The Host
Julie Rovner
KFF Health News
Julie Rovner is chief Washington correspondent and host of KFF Health News’ weekly well being coverage information podcast, “What the Health?” A famous knowledgeable on well being coverage points, Julie is the writer of the critically praised reference e book “Health Care Politics and Policy A to Z,” now in its third version.
Public well being, one of many extra misunderstood ideas within the well being world, is concerning the well being of complete populations, reasonably than people. As a consequence, public well being is carefully tied to issues just like the surroundings, vitamin, and security.
One commonality amongst lots of President-elect Donald Trump’s picks to handle federal well being businesses is their mistrust of the nation’s public well being system. With main considerations akin to chicken flu looming, that sentiment may translate into efforts to undermine these of public well being employees.
To illuminate the significance and nuances of public well being — and recognizing that public well being is greatest defined on the native stage — KFF Health News has partnered with Civic News Company to launch a undertaking known as Healthbeat.
In this particular episode of KFF Health News’ “What the Health?”, chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner is joined by KFF Health News public well being correspondent and Healthbeat nationwide reporter Amy Maxmen, Healthbeat editor-in-chief Charlene Pacenti, and Healthbeat New York City reporter Eliza Fawcett.
Panelists
Amy Maxmen
KFF Health News and Healthbeat
Charlene Pacenti
Healthbeat
Eliza Fawcett
Healthbeat
Among the takeaways from this week’s episode:
The covid-19 pandemic revealed the necessity for a deeper understanding of public well being — a data-driven discipline dedicated to the well being and well-being of populations. Some of the largest public well being problems with the second embrace childhood vaccination charges, and lengthy covid and post-traumatic stress dysfunction instances amongst well being care employees.
Bird flu is prime of thoughts for a lot of in public well being. While the virus has been round for many years, its transmissibility to cattle is new, and that regarding attribute emerged within the United States. The outbreak was not contained when it was first noticed in a handful of states, and now the query is whether or not the virus mutates to allow human-to-human transmission — a trait that would make chicken flu the following pandemic.
Many within the public well being neighborhood are cautious of the likelihood that Trump and his administration’s officers may intestine funding and insurance policies that assist the nation’s well being — and even non-health insurance policies can maintain penalties for well being care. For occasion, anti-immigration measures may drain the well being workforce; many immigrants work as dwelling well being aides, nursing dwelling staffers, and extra.
Mentioned on this week’s podcast:
Click to open the Transcript
Transcript: Public Health and the Dairy Cow within the Room
[Editor’s note: This transcript was generated using both transcription software and a human’s light touch. It has been edited for style and clarity.]
Julie Rovner: Hello, and welcome again to “What The Health?” I’m Julie Rovner, chief Washington correspondent for KFF Health News, and I’m joined by among the greatest and smartest well being reporters in Washington. We’re taping this particular vacation episode — extra on that in a minute — on Wednesday, Nov. 20, at 2:30 p.m. As at all times, information occurs quick and issues may’ve modified by the point you hear this. So, right here we go.
Today, I’m thrilled to be joined right here in our KFF studios by among the employees of KFF Health News’ latest undertaking, Healthbeat, which we’ve created with one other nonprofit, Civic News Company, to cowl public well being in America. Here with us right this moment, our Healthbeat editor-in-chief, Charlene Pacenti.
Charlene Pacenti: Hello.
Rovner: Amy Maxmen, KFF Health News public well being correspondent and Healthbeat’s nationwide reporter.
Amy Maxmen: Hi.
Rovner: And Eliza Fawcett, New York City reporter.
Eliza Fawcett: Hi there.
Rovner: Hello, everybody, and thanks a lot for being right here. Charlene, I need to begin with you. What precisely is Healthbeat, and why do we’d like it?
Pacenti: Now greater than ever, I’d say. Healthbeat was created within the wake of covid when it grew to become very obvious that folks wanted a deeper understanding of what public well being is, the sort of invisible protect that retains us all secure. And we additionally wanted extra information protection that facilities dependable, science-based info so that folks may make good selections concerning the well being of their households, themselves, and the folks round them. So we thought a part of that protection ought to be rooted in communities. It’s been proven that regardless of their politics or how they really feel concerning the federal authorities, folks do belief their native public well being leaders. And we expect that by elevating these voices on well timed points, we are able to begin to win again folks’s belief, not solely in journalism however in science.
Rovner: That seems like a really uphill battle.
Pacenti: Yes, as you talked about, however we’re a part of Civic News Company, which you talked about, whose mannequin has been developed over the previous 10 years protecting faculties with Chalkbeat. And so we’re attempting to leverage the success they’ve had with the native plus nationwide reporting. So for Healthbeat, we’re partnering with KFF Health News, which has an extended custom of wonderful well being reporting, to deal with nationwide protection. And then we’ve opened two native bureaus to start out. We’re in New York and Atlanta with a 3rd location to come back subsequent yr.
Rovner: Cool. Amy, you’re our public well being knowledgeable on the desk. How is public well being totally different from what we consider as common well being care or medical care generally?
Maxmen: I’m excited to reply that query, as a result of I’m actually into public well being. So whereas you consider well being care as what occurs in a clinic. An particular person is sick, they usually’re handled inside a hospital system. Public well being actually focuses on stopping sickness and bettering well being at a inhabitants stage via population-level interventions. So for instance, infectious illness outbreaks are sometimes a giant part of public well being, and that’s as a result of they unfold in communities.
So regardless that an individual is handled in a hospital — say you probably have anyone who has measles, now the particular person’s handled for measles in a hospital — however public well being officers really go into communities. They determine how the virus is spreading. They may go to varsities or to hospitals or to a shopping center, wherever that particular person was. Similarly, if an individual is shot, they go to an emergency room they usually get well being care in that emergency division. But public well being goes to have a look at the encircling points. How does gun violence have an effect on the entire neighborhood? What does it imply to develop up with stress? Does it imply you may train as a lot if the neighborhood’s harmful? So that’s kind of why additionally a giant part of public well being is about amassing plenty of knowledge and analyzing that knowledge.
Rovner: I really feel like folks sort of misunderstand this so much. They consider public well being, they consider well being care as one thing that’s between a well being practitioner and also you, the affected person, whereas public well being is larger than that, and you aren’t the main target of public well being, proper? It’s everyone round you.
Maxmen: Yeah, that’s the general public half. Yeah, and it’s enjoyable as a result of it’s on the market on this planet.
Rovner: But why do folks — I really feel like folks actually misunderstand that, and I really feel like that’s the supply of plenty of the frustration that folks get with public well being. It’s like, Well, that may not be good for me.
Maxmen: Yeah, that’s the difficult factor as a result of I believe at its root, you must imagine in societal items. You need to imagine that having a cleaner neighborhood is sweet for everybody and never simply because you must take out your trash or not. I don’t know if that’s the perfect comparability.
Rovner: Eliza, how’d you get into public well being?
Fawcett: I began as a reporter on the Hartford Courant in the course of the begin of the covid pandemic. I grew to become actually concerned about protecting well being and in addition psychological well being throughout that point. And I grew up in New York, and it’s been actually thrilling to be the primary New York reporter for Healthbeat, actually entering into neighborhood well being points and understanding the sprawling New York City well being division, which is likely one of the largest within the nation. And since I grew up in New York, it’s been actually thrilling to be doing this work.
Rovner: Charlene, what sorts of tales is Healthbeat pursuing?
Pacenti: Well, as you may think about, public well being may be very broad, and we’re simply getting began. We simply formally launched Aug. 30, so we’ve simply had the final of our reporters come aboard for proper now. So we’re attempting to slender it down slightly bit, and we’re sort of specializing in three key buckets for our protection. One is infectious ailments, which Amy’s doing such an ideal job on chicken flu proper now, but in addition we’re taking a look at that regionally, too. What are the flu numbers proper now? We’re going into flu season. What are the covid numbers? How’s RSV [respiratory syncytial virus] ramping up? And these kinds of issues, and the neighborhood’s preparedness to cope with outbreaks.
Accountability is one other actually massive factor that we’re centered on. What many individuals might not notice is that public well being funding, even on the native stage, comes from Washington. It’s coming from CDC [the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]. It’s coming from HHS [the Department of Health and Human Services]. And so we’re taking a look at how these {dollars} movement right down to the native communities and the way they’re spent, and in addition simply officers who’re in control of public well being coverage. In Georgia already, we’ve seen some fairly good affect in our reporting simply by displaying up, frankly. Our first Atlanta reporter, Rebecca Grapevine, she bought on the job the primary week and realized that the Board of Public Health in Georgia had not held a public assembly in 5 months. So we wrote about that, and the story bought plenty of consideration. And by golly, in November they had a meeting. So that was actually nice.
And then the third factor is de facto neighborhood. We actually need to heart our protection on the folks on the bottom who’re engaged on public well being from many features. It could be social employees. It could be your native epidemiologist on the well being division. It could be volunteers at a home of worship who has a ministry attempting to assist with homelessness or maternal mortality or any of these issues. We’re actually attempting to be a platform and a voice for these folks. At Civic News Company, we name folks like that civic catalysts. They’re on the market doing the work, and we actually need to shine a lightweight on them.
Rovner: So Amy, clearly we’re going to speak about chicken flu individually in a couple of minutes. What are the opposite public well being, massive nationwide public well being tales that you just’re watching proper now?
Maxmen: I believe we’ll control vaccination charges. You can anticipate these to sadly drop. And I’m not speaking about simply the covid vaccine however childhood vaccination charges. It’s vital to bear in mind the vast majority of adults, round 70%, nonetheless say that childhood vaccines are actually vital. But keep in mind, going again to what’s public well being, the facility of vaccines is in herd immunity impact. So kids are being protected with, say, a measles vaccine, however we need to have excessive charges above 90% of vaccinations in order that lecturers who’re immunocompromised, kids who’re immunocompromised, infants too younger to be vaccinated, in order that they’re all protected, too. And what we’re going to see, if we see RFK [Robert F. Kennedy] Jr. as the pinnacle of HHS, there’s some rumors floating that Joseph Ladapo might need a job within the administration as nicely.
Rovner: He’s the Florida surgeon basic who we’ve talked about so much on the podcast, who himself is sort of vaccine agnostic, if you’ll.
Maxmen: Yeah. Exactly. And so we’re seeing plenty of indicators that we’re going to listen to plenty of phrases like “choice” and “consent” in the case of vaccines. And these sound like nice phrases, however what it finally means is that we’ll see a loosening of mandates round having kids be vaccinated earlier than they go to public faculty, and that mixed with misinformation. So we’ll most likely see decrease vaccine charges amongst kids. So that’s one thing to look at as a result of it means extra outbreaks. Outbreaks are pricey to comprise in cash and in lives misplaced. So that’s positively one story.
There’s actually others in addition to even the chicken flu, which I’ll discuss. I write so much about occupational well being, so there’s plenty of well being care employees who misplaced their lives in covid, but in addition I’ve lined what number of are dealing with lengthy covid and PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder] as a result of they weren’t very nicely protected once they had been at work in the course of the pandemic, in the course of the peak of the pandemic. I’ve written about how farmworkers and development employees and landscapers have had heat-related sickness and accidents. There was a legislation that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has been engaged on, however it should nearly actually stall beneath a Trump administration. So we’re not going to have nationwide rules on warmth. So these are among the different issues I’ll be fascinated about.
Rovner: What are the large tales in New York, Eliza?
Fawcett: Well, plenty of them are the identical as what Amy talked about, and we’re attempting to see how the large adjustments coming down the pike with the second Trump administration will affect us regionally. Obviously that’s in massive half about funding and whether or not CDC funding stays the identical, is decreased, and so on. Same for NIH [the National Institutes of Health] and different federal businesses that cope with well being points. The approach that native well being departments work, even actually massive ones like New York City, is that they do get some huge cash from the federal authorities, clearly. And so any small adjustments may have a extremely massive affect on work on the bottom, whether or not that’s ensuring that children can get vaccines. The Vaccines for Children Program is answerable for ensuring that many, many, many kids within the United States get vaccinated.
Rovner: I’m, after all, so outdated that I lined the Vaccines for Children Program when it started within the Nineteen Nineties. But sure, that’s how most youngsters get vaccinated now, is thru the federal authorities’s Vaccines for Children Program. One factor that clearly we’re wanting in the direction of, the likelihood with Republicans again in charge of the Congress and the White House, is well being care price range cuts. I assume New York is assuming that there will likely be much less cash in a Trump administration.
Fawcett: Yeah, I believe it’s an actual concern for public well being management within the metropolis, and it’s been fascinating to see what the response has been from metropolis and state officers after the election. They’ve sort of made this level of claiming that New Yorkers will likely be protected, whether or not that’s reproductive rights or vaccinations. And there’s this sense of sort of pulling up the drawbridge, that New York has a reasonably strong public well being infrastructure. And so no matter occurs on the federal stage, we’ll be OK. But clearly issues are much more difficult and intertwined than that. The metropolis does get plenty of its funding from, or the New York City public well being division does get plenty of its funding from the town and from the state but in addition from the federal authorities. And so if there are main adjustments there, that would have a big effect on the sorts of community-led packages that do good public well being work within the metropolis.
And even on vaccinations, that’s an fascinating query, too. Because whereas the CDC offers suggestions, they don’t really present mandates. That’s a states situation. If the CDC begins altering its messaging round vaccinations, significantly if RFK Jr. is working HHS, which is a giant concern, that may nonetheless have a trickle-down affect on what New Yorkers take into consideration getting vaccinated generally, which has already been a giant concern for folk. So I believe it’s been fascinating to see this dynamic beginning to play out within the metropolis, the place on the one hand, there’s this robust progressive management that’s vowing to maintain up the great combat. But we’ll see the extent to which they’ll actually shield themselves from any giant adjustments which can be going to occur.
Rovner: Let’s discuss chicken flu, as a result of it’s kind of the elephant or the dairy cow within the room. We’ve been watching all yr, and I assume well being authorities have been watching with some alarm as we’re seeing chicken flu spreading in dairy cattle herds after which sometimes to folks, to dairy employees, and now to some people who find themselves apparently not dairy employees. What is your feeling about the place we’re with chicken flu? And what has the Biden administration accomplished about it? And what do you anticipate that the incoming Trump administration may do otherwise?
Maxmen: Yeah, so I believe the previous, wanting again on the previous yr with chicken flu — the large disappointment, appalling should you speak to researchers, kind of irritating should you speak to public well being officers — is we did not comprise it when the chicken flu outbreak was confined to only a handful of states. That could be when it was smaller. It’s like placing out a fireplace when it’s small versus as soon as there’s an enormous forest fireplace. It’s more durable to place out. So now it’s in at the least 15 states, and the quantity is likely to be increased as a result of plenty of farms, perhaps the vast majority of farms, haven’t examined at totally different durations in the course of the yr. There’s 52 instances amongst folks within the U.S., primarily amongst farmworkers. But yeah, as you simply talked about from the case in California, there’s just a few instances which were mysterious, individuals who don’t have any contact, no recognized contact with livestock.
These unknowns are literally sort of what’s as staggering as additionally the expansion of the epidemic. We’ve kind of misplaced monitor of what’s occurring. So what this implies is, I’ve talked to so many consultants at this level, and no one thinks we’re going to remove this on dairy farms. And to be clear, chicken flu has been round for 30 years. But the chicken flu in cattle spreading amongst mammals, that’s new and that’s within the U.S. So what does this imply? This means best-case state of affairs, hundreds of thousands if not billions of {dollars} in losses for the dairy and poultry business. It means farmworkers are going to proceed to get the chicken flu, which isn’t comfy. And then it additionally means we simply have this sort of ominous fixed menace that perhaps the virus will evolve in a approach the place it spreads between folks simply. And that’s when you can get a pandemic.
Rovner: That’s been the large worry a couple of pandemic.
Maxmen: That’s the worry.
Rovner: I imply however that was a worry even earlier than the covid-19 pandemic. What everyone was afraid of was a chicken flu pandemic, was an avian flu that mutated to go from individual to individual.
Maxmen: Exactly. It’s been on the — as a result of people don’t have plenty of expertise with the chicken flu. It’s novel. We might or might not have some partial immunity to it, so it might be very unhealthy. So there’s an opportunity it should by no means mutate in a approach that has it unfold simply between folks. But if it does, it might be horrible like on the size of what we noticed throughout covid. And in order that’s why everybody I talked to, I assume the large query is: Why are we taking of venture on this? But that’s what we’ve accomplished this previous yr basically — intentional, not intentional. I may get into — I’ve reported so much on why that is, however that’s the place we’re at.
Rovner: Some of this, I do know, comes again to the entire belief situation, which is that the CDC couldn’t get onto among the dairy farms to check, as a result of the dairy farmers didn’t belief the federal government. What has the Biden administration been in a position to accomplish when it comes to coping with the chicken flu?
Maxmen: Well, yeah, so on a neighborhood stage, that is actually left to native public well being departments plenty of the time. So that’s actually who’s doing the work right here. Sometimes it’s state well being departments, however on the bottom we’re speaking about veterinarians, farmers, and native well being officers. I really FOIA-ed [through the Freedom of Information Act] plenty of well being departments and a few agriculture departments to be taught what’s even taking place. The system of surveillance is a voluntary system, so when there’s distrust or additionally simply fears, proper, so farmers could be afraid of, if they are saying they’ve the chicken flu, of dropping their complete milk market, which is a giant one as a result of then they lose the entire farm. So there’s plenty of considerations about their very own privateness.
So principally plenty of the cooperation has sort of fallen aside with that. What may the CDC do? I believe there’s plenty of disappointment for the CDC and the USDA [Department of Agriculture] from the consultants that I communicate with, as a result of though, sure, they’ll’t simply storm onto farms, they haven’t really been utilizing the bully pulpit to say: This is what’s going fallacious. We’re actually involved. This is how we are able to do it higher. This is how we are able to get round a few of these issues like farmers being afraid of dropping their milk market or farmworkers being afraid of dropping their job.
They haven’t actually been very open concerning the issues, they usually additionally haven’t acted with urgency. So the response on the excessive stage has appeared sluggish and uncoordinated. They’ll announce that they are going to be doing outreach to farmworkers, however then there will likely be months handed with no outreach. They’ll say that they’re going to be engaged on having different teams be capable to take a look at for the chicken flu virus, however we nonetheless don’t see any group in addition to the CDC having that means. So there’s lots of people who’re aggravated with the response beneath the Biden administration, and a few of it’s not simply due to management. There’s inside points throughout the U.S. We have a voluntary system in plenty of methods, so for higher or worse, this is likely to be the way in which it’s.
Rovner: And what would you anticipate from an incoming Trump administration even? We clearly don’t know so much about what to anticipate from an incoming Trump administration, however primarily based on their dealing with of covid, what would you anticipate?
Maxmen: Exactly. So primarily based on their dealing with of covid, one is, I can say: Time-wise, OK, what’s on our aspect? The plus is as outbreaks proceed, folks typically get higher at determining what to do. So on the plus aspect, perhaps farmers will begin to have slightly bit extra belief that they’re not going to have enormous losses and that subsequently they’ll be slightly bit extra open. Maybe vets will get a greater deal with on learn how to management this. So that’s the plus aspect. The draw back can also be fairly enormous. So throughout covid, the CDC principally stopped holding press briefings. So proper now, at the least there are press briefings. Here, I used to be vital of the CDC, however I’d utterly lose all contact with them beneath a Trump administration.
Another one which’s fairly massive is there’s a examine that confirmed that we’re lacking plenty of instances amongst farmworkers, and I anticipate us to have extra chicken flu instances amongst folks and miss extra of them. And that’s unhealthy as a result of it’s unhealthy for the individuals who have the chicken flu, but in addition it means we’d miss the second if this begins to unfold between folks. If an individual spreads it to their children or different relations, we’d miss these moments. And the explanation why we’ll miss them — this occurred throughout covid — is when there’s enormous threats of deportations and when there’s simply plenty of anti-immigrant rhetoric. I did plenty of reporting within the Central Valley round meatpacking plant employees and farmworkers.
When there’s plenty of threats like this, persons are perhaps … There’s lots of people in that neighborhood who’re immigrants, and perhaps some are undocumented. You even have folks on non permanent work visas whose visa is tied to their employers. Maybe they’ve relations who aren’t legally right here, so that they don’t need to threat even the specter of deportation by going to a clinic once they’re sick. They don’t need to complain if work situations are actually unsafe. If they’re given, say, no safety wall taking good care of sick cattle, there’s no incentive to complain concerning the employer should you suppose you may really be deported. So stigma tends to drive infectious ailments underground, and that’s kind of what we are able to anticipate.
Rovner: And clearly immigration is a kind of points that we don’t cowl typically as a well being situation, however in New York, it’s a well being situation, proper?
Fawcett: Yeah, completely. I believe that’s one other factor that we’ll be taking a look at carefully as this Trump administration will get going. Obviously, there are plenty of considerations amongst migrant communities within the metropolis about mass deportations, which Trump has vowed to meet. And New York has a extremely giant and pretty efficient system for taking good care of folks no matter immigration standing or insurance coverage, significantly via the municipal hospital system, NYC Health and Hospitals. And management there has mentioned that migrants’ entry to well being care will likely be protected, however there’s a lot that is still to be seen about how these communities will likely be impacted.
Rovner: And Amy, which is the larger menace out in the remainder of the nation, the concept of people that may probably unfold misinformation about public well being on the nationwide stage or the specter of not having sufficient cash?
Maxmen: Oh, I don’t like binaries. Having misinformation at a really excessive stage is fairly terrifying. It’s fairly terrifying. And I believe additionally, I at all times be mindful big-picture stuff. As a reporter, should you’re always combating each new little piece of misinformation, it’s a bit exhausting. It’s nice to fact-check what folks say, the large image. Speaking about RFK Jr., he’s endorsed plenty of conspiracy theories. And there’s research displaying that should you imagine in a number of conspiracy theories, there’s a very good likelihood you’re going to imagine in one other one. So to have a conspiratorial mindset at a excessive stage of presidency and even in very influential positions, that’s fairly scary. Yeah.
Fawcett: I believe the opposite side to this dialog as nicely is simply that, broadly talking, the general public well being system is sort of beleaguered proper now popping out of covid. A whole lot of the federal cash that was there to assist this work has dried up, and there are price range holes that should be stuffed now, and persons are burnt out. So I believe that’s one other side right here. Will people be able to have any combat that should occur beneath one other Trump administration?
Rovner: Charlene, one of many belongings you mentioned originally is that one of many efforts right here is to assist rebuild belief in public well being. Public well being has been, I believe, of all the pieces, of all the elements of American society the place the general public has misplaced belief, public well being is approach up in the direction of the highest. And additionally it’s approach up in the direction of the highest when it comes to the misinformation that’s been unfold. So how do you fight these two issues? It’s one thing that we discuss on a regular basis on the podcast, and I don’t know learn how to repair it.
Pacenti: It’s actually robust. I believe that a technique that we actually have a look at it’s elevating native voices. To your level about immigrants and immigration standing as a social determinant of well being, we had a report simply yesterday that got here out in Georgia that laid out all of the issues that Amy and Eliza had been simply speaking about in Georgia as nicely — the stigma, the not asking for assist, since you worry about getting concerned with the authorities in some adverse approach. But there are plenty of neighborhood organizations which can be a secure area that do work to supply culturally delicate care and communicate the language and provide the assistance to folks in order that they’re not threatened. So I believe by highlighting these sources, that’s one factor that we are able to do.
And one other one is simply highlighting individuals who know what they’re speaking about, scientific consultants in the neighborhood, significantly native ones. One actually thrilling factor that we’re doing in New York is we’re sort of combining two of these ideas via a partnership with Your Local Epidemiologist. This is a publication that’s run by Katelyn Jetelina, who again in 2020 began an electronic mail. She was instructing on the University of Texas. She’s an epidemiologist, and she or he was simply writing an electronic mail to her college students and her household and buddies to elucidate the science behind what was occurring with covid. And it has snowballed, and 4 years later, it’s actually enormous. So now we have partnered along with her to carry that idea to Healthbeat readers in New York. So each week now we have our personal epidemiologist. Her title is Marisa Donnelly, and she or he does an electronic mail publication each week that sort of breaks down what we name the neighborhood well being forecast. And it’s every kind of actually nice, science-driven info with good little charts that simply lays all of it out for you.
Rovner: It’s just like the climate forecast, however for well being?
Pacenti: Exactly, precisely. So I believe that’s a technique. Just lay it out for folks. Give them the rationale behind it, the science behind it, and I believe that work like that over time, hopefully, will assist regain some belief.
Rovner: Well, I need to thank the panel. This has been actually inspiring. I’m hoping that we are able to come again to you periodically to see how public well being generally and Healthbeat in particular are doing. So thanks for becoming a member of us.
OK, that’s this week’s present. As at all times, should you benefit from the podcast, you may subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We’d respect it should you left us a evaluate. That helps different folks discover us, too. Special thanks this week to our producer, Taylor Cook, our editor, Emmarie Huetteman, and KFF Health News enterprise editor Kelly Johnson. As at all times, you may electronic mail us your feedback or questions. We’re at whatthehealth, all one phrase, at KFF.org, or you may nonetheless discover me at X, @jrovner, and more and more at Bluesky, @julierovner.bsky.social. Do you grasp round on social media anyplace, Amy?
Maxmen: You know I’ve simply began. I’ve joined the Bluesky pattern. I simply kind of came visiting there. It’s sort of a kind of moments the place there’s plenty of journalists and well being folks and researchers, so yeah, I’ve—
Rovner: Do you’ve got a deal with?
Maxmen: My deal with is amymaxmen.bsky.social.
Rovner: Excellent. Charlene?
Pacenti: I’m most lively on LinkedIn, the place all of the well being persons are.
Rovner: There you go. Eliza?
Fawcett: I’m additionally on Bluesky newly, beneath my title, elizafawcett, and nonetheless sort of lurking on Twitter.
Rovner: There you go. We’ll be again in your feed subsequent week. Until then, have a really comfortable vacation weekend and be wholesome.
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