. | ||
| The point is, public health is really the best way that we have to actually prevent these types of outbreaks, and it's actually the cost-effective way of doing it because it's much less expensive to actually prevent measles than it is to actually respond to a measles outbreak where you have to pull all of these resources from the local, state, and federal levels to do so. | ||
| Dallas Morning News one day ago with this headline: As Texas measles outbreak grows, some Republicans' leaders, some Republican leaders remain silent on vaccination. | ||
| The Texas legislature will consider a host of anti-vaccine bills this session. | ||
|
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Will the measles outbreak impact those bills? | |
| Lancy in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina. | ||
| Morning. | ||
| Yes, what I want to make a remark about was: since Crump is doing all those cuts, wouldn't it affect all the states even more, especially red states, as you might say, the low-income states? | ||
| Well, you raise Important point and the point about the fact that this federal funding is really an important resource to states and local communities. | ||
| You know, a percent of CDC's domestic budget actually goes to states and local communities, to academic institutions, to other partners, community partners that are working to respond to and promote and protect their community's health. | ||
| So, when those funding cuts happen, they do impact what happens in states and local communities. | ||
| In addition to what we just talked about with regards to the measles outbreak in Texas and seeing that there are local health officials that are having to make difficult decisions to actually no longer do vaccination clinics, we see when we have these types of cuts, that health departments around the country have to make decisions about laying off workers or they can't fill important positions within those health departments to be able to respond to and prepare for these types of emergencies. | ||
| It also means an impact on the services that are provided. | ||
| So, it's critically important that we really sustain our investment in public health so that we are best prepared to be able to respond to these types of outbreaks in the future. | ||
| Dr. Here is a post-on X to you. | ||
| How do you feel HHS has been handling the measles outbreak? | ||
| Well, I think a critical thing with any outbreak is that we're following the science, we're following the data and evidence, working with experts, the scientists, the health care providers, the public health experts to be able to respond to the outbreak. | ||
| By elevating the point around HHS, what the message is also importantly showing is that there's a role for the federal government. | ||
| You know, this is when we talk about emergency response and these outbreak responses, there's a coordinated effort between the federal government, state, and local governments to be able to respond, where the local agency is really the first on the ground and coordinating with the state and federal government. | ||
| It's vital that we continue to be driven by the science and data on how we respond to that. | ||
| Use the expertise of the public health agencies to be able to support states that are now dealing with this outbreak. | ||
| Let's go to Mary in Las Vegas. | ||
| Good morning to you. | ||
| Morning. | ||
| Allow me to finish my thought, okay? | ||
| We're watching Project 2025 in full bloom, going after our health, our education, all the services that we rely on from our government. | ||
| Business is not government. | ||
| It's not only health is being affected because they are cutting, what, 10,000 workers? | ||
| The guy has no medical expertise, no science expertise. | ||
| He's anti-VAOCs. | ||
| Now they're going to cut every institution, including Social Security. | ||
| They'll close offices to be able to close them down. | ||
| It's the great privatization that is going on. | ||
| All right, Mary, heard your point. | ||
| Dr. Gracia, what policy recommendations has your group made to the federal government in response to your report, ready or not. | ||
| So to share a few of those recommendations, you know, one is certainly the importance of funding our public health system at all levels to be best prepared to respond to these emergencies, whether they're outbreaks, whether they're natural disasters like hurricanes or the tornadoes that we're now seeing, wildfires and the like. | ||
| It's also that we need to modernize, continue to modernize our data systems. | ||
| You know, we have been making progress in recent years. | ||
| We actually saw important investments that were made through emergency funding during the pandemic to actually help address those vulnerabilities in our public health infrastructure, whether that's having a modernized data system so that healthcare facilities and public health agencies can share data more quickly and more efficiently, | ||
| to also having more modernized disease detection systems like wastewater surveillance, as well as a center for forecasting to be able to actually predict the trajectory of these infectious disease outbreaks. | ||
| All of these are at risk because how we fund is often one-time funding. | ||
| It's just during the emergency and then once the emergency ends, that funding ends. | ||
| And the important thing is that the time to prepare for these emergencies is before the emergency happens to build that infrastructure and strengthen our infrastructure. | ||
| We need to focus on that in the non-emergency times and ensure that we don't continue to go through this cycle of boom and bust funding for public health. | ||
| We're talking about public emergencies like the measles outbreak that we're seeing, the flu, the bird flu outbreak, as well and any others that could come along. | ||
| Emergency preparedness is our topic this morning. | ||
| You can call in with your question or your comments for Dr. Gracia. | ||
| If you live in the eastern central part of the country, the line is 202-748-8000. | ||
|
unidentified
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Mountain Pacific, 202-748-8001. | |
| On bird flu, here's a headline. | ||
| FDA suspends program to improve bird flu testing due to staff cuts. | ||
| This is from Reuters, similar headline on other outlets. | ||
| What is the status of stopping bird flu from spreading? | ||
| So in this actually, our report that we released, we have a special feature specifically on bird flu. | ||
| This is an example of the types of health threats that we can see. | ||
| Whether it's measles, bird flu, regular annual flu that we see each and every year, we have to be prepared for all of these types of infectious disease threats. | ||
| And it's important when we talk about the ability to do that testing. | ||
| That testing is important so that we can contain those outbreaks quickly. | ||
| And the role of the federal government, as we see with a bird flu outbreak, is that bird flu, like other types of outbreaks, can happen in multiple states. | ||
| And the importance of the federal government helping to support coordination around testing, also providing the expertise and the resources that states need to be able to control those types of outbreaks. | ||
| When those types of funding cuts happen, it can slow the response. | ||
| It means you have less people that are out in the community to be able to do the type of detection, but also to be able to do the outreach and education to the people that are most at risk or that are disproportionately impacted. | ||
| People like farm workers, other groups that have direct exposure. | ||
| And so that's why it's critically important to assure that we're maintaining that type of funding and resources and expertise because the states and localities depend on that from the federal government. | ||
| We'll go to Joseph next, who is in New Jersey, Point Pleasant Beach. | ||
| Good morning to you. | ||
| Hey, Greta, how are you? | ||
| Morning. | ||
| Doing well. | ||
| Good. | ||
| Good. | ||
| I just, your guest seems like a very nice person, very smart. | ||
| But I just, I think people forgot what happened five years ago with Dr. Fauci. | ||
| My government lied to me about how COVID started. | ||
| He knew about it. | ||
| He went against our government and funded some operation out in another country when our country said it was illegal. | ||
| He did that, probably got a lot of money. | ||
| And then he told me to get the vaccine. | ||
| I got it. | ||
| I'm not anti-vax, but they told me it would stop the spread. | ||
| It never did. | ||
| It didn't stop. | ||
| I regret taking it. | ||
| I know people, I grew up in New York City. | ||
| I know people that lost their jobs because they wouldn't get the vaccine. | ||
| I don't trust my government anymore. | ||
| And I think that's why I'm glad Bobby Kennedy's in there because I think he's got to clean it all up. | ||
| I don't want to give any money to any administration that's going to lie to me. | ||
| And it's going to take a couple years to gain my trust. | ||
| All right. | ||
| What about that? | ||
| All right. | ||
| What about that? | ||
| Well, thank you for calling in. | ||
| And I hear your concern and I hear your frustration. | ||
| And it's important that we have that conversation about the trust and trustworthiness of the science and the data that we're sharing so that people can make the decisions based on the best available science. | ||
| You know, in particular with regards to the COVID-19 pandemic, you know, it demonstrated the challenges, for example, of dealing with a novel, with a new virus, and the importance of how we work together to be able to address a health threat such as that. | ||
| I think it's important when we talk about our public health communications, for example, that we're also investing in and supporting public health communications that are based on the best available science and that we know, especially with a novel type, a new type of virus or a type of infection, that we're communicating the things that can be changed, the things that may happen over time as we're learning more. | ||
| I think it's important when we talk about trust that we're partnering and engaging with communities, with families and individuals, so that they understand and that we are empathetic to hearing questions and concerns and assuring that our health experts, you know, health care providers, public health experts, and others, trusted messengers in communities, and often that's community leaders as well, that are able to communicate those messages and not be judgmental when we speak to people to hear those concerns. | ||
| Because we know, for example, that the COVID-19 vaccine saved millions of lives. | ||
| It prevented millions of hospitalizations and deaths. | ||
| And having questions and getting your questions answered is important so that you understand the value and importance of these types of prevention and treatment efforts. | ||
| Sean is in Washington. | ||
| Good morning to you. | ||
| Question or comment? | ||
| I have a question. | ||
| Well, kind of a comment. | ||
| Thank you for putting out this study. | ||
| But I think we should look at the government that we have and take that into consideration because Donald Trump waits for emergencies to pit people against each other. | ||
| He threw away the emergency effort or whatever Brock left him last time before COVID hit. | ||
| And then when COVID hit, he pitted states against each other. | ||
| I'm from Washington State, so I was on the high tier of the rankings that you guys had. | ||
| And what my legislature, if anybody's from Washington State listening, they should take out those dollars for emergencies, for any type of COVID-type incidents for education, | ||
| take those dollars out before we send our tax dollars to Washington because we don't want Donald Trump holding a sword over our head and pitting people against each other so that they can bow to him before they get the funding that they need for emergency situations. | ||
| All right, Sean there in Washington State knowing that his state is in the high performance tier, 21 states and the DC government in that category. | ||
| Doctor? | ||
| Yes, thank you for sharing that concern and for the perspective you provided with regards to what happens in different states. | ||
| You know, I think importantly, how our organization approaches this is we know that preventing illness, protecting health, promoting health and well-being, that should not be a partisan issue. | ||
| That we all want to assure that we have the opportunity to be as healthy as possible and to be protected from health threats, whether it's an infectious disease outbreak or in response to a hurricane or wildfire. | ||
| And importantly, one of the things that our organization does is really work with policymakers in Congress, with the administration, to share the proven and evidence-based policies that show that they actually save lives and promote health. | ||
| In addition to this preparedness report on Ready or Not that we release, we also release a blueprint report for strengthening public health in the new administration in Congress. | ||
| We release that report every four years to inform the incoming administration in Congress about how to protect not only our nation's health, but also our economic and national security. | ||
| And we want to work with and with the Trump administration and with Congress to assure that we're implementing those types of policies and decisions that are going to protect and keep Americans safe. | ||
| We'll go to Hollywood, Florida. | ||
| Nelson, good morning to you. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| Thank you for taking my call. | ||
| Dr. Gracia, I have a comment and then a question regarding it. | ||
| I'm a retired firefighter paramedic, and I understand the difficulties of your job, and I thank you for the work that you do. | ||
| Having said that, I have always been in favor of immunizations for our young people, but it was about 20 years ago I started to hear that the increase of asthma amongst children is due to the immunizations being placed that is slowly eroding the natural resistance of their bodies to be able to. | ||
| to fight new kinds of infections and that, to a certain extent, those immunizations were part of the problem rather than part of the solution. | ||
| Now I have a lot of questions. | ||
| Nelson, let's take that up. | ||
| So Nelson, thank you for your service first of all in emergency prepared, in emergency services. | ||
| And that's an area as well that we highlight as an important aspect when we speak about our emergency preparedness overall as a nation. | ||
| You know, when we speak about vaccinations, it is important to know, like when we speak about these types of vaccine-preventable diseases, just how important these vaccines are in terms of really being a best line of defense and protecting against diseases that we often don't see now in the U.S. because of the importance of vaccination. | ||
| That's what makes the measles outbreak so troubling, really concerning, and tragic, you know, to even have, for example, two deaths from measles itself. | ||
| What I would say is that we have systems in place when it comes to safety and effectiveness of these vaccines and also to monitor if there are any types of effects from these systems. | ||
| These systems have been in place for many years and it allows us to examine whether there are any types of safety issues. | ||
| And what we know is that the vaccines that we have, that they are safe and effective. | ||
| And it's important to be able to answer these types of questions for people that have those questions to assure that they know that they can make these decisions based on the best available evidence. | ||
| But what we've seen is the rapid decline of these types of vaccine-preventable diseases over the years. | ||
| And that's so important to protecting our health and safety. | ||
| And that there are numerous other factors that can be contributing to other types of health issues and rises in health conditions that we're seeing. | ||
| Adam in Palm City, Florida. | ||
| Hi, good morning. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| I'm wondering, in relation to easy outbreaks or any kind of infectious diseases that is being talked about these days, if it's not just the anti-vaccine talk, but can it be contributed to the amount of illegal immigration that's came across the southern border in the last four years? | ||
| Because it's not just from like South American countries, it's also countries outside there that flew into there and crossed our border that were probably not vaccinated from their home countries and could have transmitted a lot of disease into our country. | ||
| And if it's about protecting our country through national or emergencies from infectious disease, couldn't they have shut down the border to prevent that type of transmission to us? | ||
| Well, I appreciate you asking the question, trying to determine, you know, how are these infections happening? | ||
| And that's an important public health function is actually when you see a case, for example, of measles, is to immediately work. | ||
| That's what the local public health departments are doing is that they then are working, for example, to identify what factors and where that exposure may have happened, who else may have been exposed, and then working very quickly to be able to contain that outbreak. | ||
| Because as we know, that these types of outbreaks, they don't have geographic boundaries. | ||
| They don't have state boundaries. | ||
| And we see too that they can cross the borders of countries. | ||
| But actually, what we know, for example, with regards to the measles outbreak is actually the vast majority, yes, individuals who are unvaccinated, but it's often U.S. residents who travel and return back into the U.S. and having had that exposure. | ||
| And if you then are in a community where there are lower vaccination rates, it can allow measles, which is a highly contagious disease, to be able to spread. | ||
| That's why it's so important that we use these effective and proven public health tools like the MAX measles vaccine, which is the best way to prevent a measles outbreak to actually be able to prevent these outbreaks in the first place. | ||
| But one of the challenges we're also facing is that we have a growing number of these types of infectious disease threats, but yet we don't have the level of investment that we need, for example, to assure our immunization programs have the resources that they need to do the outreach and education and actually administer vaccine. | ||
| In the state of Washington, actually, because of the abrupt cancellation of the grants that they had from the federal government to help with that shoring up of the public health infrastructure, which included being able to provide access to vaccinations, they had to actually cancel a vaccine clinic for children who are uninsured. | ||
| That puts those children, those families, and that community at greater risk. | ||
| That's why it's so vital that we assure that we're investing in providing the resources for us to have a strong public health system. | ||
| And that includes having a strong and robust vaccination system as well. | ||
| Earl's in Canton, Georgia. | ||
| Good morning, Earl. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| How are you doing? | ||
| Doing well, sir. | ||
| Question or comment? | ||
| Okay, I'm a 75 years old, retired union electrician. | ||
| We had always had good health care in the union. | ||
| Well, we pay for it. | ||
| And our jobs, and this has really got to do with health care. | ||
| These corporations in this country and big companies have left this country because of the cost of health care that is provided by the country they move to. | ||
| It's not, it makes their wages lower that the corporations have to pay. | ||
| Why can't people understand it? | ||
| It's been all over the news. | ||
| They don't pay attention. | ||
| They say it's because of this cheap labor. | ||
| That ain't what it is. | ||
| It ain't cheap in Canada. | ||
| I'm sorry. | ||
| I'm just a little, you know, it's ridiculous. | ||
| And I listened to the whole thing this morning. | ||
| They said nothing, nobody said a damn thing about it. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| All right, Earl. | ||
| Do you have any thoughts on that, Doctor? | ||
| Health care and the cost of it? | ||
| Yeah, well, Earl, I just want to say, I hear your frustration. | ||
| And having access to affordable and quality health care is critically important so that we can be truly a healthy and healthier nation. | ||
| You know, when we look at, for example, some of our health outcomes, we have, as in the United States, the lowest life expectancy among the high-income countries around the world. | ||
| We have the highest rates of maternal deaths in the country, as well as the highest rate of infant deaths. | ||
| We have high rates of chronic diseases as an example. | ||
| But if you actually look at our spending as a nation, one, we spend about $4.5 trillion every year on health spending, but less than 5% of that goes to public health and prevention. | ||
| And yet we know that actually public health and prevention, that is an important return on investment, that we can actually work to prevent illnesses as well as help to treat illnesses before they become even more severe and have obviously a human toll, but also an economic toll. | ||
| So yes, we need to, one, really ensure that our policymakers are working to expand access to health care because we know that communities, families that have access to health care, that they're going to fare better, for example, in times of emergency because they have access to those services. | ||
| And so we critically need to be able to address that in terms of our health care system. | ||
| We also know that we also need to invest more in public health and prevention so that we can be a truly healthier nation. | ||
| And that can also help us to reduce those health care costs. | ||
| Del is in Warwick, New York. | ||
| Morning, Del. | ||
| Morning. | ||
| I just wanted to comment that Robert Kennedy Jr. is your biggest problem. | ||
| He's the one that is against inoculations. | ||
| All his children have been inoculated and he is disowned by his family. | ||
| His family has disowned him because he is the most disgusting human being. | ||
| Okay, Del, I'm just going to leave it at the policy point that you were making. | ||
| What is your thoughts? | ||
| What are your thoughts on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s the Health and Human Services Secretary's views on vaccination? | ||
| Well, I think it's critically important that we talk about the importance of vaccinations. | ||
| Vaccinations are how we save lives, how we prevent illness and injury, and truly support and promote and protect health. | ||
| For example, with our measles outbreak. | ||
| Our role, for example, at Trust for America's Health is really to be able to inform policymakers within the administration, within Congress, about these types of evidence-based and proven programs that actually work to help support and protect the nation's health. | ||
| The data are there. | ||
| We know that vaccines are really a best line of defense. | ||
| We've seen it, for example, among children, say with the routine childhood immunizations that have saved millions of children's lives, have prevented hospitalizations, and also reduced costs. | ||
| And so when we talk about how do we work with, for example, policymakers, it's sharing that evidence and data, really working to find common ground so that we are putting forward the best available science and proven evidence-based policies to be able to protect the health and well-being of the American people. | ||
| Vincent is watching in West Bloomfield, Michigan. | ||
| Hi, Vincent. | ||
| Hi, how do you do? | ||
| That's only the second time I've ever called, but I have a comment. | ||
| He talked to the doctor, and I'm not going to attack her, but the CDC and the virus that, you know, not SARS, but we just COVID. | ||
| Oh, okay, COVID-19. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| The guy from New York called and he said he doesn't trust the system. | ||
| Well, I am exactly in the same spot. | ||
| I always thought a vaccine was going to prevent you from getting it. | ||
| I've had shots. | ||
| I never got tuberculosis. | ||
| I never had measles and those kinds of things. | ||
| But this was a lie. | ||
| It was an absolute lie to the American people that if you get the shot, you won't get COVID. | ||
| I took the two shots. | ||
| All right, Vincent, let's leave it right there. | ||
| Was it ever promised that you would not get it, or was it promised that if you do, the symptoms would be reduced by having the vaccine? | ||
|
unidentified
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Well, Greta, what you're pointing out is an important point, especially when you're dealing with a new virus. | |
| As you're learning about that virus and the science and data are evolving, then you're understanding how is this going to impact the American people. | ||
| With the COVID-19 vaccine, what we saw and what the data and science show is that it did reduce the severity of illness. | ||
| And that was critically important because we know that there are groups who are more vulnerable, for example, to actually having serious illness from COVID-19, being hospitalized and potentially dying from COVID-19, whether that's older adults, people who have chronic conditions. | ||
| And we have 129 million Americans who have chronic conditions. | ||
| Reducing that severity of the illness and preventing serious illness as well as death is absolutely an important aspect with regards to the benefit and value of COVID-19 vaccine. | ||
| Let's hear from Patsy next in Massachusetts. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| Good morning, Patsy. | ||
| Can you mute your television, please? | ||
| Oh, sorry. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| I have just a simple thing. | ||
| I'm 77 years old. | ||
| I've been a social activist for my whole life. | ||
| And I believe that they're not looking at the right thing. | ||
| What they should be looking at is why is America in such bad health? | ||
| It's the three monopolies that carry, produce 90% of this country's food. | ||
| And the other country don't want to take it in because it's full of poison. | ||
| All right, Patsy, let's take your point. | ||
| Bad health and leading to the spread of infectious diseases. | ||
| So I appreciate your point of really thinking about what is causing these poor health outcomes in our country, whether it's high rates of heart disease or diabetes and cancer or other chronic diseases, but also then we have these infectious diseases. | ||
| And it's important to understand that these are interconnected when we talk about our health and really think about health holistically. | ||
| It's important that we think about really the environments and the community conditions that we have to support health. | ||
| And you raised some important issues, for example, assuring that people have access to healthy and nutritious foods, that they live in communities, for example, where it's safe to bike and play and engage in physical activity. | ||
| We look at some of the leading risk factors, for example, of chronic disease. | ||
| It's things like poor nutrition, not having access or not engaging in physical activity, smoking, as well as excessive alcohol use. | ||
| If you look at smoking, for example, this is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, and it's a leading risk factor for chronic disease. | ||
| That's why it's so important that we have the investments and the resources in public health to support smoking prevention. | ||
| But our concern is, you know, based on reports, for example, is that the staff for the Office on Smoking and Health at CDC staff have been laid off, that staff at the Food and Drug Administration that look at issues around tobacco products, that there have also been layoffs there. | ||
| And it's critically important that we say if we want to really improve health, we have to assure that we have that expertise as well as the resources that are helping to work with states and communities to be able to address these types of health issues. | ||
| And we've seen progress. | ||
| You know, youth smoking rates, for example, are at a 25-year low. | ||
| Well, now is not the time to take the foot off the gas in terms of us being able to provide those types of resources and expertise to states and communities to be able to assure that we're addressing those root causes of illness. | ||
| And that includes assuring things like people having good housing, good access to affordable and healthy foods, assuring that we address issues like poverty, which all also contribute to poor health outcomes. | ||
| We'll hear from Helen next in Shirley, New York. | ||
| I got a couple of things. | ||
| First of all, the guy that called up and said that it was Fauci's fault that he lied to you, no, it was Trump. | ||
| He said it was a hoax from the beginning of the virus until he got caught on tape and that he was going to downplay it. | ||
| And then also, my brother-in-law is dead five years now from the virus because of the lie, of the hoax, because we all supposed to trust residents. | ||
| Second of all, with the JFK, I also called up about this with the weather. | ||
| It's also the condition of the weather change. | ||
| When there's floods, you got to boil your water. | ||
| When there's a flood and you got to mold on your walls, and it's the air that the children are breathing. | ||
| When it's too hot and humid, these people have to go into the house. | ||
| Okay, Helen, let's take that point about weather. | ||
| Yes, and first I want to say I'm so sorry for your loss in your family, and I thank you for calling in. | ||
| You know, you importantly talk about these weather emergencies, whether it's hurricanes and floods and tornadoes. | ||
| And indeed, you can see really significant health impacts from these types of weather emergencies. | ||
| When you talk about flooding, for example, the water quality, and that's why we get back to talking about water security in our report, is assuring that residents have safe access to water, safe water to drink in times of emergency and as they're in recovery. | ||
| I mean, we're seeing, for example, communities like in North Carolina, they're still recovering from Hurricane Helene. | ||
| This is why it's so important that we invest in and assure that we have the type of readiness systems in communities and in states because you can be responding to an infectious disease outbreak and the next day another health threat comes, there is, for example, a weather emergency. | ||
| And what we're seeing is that these types of weather events, they're happening more frequently and they're more severe, more intense. | ||
| And so that also means we have to be prepared for those types of emergencies as well. |