On May 11, 2023, ASTHO announced it had filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court of North Carolina asserting that a public health official must be empowered to take quick action to protect the public health and safety of their ...
Learn how state and territorial legislatures can bolster or restrict public health legal authority, with examples from early COVID-19 as well as 2024.
Several states and territories, as well as many local governments, are going beyond recommendations and requiring individuals to wear face coverings when they are in public settings and spaces (i.e. grocery stores, retail stores, ...
The 2020 holiday season is coinciding with a nationwide surge of COVID-19 cases. With great concern that holiday travel to see loved ones may exacerbate community spread of the virus, many states are increasing public health measures ...
Health in All Policies can be a successful strategy to expand collaboration between state and territorial agencies and other partners, but the terminology used in programs focused on these efforts can differ. While equity is often a ...
This report highlights examples of health department partnership coordination strategies to enhance surveillance, increase resource and staffing capacity, and improve communication and collaboration in order to strengthen infection ...
In order to contain and mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic, widespread, rapid testing is key. Rampant and efficient testing determines who has the virus and who may be at risk of transmitting it, and allows for effective management of ...
Rural hospital closures exacerbate poor socioeconomic conditions, job loss, cost of health services, transportation times and barriers, and inequitable access to quality care, all of which contribute to unfavorable maternal and infant ...
This video highlights specific administrative strategies, partnerships, and metrics used by the North Carolina Division of Public Health to support efficient and effective spending of federal funding.
Under the Tenth Amendment, states have the power to protect the health and welfare of their populations, including the authority to implement isolation and quarantine orders to limit the spread of disease. This post is an examination of ...
Developing and implementing contact tracing programs in K-12 schools presents a crucial opportunity for both health department and school leaders to keep students healthy, and schools open. This brief shares considerations for health ...
On this episode, we speak with two public health veterans who led state health departments during times of public health uncertainty—like H1N1 and Ebola. Our guests discuss the lessons they learned during trying times, the advice they’d ...
The COVID-19 pandemic introduced new challenges for screening children’s blood lead levels, as screening rates across the country dropped during stay-at-home orders. A substantive federal policy change and provisions in the Infrastructure ...
This report analyzes way that public health officials can mitigate the impact of disasters on pregnant people, neonates, and infants through a variety of policies, including policies related to preparing for, responding to, and recovering ...
Dental care and the oral health workforce have also been tremendously impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the midst of stay at home orders, nationwide closures, and related employment loss, people have largely put their oral health on ...
Increasing and maintaining vaccine coverage is an important way to prevent the spread of disease and keep communities healthy. This post is an overview of 2019 state vaccine legislative activities.
Conditioning school attendance on student vaccinations is an evidence-based way of maintaining and increasing vaccine coverage. State law establishes school vaccination requirements which apply not only to public schools but often to ...
With data showing the number of the opioid overdose deaths escalated during the COVID-19 pandemic, access to naloxone, a medication that can reverse an opioid overdose, continues to be an important topic for policy makers. The number of ...
More than 100 rural hospitals have closed since 2010, and an additional 25% are at high risk of closure, and COVID-19 has magnified the existing stressors on rural healthcare. As a result, states are using a variety of measures to address ...